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Bataa Mishig-Ish serves as chairperson of the Department of Religious Studies in the Institute of Philosophy at the Mongolian Academy of Sciences. He received a PhD in Asian studies from Ritsumeikan University in Japan and a master’s degree in Asian religions as well as a master’s degree in political science from the University of Hawaii, USA. Bataa also had a monastic educational background in Gandantegchenling and Dashichoiling monasteries in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. Earlier in his career, Mishig-Ish was an associate professor at the National Academy of Governance. He also worked as a senior analyst on religious and cultural affairs for the National Security Council of Mongolia and served as an advisor on religious and cultural Affairs to the President of Mongolia. An expert on government and religious relations in Mongolia, he now heads the Tritiya Dharmachakra Foundation (TDF) for promoting Buddhist studies and research works in Mongolia. He is the editor of several publications for the conferences on Buddhism and the author of two books on contemporary Buddhism in Mongolia. In addition, he serves as director of the board of trustees of Orgil Secondary School in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. ([https://www.iclrs.org/blurb/mishigish-bataa/ Source Accessed Dec 16, 2024]) +
Christoph Baumer is a Swiss scholar and explorer. From 1984 onwards, he has conducted explorations in Central Asia, China and Tibet, the results of which have been published in numerous books, scholarly publications and radio programs. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christoph_Baumer Wikipedia]) +
Beatrice Lane Suzuki was the American wife of D. T. Suzuki, the well-known philosopher, Buddhist scholar, and Zen popularizer in the West. Her name is familiar to few Theosophists, yet she played an important role in Japanese Theosophy. ([https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine/1254-beatrice-lane-suzuki-an-american-theosophist-in-japan Source Accessed Sep 14, 2021]) +
Bella Chao received her MA from Rangjung Yeshe Institute in 2023. Her thesis is titled "Sakya Paṇḍita's ''Ritual for Generating the Mind According to the Madhyamaka Tradition'' (''Dbu ma lugs kyi sems bskyed kyi cho ga'')." She received a Study Scholarship from Tsadra Foundation in 2021. +
Ben Connelly is a Soto Zen teacher and dharma heir in the Katagiri lineage based at Minnesota Zen Meditation Center. He also provides secular mindfulness training in a variety of contexts including police training, half-way houses, and correctional facilities, and is a professional musician. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Source: Amazon Author Page)
Learn more at the [https://www.mnzencenter.org/teachers.html Minnesota Zen Meditation Center website].
Watch a video of Ben talking about his book ''Vasubandhu’s Three Natures'':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBK5k17eYDw +
Benjamin Bogin is an Associate Professor of Asian Studies at Skidmore College. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. (Buddhist Studies) from the University of Michigan and spent six years living in Kathmandu, Nepal where he directed study-abroad programs in the Himalayas for American students. Bogin writes and teaches on the intersections of biographical literature, sacred geography, and visual art in Himalayan cultures. He is the author of ''[[The Illuminated Life of the Great Yolmowa]]'' (Serindia Publications, 2013) and the co-editor, with Andrew Quintman, of ''[[Himalayan Passages: Tibetan and Newar Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer]]'' (Wisdom Publications, 2014). Other research interests include Buddhism and agriculture, death and dying, poetry, translation, and ghosts.
Also see:
https://www.skidmore.edu/asianstudies/faculty/bogin.php +
Benjamin is a Belgian national who holds BA and MA degrees in Buddhist Studies with Himalayan Language from Kathmandu University. He has been teaching classical Tibetan at RYI since 2008 and has both managed and taught on several Summer Intensive programs. His research interests include Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, Indian and Tibetan teachings on Buddha nature, and Vajrayana practices. ([https://www.ryi.org/faculty/benjamin-collet-cassart Source Accessed June 2, 2021]) +
Ben Ewing is a member of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee and the Subashita Translation Group. He completed an MA thesis from Rangjung Yeshe Institute entitled "The Saraha of Tibet: How Mgur Shaped the Legacy of Lingchen Repa, Tibetan Siddha." +
Born on 6 January 1897 in a family devoted to Sanskrit learning, Bhattacharyya had his first lessons in Sanskrit with his father Maha-mahopadhyaya Haraprasad Shastri-a great scholar in different branches of Sanskrit literature and an ar,tiquarian. In 1919 he took a first class M.A. in Sanskrit from Calcutta University and in 1925 Ph. D., the first such. from Dacca University. While his father had guided him through the different branches of Sanskrit literature, young Bhattacharyya had in Professor Alfred Foucher his preceptor in matters relating to ancient art forms and archaeology of India. He spent some years studying Sanskrit manuscripts in Nepal. While just thirty he made his mark as a scholar of Tantra and Pratima.
