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Dr. Martin J. Boord (Rig-’dzin rdo-rje)
As one of Rinpoche’s (Chimed Rigdzin Rinpoche?) senior students, Martin Boord is well known already to many people within the Khordong sangha.
Visiting India and Nepal as a teenager in 1967, Martin became a devoted Buddhist and immediately embarked on the study of Sanskrit in order to read the original texts. Receiving teachings from many of the great Tibetan masters of all schools who had become settled in India following the takeover of their country by Chinese communists, he studied the doctrines of both sūtra and tantra. Over the years, he carefully surveyed the entire Buddhist Tripiṭaka with the lamas of Tibet before immersing himself fully in the guhyamantra practices of the Nyingma school under the guidance of H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche and Lama Khamtrul Yeshe Dorje, the renowned “weather man” of the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala. It was whilst on a pilgrimage with Yeshe Dorje to Sarnath in 1973 that Martin first met with the Khordong Terchen Tulku, Lama Chhimed Rigdzin, with whom he immediately began to form a close bond of attachment.
Subsequently, Martin invited Lama Chhimed Rigdzin to Great Britain in order to inaugurate his new Dharma Centre, granting empowerments and teaching the Byang-gter Dorje Phurpa (Northern Treasures Vajrakīla) for the first time in the west.
Later, moving from Europe back to India, this master and disciple together translated a number of Byang-gter texts, including hundreds of pages of Vajrakīla Sādhana (practice texts), which have remained the major focus of Martin’s life.
Taking the Byang-gter Phurpa as his theme, Martin went on to study at the School of Oriental & African Studies at the University to London, for which he was awarded a BA in Religious Studies (Buddhism), followed by the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in 1992. His doctoral thesis was subsequently published as The Cult of the Deity Vajrakīla, by the Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring, 1993.
Having completed his studies at SOAS, he was awarded a scholarship from the Stein-Arnold Exploration Fund which enabled him to return to India in order to research the sacred geography of Sikkim, one of the seven “hidden lands” of Rigzin Godem. This work was eventually published in the Bulletin of Tibetology.
Reading Sanskrit and Tibetan languages, as well as having studied Tibetan art for many years, Martin has acted as a consultant to the Ashmolean Museum, one of the oldest public museums in Europe, helping to identify and arrange their holdings of Tibetan cultural artefacts and paintings, and he continues to work on similar projects at different times when called to do so. The British Museum, for example, requested his assistance when they were offered a collection of Tibetan phurba for purchase, about which they had no specialist knowledge, and he has collaborated with the makers of documentary films for television, etc.
Having spent many years developing his understanding of the Dharma in meditation retreats, in 1998 Martin was invited by Lama Chhimed Rigdzin Rinpoche to accompany him as an assistant teacher on his European Dharma tour, in order to give teachings on the Deity Vajrakīla as part of the Pfauenhof retreat in Germany. This was so successful that the invitation was repeated in the following years, so that Martin again gave Vajrakīla teachings in Berlin in 1999 and he accompanied Rinpoche to Oxford, Wales and Vienna in the year 2000, where he taught many aspects of the Vajrayāna path, as well as his special subject — the deity Vajrakīla. Since then Martin has given innumerable teachings on many aspects of the Byang-gter tradition, throughout Europe and the USA.
He now lives and works in Oxford, pursuing his research interests with like-minded academics and Dharma practitioners at the Oriental Institute, reading manuscripts at the Indian Institute Library and working on an ad hoc basis as Academic Visitor with those studying for doctorates in Buddhist Studies, etc.
In recent years, he has completed a translation of the most illustrious commentary on Phurba practice, known as The Black 100,000 Words (Phur ‘grel ‘bum nag). This important text is a report of a group retreat that was undertaken by the three masters, Padmasambhava, Vimalamitra and Silamanju, in Nepal in the 8th century. It was transmitted in Tibet by Padmasambhava to Yeshe Tsogyal and the translation of this text is now available from edition khordong (published 2002). He has also expanded his work on the Northern Treasures texts to include further research on the Hidden Lands of Rigzin Godem, as well as the ritual cycle of the Greatly Compassionate Avalokiteśvara. His text on the Byang-gter funeral ceremonies of Avalokiteśvara will shortly become available from Wandel Verlag.
