Zwilling, L.

Full Name

Leonard Zwilling

Other Information

Leonard Zwilling was born in New York City in 1945. He studied Tibetan Buddhism and the Tibetan language zwith Geshe Wangyal at Labsum Shedrub Ling in FreewoodAcres, New Jersey (1967-1969) and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a B.A. in Indian Studies in 1970, going on to receive a masters degree in Hindu Studies (1972), and a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies (1976), also at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His doctoral dissertation, on the theory of apoha in Buddhist logic, was done under the direction of Prof. Geshe Lhundub Sopa. He did pre-doctoral research in Sri Lanka (1973-74) and in Nepal (1975-76), under Ford Foundation and Fulbright-Hayes scholarships respectively.

From 1977-83 Dr. Zwilling taught Asian Religions, Sanskrit and Tibetan at the University of Wisconsin (Madison and Milwaukee), Gustavus Adolphus College, Western Illinois University, and Beloit College. He received a masters in library science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1985, and from 1986- 2009 was General Editor (and Bibliographer until 2004) at the Dictionary of American Regional English in the Department of English, University of Wisconsin- Madison, where he is presently Senior Scientist Emeritus.

Dr. Zwilling has published research in a number of fields (see below), including pioneering work on the history of sexuality in ancient India. Since 2005 his research has centered on Ippolito Desideri and the Catholic missions to Tibet, and he is currently working with Michael Sweet on a new and complete English translation of Desideri’s Notizie Istoriche del Tibet. source