In 1924 Maharaja Sayaji Rao Gaekwad, a great patron of learning and scholarship, took Bhattacharyya to Baroda to be the General Editor of Gaekwad's Oriental Series and after three years made him the Director of Oriental Institute. Baroda. As the General Editor of the Oriental Series and the Director of the Oriental Institute, Bhattacharyya showed extraordinary organizing abilities as well as erudition. Part of his time was devoted to lectures to degree students. The Gaekwad recognized his merits by conferring on him the titles of Rajya Ratna and Jnana Jyoti. He retired in 1952.
Among his publications are: ''The Indian Buddhist Iconography'' (Oxford 1924; revised edition Calcutta 1958); ''Sadhanamala'' (Vol. I Baroda 1925 and Vol. II Baroda 1928); ''Twn Vajrayana Works'' (Baroda 1929); ''Guhyasamaja Tantra'' (Baroda 1931}; ''An Introduction to Buddhist Esoterism'' (Oxford 1932); and ''Nispannayogavali'' (Baroda 1949).
In his study of the Tantras Bhattacharyya began with no particular sympathy for the mystic practices and rituals as is evident from his earlier writings. With the progress of his studies in Brahmanical. Jain and Buddhist sources he came to an acceptance of the higher values of the Tantras. While he was among the first to assert that the Hindu Tantra borrowed much from the Vajrayana and even debased many Vajrayana practices. Bhattacharyya very firmly held that later Mahayana pantheon deliberately and consciously incorporated a number of Hindu deities. From medieval Hindu tradition he identified the Mahayana deity Prajna with the Hindu deity Sakti. He was as firm on this as about the nomenclature Ohyani Buddha being ancient and correct.
The symposium on Tantras opened in this number of the Bulletin will no doubt be poorer because Bhattacharyya can no longer join issue. He had also advised us to organize in our pages a probe into the nomenclature Dhyani Buddha. Namgyal Institute of Tibetology benefited much from his advice regarding identification of images and figures on scrolls. The publication RGYAN-DRUG MCHOG-GNYIS had his guidance as our next publication on iconography was to have the same.
In retirement that is since 1 952 Bhattacharyya spent his time on finding remedies and systematic cure for physical and mental ailments in the Tantric lore. A large number of difficult cases were cured. Bhattacharyya c!aimed to have freely used Hindu and Buddhist. Indian and Tibetan, formulae and spells He published some books on tele-therapy: The Science of Tridosha (New York 1951), Gem Therapy (Calcutta 1958: 1963). and Magnet Dowsing (Calcutta 1960), For strictly academic class he wrote a paper entitled "Scientific Background of the Buddhist Tantras" in Buddha Jayanti Special Number of the ''Indian Historical Quarterly'' (Calcutta 1956).
As an academician of highest discipline and as an authority on Indian esoteric systems and iconography Bhattacharyya was held in esteem in connected circles all over the world. Those who came into intimate contact with him found him more a Bodhisattva than a Pandita. ([https://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/bot/pdf/bot_01_02_obituary.pdf Source Accessed Feb 24, 2024])
Yael Bentor is a senior lecturer of Indian and Tibetan Studies in the departments of Comparative Religion and Asian Studies at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her current research interests are the dynamics of the evolution of tantric traditions in Tibet during the fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, focusing on the creation stage of the Guhyasamāja Tantra. She is the author (with Penpa Dorjee) of [[The Essence of the Ocean of Attainments]]: Explanation of the Creation Stage of the Guhyasamāja, King of All Tantras (AIBS, 2013) and [[A Classical Tibetan Reader]]: Selections from Renowned Works with Custom Glossaries (Wisdom, 2013). ([http://www.as.huji.ac.il/user/287 Source]) +
AY\E-SOPHIE BENTZ is a teaching assistant at the Graduate Institute of International
and Development Studies in Geneva. Her research focuses on the politics of the
Tibetan diaspora. +
Bernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, received his Ph.D. (Doctorat d’Etat) from Paris University (1984). He is interested in various aspects of East Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on Chan/Zen and Tantric or esoteric Buddhism. His work, influenced by anthropological history and cultural theory, has focused on topics such as the construction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the Buddhist cult of relics, iconography, sexuality and gender. His current research deals with the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism and its relationships with medieval Japanese religion. He has published a number of books in French and English. His English publications include: ''The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism'' (Princeton 1991), ''Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition'' (Princeton 1993), ''Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism'' (Princeton 1996), ''The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality'' (Princeton 1998), ''The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender'' (Princeton 2003), and ''Double Exposure'' (Stanford 2004). ([https://religion.columbia.edu/content/bernard-r-faure Source Accessed Jun 10, 2019]).