About events with Martin Boord please visit our Khordong website in english: http://www.khordong.de/alt/Engl
Summary of Publications:
Forthcoming (Editor) The Guhyagarbha Tantra and its Commentary Moonbeams, translated by Gyurme Dorje
2017 A Cloudburst of Blessings The water initiation and other rites of empowerment for the practice of the Northern Treasures Vajrakīla. Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, volume four. edition khordong im Wandel Verlag, berlin, 2017
2015 A Blaze of Fire in the Dark Homa rituals for the fulfilment of vows and the performance of deeds of great benefit. Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, volume three. edition khordong im Wandel Verlag, berlin, 2015
2014 The Path of Secret Mantra: Teachings of the Northern Treasures Five Nails
Pema Tinley’s guide to vajrayāna practice. Explanation of Rigzin Godem’s Jangter Ngöndro Zer Nga (byang gter sngon ‘gro gzer lnga) according to the commentary by Rigzin Pema Tinley, translation and oral transmission by Khenpo Chowang, edited by Martin Boord. edition khordong at Wandel Verlag, Berlin, 2014
2013 Gathering the Elements. The Cult of the Wrathful Deity Vajrakila (Vajrakila Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, Volume One), revision and re-publishing of The Cult of the Deity Vajrakīla, 1993
2012 Illuminating Sunshine: Buddhist funeral rituals of Avalokiteśvara
2011 Editor The Five Nails – A Commentary on the Northern Treasures Accumulation Praxis edition khordong by Wandel Verlag, Berlin 2011
2010 A Roll of Thunder from the Void
(Vajrakīla Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition, Volume 2)
2010 (Index) Jokhang: Tibet’s most sacred Buddhist temple, Edition Hansjorg Mayer
2006 Meditations on the Great Guru Padmasambhava, Khordong Newsletter, Berlin
2006 Entering the Maṇḍala Gates, Tiger’s Nest Dharma Diary for 2007, Sussex
2005 Editor (Tibetan & Sanskrit) The Complete Tibetan Book of the Dead, translated by Gyurme Dorje, Penguin Books, London
2003 A Bolt of Lightning From the Blue, edition khordong, Berlin
2003 “The symbolism of the gCod drum, by ’Gyur-med blo-gsal” (English translation)
in Dzogchen Journal, London
2003 “A Pilgrim’s Guide to the Hidden Land of Sikkim: Proclaimed as a Treasure by Rig-’dzin rgod-ldem” in Bulletin of Tibetology 39(1), Gangtok
1999 (with Stephen Hodge) The Illustrated Tibetan Book of the Dead, Thorsons, London
1998 A India, Pórtico do Norte Exhibition catalogue (contributor) Auditorio de Galicia, Santiago de Compostela
1998 “Maṇḍala Meaning & Method: Ritual delineation of sacred space in tantric Buddhism” in Performance Research Vol.3, No.3, Winter 1998, Routledge/ARC, London
1998 Editor (Tibetan) High Peaks, Pure Earth: Collected Writings on Tibetan History and Culture, by Hugh Richardson, Serindia Publications, London
1998 East Asian Books, Tibetan MSS, Catalogue 19, Sam Fogg Rare Books, London
1998 “Tibet” & “Mongolia” in Encyclopaedia of World Mythology, The Foundry Creative Media Company Limited, London
1996 Manuscripts from the Himalayas and the Indian Subcontinent, Tibetan MSS, Catalogue 17, Sam Fogg Rare Books, London
1996 (with Losang Norbu Tsonawa) Overview of Buddhist Tantra by Panchen Sonam Dragpa, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Dharamsala
1996 Maṇḍala Meaning & Method, Kailash Editions, London (unpublished)
1994 “Buddhism” in Sacred Space, edited by John Holm with Jean Bowker, Pinter Publishers, London, New York
1993 The Cult of the Deity Vajrakīla (Buddhica Britannica Series Continua IV), The Institute of Buddhist Studies, Tring.
This book is re-published as Volume One of Vajrakila Texts of the Northern Treasures Tradition: Gathering the Elements. The Cult of the Wrathful Deity Vajrakila)
1993 “Tibet and Mongolia” in World Mythology: The Illustrated Guide, Roy Willis, Simon & Schuster, London
NOTE from Martin: Over the years I have had many book reviews published in The Middle Way (journal of the Buddhist Society, London) and other such journals and, of course, I did a fair amount of work with C.R. Lama, the details of which I have forgotten. These include:
:Padmasambhava’s teachings on the downfalls of tobacco
:The Dragon Roar that fulfills all wishes (Protector text)
:The Violent Storm of Meteoric Vajras (sādhana of rDo rje gro lod)
:A Gentle Rainfall of Honey (sādhana of Guru mTshan brgyad)
([https://www.wandel-verlag.de/en/dr-martin-j-boord-rig-dzin-rdo-rje/ Source: Wandel Verlag Berlin Accessed July 1, 2021])
Martin Brauen, Ph.D., is Lecturer and Head of the Department of Tibet, Himalaya, and Far East at the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich, Switzerland. He studied Cultural and Social Anthropology, History of Religions, and Buddhism at Zurich and Delhi Universities. ([https://www.abebooks.com/Mandala-Sacred-Circle-Tibetan-Buddhism-Brauen/31252551924/bd Source Accessed Mar 7, 2023]) +
Professor of History and East Asian Studies, teaches Japanese intellectual and cultural history. His interests include the history of Buddhism in Japanese society, Medieval society and economy, and Japan's relations with China and the West. Professor Collcutt completed an English translation of Kume Kunitake's record of the Iwakura Embassy's visit to the United States in 1872. He is working on a companion volume to be entitled ''The Iwakura Embassy in the United States: An Inner History''. He is translating "Dialogues in Dreams" by the fourteenth century Zen master Muso Kokushi and editing a collection of papers on Medieval and Early Modern social history. His regular undergraduate classes include "History of East Asian to 1800" taught with Professor Peterson, "The World of the Tale of Heike: an Introduction to Medieval Japanese Society", and "Ideas and Images in Japanese Culture." ([https://eas.princeton.edu/people/martin-collcutt Source Accessed June 14, 2023]) +
Martin Delhey studied the languages and culture of classical India, together with Tibetan and Chinese, at the University of Hamburg, where he received an M.A. (in 1998) and D.Phil (in 2002) for his research on the Yogācārabhūmi.
Between 2002 and 2005, Dr. Delhey held a teaching position in the Seminar for Indology and Buddhist Studies at Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. Subsequently he worked on a DFG-funded project at the University of Hamburg, and most recently he has been a post-doctoral research fellow at the Research Institute for Buddhist Culture at Ryukoku University, Kyoto, in connection with his research on Suicide in Buddhism. +
Martin Adam's work is centered on Indian Buddhism and Buddhist Ethics, with more general interests in other south Asian religious traditions and western Philosophy. He received his PhD from McGill University in 2003, having spent extended stays at institutions in India, Nepal, and Switzerland. His teaching duties lie principally within the Religion, Culture, and Society Program, with many courses cross-listed to Pacific and Asian Studies. +
Martine Batchelor was born in France in 1953. She was ordained as a Buddhist nun in Korea in 1975. She studied Zen Buddhism under the guidance of the late Master Kusan at Songgwang Sa monastery until 1984. From 1981 she served as Kusan Sunim's interpreter and accompanied him on lecture tours throughout the United States and Europe. She translated his book 'The Way of Korean Zen'. Following Master Kusan’s death she returned her nun’s vows and left Korea. She returned to Europe with her husband, Stephen, in 1985. She has worked as a lecturer and spiritual counsellor both at Gaia House and elsewhere in Britain. She was also involved in interfaith dialogue and was a Trustee of the International Sacred Literature Trust until 2000. Her latest book is ‘The Spirit of the Buddha’. With her husband she co-leads meditation retreats worldwide. She now lives in France. She speaks French, English and Korean and can read Chinese characters. She has written various articles for magazines on the Korean way of tea, Buddhism and women, Buddhism and ecology, and Zen cooking. She is interested in meditation in daily life, Buddhism and social action, religion and women's issues, Zen and its history, factual and legendary. ([https://www.amazon.com/Buddhism-Ecology-Martine-Batchelor/dp/8120812468/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr= Source Accessed Feb 22, 2023]) +
Marty Bo Jiang is a research fellow at the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies. He received his PhD from Columbia University in 2008, writing a dissertation entitled "Cataphatic Emptiness: rGyal-tshab on the Buddha-Essence Theory of Asaṅga's ''Ratnagotravibhāgavyākhyā''." He is also known for his work ''The Sublime Continuum and Its Explanatory Commentary'' (Columbia University Press, 2017). +
Maruta Stern is a translator who has worked on Tibetan Buddhist texts. She has translated works by Thrangu Rinpoche, including ''The Seven Points of Mind Training''. Stern collaborated with Gaby Hollmann, who transcribed the teachings, and Victoria Huckenpahler, who edited the work. (Generated by Perplexity Mar 25, 2025) +
Mary D. Renaud is a Ph.D. Candidate in Philosophy at Brown University. Her primary research focuses on the intersection of metaethics and the philosophy of action, with a particular focus on moral responsibility and the semantics of normative statements. She has additional interests in ethical and metaphysical themes in Buddhist philosophy and in the metaphysics of personal identity. Her current research topics include the treatment of righteous anger in Theravāda and Mahāyāna Buddhism as evidence for a character consequentialist interpretation of the Buddhist normative framework, the information-sensitivity of deontic modals, and a critique of top-down causation arguments for free will libertarianism. (Source: [[Ethics without Self, Dharma without Atman]]) +
Mary has practised Acupuncture in the Oxford area since 1999. She also offers classes and workshops in ''kum nye'', a Tibetan meditative yoga which encourages deep relaxation and rejuvenation through balancing our whole system.