He recently completed a two-volume work on Japanese Gods and Demons: ''The Fluid Pantheon: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume I'' and ''Protectors and Predators: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume 2'' (Both volumes by University of Hawai'i Press, 2015). +
Bernhard Kölver (1938 – 2001) was a German Indologist, specializing for most of his career in the study of Nepal.
Kölver was born in Cologne, Germany. He received his PhD with a dissertation on Tokharian nominal morphology from Cologne University in 1965. He was professor of Indology in Kiel, Germany (1974-1993) and Leipzig, Germany (1993-).
After a trip to Nepal Kölver specialized in the study of this country, especially the Newar language. In 1995 he was elected to the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzi]. He was also awarded the Triśaktipaṭṭabhūṣaṇa by King Birendra of Nepal in honor of his service to scholarship. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhard_K%C3%B6lver Source Accessed Aug 21, 2023]) +
Professor Bessenger earned her masters and doctorate degrees from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.
As an undergraduate she designed a major in Anthropology and Asian studies to complete her degree at Mills College in Oakland, California, during which time she also participated in the School for International Training's Tibetan Studies study abroad program. Her doctoral training is in the History of Religions, with areas of expertise in Buddhist Studies, particularly Tibetan Buddhism, as well as Hinduism and Chinese religions.
Dr. Bessenger lived for a year at Tibet University in Lhasa, Tibet, and received a Fulbright-Hayes to conduct research among Tibetan exile communities in India and Nepal. Her current research is on the Tibetan saint Sonam Peldren; this research is culminating in a book, tentatively titled Echoes of Enlightenment: The Lives of Sonam Peldren, under contract with Oxford University Press.
At Randolph College Dr. Bessenger teaches courses in the history and the auto/biographical culture of Buddhism, gender and Buddhism, the history and visual culture of Hinduism, Tibetan Buddhist culture, and Chinese religions. She enjoys exposing Randolph students to Asian religious thought, and is fascinated by the many ways human beings publicly and privately think about and negotiate this thing called "religion."
Source [http://web.randolphcollege.edu/academics/majors/view_faculty.asp?department=relg] +
Beth Newman received her PhD in South Asian Languages and Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She teaches at Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, and is the translator of ''The Tale of the Incomparable Prince'' and worked on ''Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 1'', ''Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 3'', and ''Steps on the Path to Enlightenment, Vol. 4''. (Source: [http://www.wisdompubs.org/author/beth-newman Wisdom Publications]) +
Beth Halford is the Centre Director for Land of Joy. Beth has been involved with FPMT for many years and has been a friend and supporter of Land of Joy since 2017. Since then she has offered service in a number of roles including general manager, SPC, a Board Member and Treasurer followed by co-acting director from October 2023 and then solo acting director from January 2025. +
Beáta is both an indologist and orientalist. Her research area is Tibetan Buddhism. Her writings are for both popular and professional audiences. Recently she has done interpreting and teaching in Tibetan and Sanskrit languages. She is also keen on translating Tibetan texts, interested in all things related to Tibetan and Indian culture, lifestyle and Himalayan people. Beáta lived in India for a year, and she returns there from time to time, visiting places such as cedar woods and wonderful mountain villages . . . ([http://viewriter.hu/whohelped.html Adapted from Source Mar 23, 2022]) +
Bhadrapaṇa is listed as the author of one of the main commentaries of the ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarāja'' titled ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarājaṭīkā''. He also appears to go by the name of Slob dpon rgyan bzang po (or simply Rgyan bzang po) as well as Subhūṣita. Columbia AIBS lists the author of the ''Bhadracaryāpraṇidhānarājaṭīkā'' as Alaṁkārabhadra, which could also refer to Bhadrapaṇa. However, this is uncertain. +
Bhikkhu Anālayo was born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995. In the year 2000 he completed a Ph.D. thesis on the ''Satipatthana-sutta'' at the University of Peradeniya (published by Windhorse in the UK). In the year 2007 he completed a habilitation research at the University of Marburg, in which he compared the ''Majjhima-nikaya'' discourses with their Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan counterparts. At present, he is a member of the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, University of Hamburg, as a professor, and works as a researcher at Dharma Drum Institue of Liberal Arts, Taiwan. Besides his academic activities, he regularly teaches meditation. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html Source Accessed Nov 22, 2019])
* For a substantial list of Bhikkhu Anālayo's publications, visit his faculty page at the [https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html University of Hamburg] +
Bhikkhu Bodhi (born December 10, 1944), born Jeffrey Block, is an American Theravada Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the New York and New Jersey area. He was appointed the second president of the Buddhist Publication Society and has edited and authored several publications grounded in the Theravada Buddhist tradition. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhikkhu_Bodhi Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]) +