She holds meditation and Dharma study groups under the banner of White Tara, and helps to organize teachings and retreats to explore and practice these and related teachings. She has worked for many years writing up and publishing the teachings of Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, a popular Tibetan Buddhist teacher, and she is a Trustee of the Snow Lotus Tibetan Medical Foundation. ([https://sites.google.com/site/acupuncturekumnyeyoga/welcome Adapted from Source Jan 14, 2025]) +
María Jesús Hervás is a member of the Spanish branch of the Padmakara Translation Group publishing with Ediciones Dharma. https://www.edicionesdharma.com/ +
Prof. Shimoda specializes in the history of the formation of the scriptures of Indian Buddhism, as well as Digital Humanities. Concerning the former, he focuses on the clarification of the background of history of thought and social history from early Buddhism to Mahāyāna Buddhism through the formation process clarified in the sutras and vinayas. During the past two years he has proposed a new theory regarding the origins of Mahāyāna Buddhism generated by the change of the medium of the received tradition. The topics he has researched up to the present are: (1) a revised approach to prior research regarding the formation of Mahāyāna Buddhism and its prominent characteristics; (2) a re-questioning of the methods of research of Buddhism in the modern age that support Buddhist studies; (3) an investigation of relations between Buddhism and various modern problems, as well as (4) consolidating these four points in research on Mahāyāna Buddhism. He is seeking to lay hold of the future trajectory of Buddhist studies by focusing on examining the field of Buddhist studies that originated in the West during modernity, having a 200-year history, oriented around the above four points.
Concerning his second major area, Digital Humanities, starting from seven years ago, he entered into full scale efforts toward the process of advancing the digitization of the Buddhist canonical works. These works were supported by A-level Grant-in-aid from the JSPS under the topic of "Formation of a Buddhist studies Knowledge Base through International Cooperation." The creation of an international knowledge base of Buddhist studies for the next generation was developed around this project, serving as a model case for the advancement of Digital Humanities in Japan. ([http://21dzk.l.u-tokyo.ac.jp/DHI/index.php?English%20shimoda Source Accessed October 9, 2019]) +
Masamichi Ichigo is a Buddhist scholar who edited and translated the ''Madhyamakālaṃkāra'' of Śāntarakṣita with his own commentary (''Vṛtti'') and with the subcommentary (''Pañjikā'') of Kamalaśīla, published by Buneido in Kyoto in 1985 in 2 volumes. +
Masao Abe is a leading Buddhist thinker who has spent many years furthering the work begun by D. T. Suzuki. He received his Ph.D. from Kyoto University after postgraduate studies at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary. Abe has been a visiting professor at several major universities in the United States and has traveled widely in Europe and Asia as well. Author of ''Zen and Western Thought'', he has also contributed to the Macmillan Library of Philosophy and Religion series. ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/a-f/masao-abe.html Source Accessed Nov 22, 2019]) +
The last disciple of Anagarika Dharmapala, founder of The Maha Bodhi Society. +
Matsumoto Shirõ is Professor in the Faculty of Buddhism at Komazawa University. His publications (in Japanese) include ''Pratītyasamutpāda and Emptiness'' (Daizõ Shuppan, 1989), ''The Path to Buddhism'' (Tõkyõ Shoseki, 1993), and ''Critical Studies on Zen Thought'' (Daizõ Shuppan, 1994). Along with Hakamaya Noriaki, he is associated with what has come to be known as "Critical Buddhism." +
Matthew T. Kapstein specializes in the history of Buddhist philosophy in India and Tibet, as well as in the cultural history of Tibetan Buddhism more generally. He regularly teaches Contemporary Theories in the Study of Religion in the History of Religions program, and Introduction to the Philosophies of India in Philosophy of Religions. His seminars in recent years have focused on particular topics in the history of Buddhist thought, such as Buddha Nature, idealism, and epistemology (''pramāṇa''), or on broad themes in the study of religion including the problem of evil, death, and the imagination. Kapstein has published over a dozen books and numerous articles, among the most recent of which are a general introduction to Tibetan cultural history, ''The Tibetans'' (Oxford 2006), an edited volume on Sino-Tibetan religious relations, ''Buddhism Between Tibet and China'' (Boston 2009), and a translation of an eleventh-century philosophical allegory in the acclaimed Clay Sanskrit Series, ''The Rise of Wisdom Moon'' (New York 2009). With Kurtis Schaeffer (University of Virginia) and Gray Tuttle (Columbia), he has completed ''Sources of Tibetan Traditions'', published in the Columbia University Press Sources of Asian Traditions series in 2013. Kapstein is additionally Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Studies at the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris. In 2018 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. ([https://divinity.uchicago.edu/directory/matthew-kapstein Source Accessed Sep 17, 2019]) +
Matthew MacKenzie specializes in Buddhist and Indian philosophy, philosophy of mind, and metaphysics. His research takes a cross-cultural, interdisciplinary approach to questions of consciousness, selfhood, and embodiment. He has published in numerous journals, including Philosophy East & West, Asian Philosophy, Journal of Consciousness Studies, and Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences. He has also contributed book chapters to The Oxford Handbook of Virtue and The Bloomsbury Handbook of Indian Metaphysics and Epistemology, among other books in cross-cultural philosophy of mind. ([https://www.libarts.colostate.edu/people/mmackenz/ Source Accessed July 29, 2022]) +
Matthew Stephensen is a Buddhist scholar and translator specializing in Tibetan texts. He has studied under several renowned teachers, including Mingyur Rinpoche, Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, and Karma Thinley Rinpoche.
As a member of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Stephensen has contributed to making classical Buddhist texts accessible to English-speaking audiences. His published work includes a translation of Maitreya's ''Distinguishing the Middle from Extremes'', featuring commentaries by Mipham and Khenpo Shenga, released by Snow Lion Publications in 2006.
Stephensen has also completed translations of works by the 19th-century master Paltrul Rinpoche, including ''A Brilliant Sun: The Stages of Practice for the Bodhisattvacaryāvatāra'' (co-translated with Catherine Dalton and Ryan Damron) and ''Refuge and Bodhicitta: Explaining a Supplication to the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha''. His translation work focuses on texts central to Mahāyāna Buddhist practice and philosophy, particularly those related to the bodhisattva path. +
2024 Publication Forthcoming with Khenpo Kunga Sherab: [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Amazing-Treasury-of-the-Sakya-Lineage/Ameshab-Ngakwang-Kunga-Sonam/Amazing-Treasury-of-the-Sakya-Lineage/9781614299196 The Amazing Treasury of the Sakya Lineage: Volume 1]
Matthew King is Professor of Buddhist Studies and Director of Asian Studies at the University of California, Riverside. His research examines the social history of knowledge in Buddhist scholastic networks extending across the Tibeto-Mongolian frontiers of the late Qing empire and its revolutionary ruins. Much of his published work has focused on encounters between Buddhist scholasticism, science, humanism, and state socialism in the 19th and early 20th centuries. His work is also broadly engaged with methodological revision in the study of religion and Buddhist Studies, and in revisionist theoretical projects associated with the critical Asian humanities.
His first book Ocean of Milk, Ocean of Blood: A Mongolian Monk in the Ruins of the Qing Empire (Columbia University Press, 2019), was awarded the American Academy of Religion Excellence in the Study of Religion: Textual Studies book award, the Central Eurasian Studies Society's 2020 Best Book in History and Humanities, and the International Convention of Asia Scholars Book Prize (Specialist Publication). Ocean of Milk illuminates previously unknown religious and intellectual legacies of the Qing long after its political ending. Here, post-imperial “counter-modern” Buddhist thought emerges as a foil for the hegemony of the national-subject and “the modern” in scholarship about early twentieth century Asia.
([https://profiles.ucr.edu/app/home/profile/mking Source: UC Riverside Accessed July 9, 2024]) +
