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B
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]) +
Bhikkhu Nyanatusita is a Buddhist monk ordained in the Theravada tradition. Since 2005 he has been the English editor of the Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka. He extensively studied the Pali language and literature and made has published a study/translation of the Pāli Pātimokkha. His contributions to the DDB come out of his ongoing work on the new English translation of the Theravada meditation treatise ''Vimuttimagga'' (''Vimuktimārga''), of which the Pali original was lost, but which is extant in a 6th century Chinese translation called ''Jiětuō-dào-lùn'', 解脫道論 (Taishō No. 1648) and partly in Tibetan translations. [2012/4/5] ([http://www.buddhism-dict.net/credits/nyanatusita.html Source Accessed Mar 6, 2025]) +
Bhikkhu Pāsādika (secular name: Eckhard Bangert), born August 17, 1939 at Bad Arolsen in Hesse, is a German indologist and a Buddhist monk. His Dharma, or religious name, Pāsādika is a Pali word meaning "amiable". He entered the Buddhist order of the Theravāda tradition in Thailand in 1960. He has been a member of the Buddhist Research Institute Linh-Son at Joinville-le-Pont (Paris) since 1978.<br><br>[Bhikkhu Pāsādika ] speaks German, English, French and Thai, and studied Sanskrit, Pāli, Hindi, Chinese, Tibetan and Japanese. He received his academic education in India (Nālandā Pāli Institute in the early 1960s (M.A. from Magadh University in 1964), Punjabi University Patiala in the early 1970s (Ph.D. from Punjabi University in 1974)). From 1975-77 he was reader at Punjabi University Patiala, teaching Pāli and German. He edited the quarterly ''Linh-Són - publication d'études bouddhologiques'' at Joinville-le-Pont from 1978-82. Then, until 1993, he participated in the project ''Sanskrit Dictionary of the Buddhist Texts from the Turfan Finds'' of the Commission of Buddhist Studies, Academy of Sciences, Göttingen. From 1995-2007 he was hon. professor, Dept. of Indology and Tibetology of Philipp's University Marburg, teaching Pāli, Sanskrit, classical Tibetan and Buddhist Chinese. Additionally, he was in charge of the chair of Indology at Würzburg University (1996-2000). He also was visiting professor at Ruhr University Bochum (2000, 2002). He has been specializing in early Mahāyāna literature and Śrāvakayānist Nikāya-Āgama comparative studies.<br><br>In October 2016, he became President of the Linh Son Buddhist Academy in Vitry-sur-Seine, France. Since October 2019 he lives permanently at this academy. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhikkhu_P%C4%81s%C4%81dika Adapted from Source Mar 2, 2021]) +
Bhikkhuni Tri Hai (Tam Hy), one of Su Ba's outstanding disciples, was born Nguyen Phuoc Cong Tang Ton Nu Phung Khanh in Hue on March 9, 1938, to an aristocratic family of devout Buddhists who were descendants of the Minh Mang emperor (reigned 1820-40). Phung Khanh excelled in her studies. After she graduated from high school at the age of seventeen, she wanted to renounce the household life, but first she became a high school teacher in Da Nang. After that, she went to the United States where, from 1962 to 1963, she took graduate courses in the English Department at Indiana University, Bloomington. After completing her studies in late 1963, she returned to Vietnam. In 1964, she finally renounced the household life and became a nun under Bhikkhunī Dieu Khong at Hong An Temple in Hue. As a novice nun, she was chosen to become an assistant to Bhikkhu Minh Chau at Van Hanh University, the first Buddhist university in Vietnam. In 1968, she took the ''sikkhamana'' precepts in Nha Trang. She was selected to be the librarian at Van Hanh University and the manager of the School of Youth for Social Service. In 1970, she became fully ordained in Da Nang and was given the monastic name Tri Hai. At Van Hanh University, she lectured to both monastics and laypeople, translated, and also undertook many charitable activities. For example, the humanitarian organization Oxfam asked her to head the Vietnam Oxfam Association, which she directed from 1965 to 1975. She also taught Levels III to V of the Majjhima Nikāya in English at the Vietnam Buddhist Academy and Van Hanh Temple.
When in Hue, Bhikkhunī Tri Hai lectured on the ''Canh Sach'' (Guishan's Admonitions) at Dieu Hy and Hong An Temples. During ''vassa'' each year, she was invited to lecture at Phuoc Hoa Temple in Hoc Mon and Dai Giac Temple in Soc Trang. From 1996 to 1999, she taught the ''bhikkhunī vinaya'' and the ''bodhisattva'' precepts at the Intermediate Buddhist School (Thien Phuoc Temple) in Long An Province. At the ordination ceremonies at Thien Phuoc Temple in Long An, she was invited to lecture on the ''bhikkhunī vinaya'', where she gave the examinations and was head of the exam group. In 2003, she was the vice-master at the ordination ceremony at Tu Nghiem Temple. At the time of her death, she was the director of finances and vice president of the Vietnam Buddhist University in Ho Chi Minh City.
Bhikkhunī Tri Hai was a Dharma master, teacher, translator, poet, editor, and publisher. She knew English, French, Chinese, Pali, and some German. She has more than one hundred published works, including introductory works for Buddhist students, a Pali-English-Vietnamese dictionary, works introducing Tibetan Buddhism, and works on contemporary philosophers such as Gandhi, Krishnamurti, Tagore, and Erich Fromm. For decades, she was involved in charitable works throughout Vietnam. Tragically, on December 7, 2003, while returning from a charitable mission in Phan Thiet Province, she and two other nuns (Sa Di Phuoc Tinh and Bhikkhunī Tue Nha) were killed in a traffic accident. Bhikkhunī Tri Hai was sixty-six years old and had been a nun for thirty-three years.
At the memorial service and afterward, letters, poems, and couplets of praise and remembrance poured in from all over Vietnam and around the world for Bhikkhunī Tri Hai, an eminent nun of Vietnam and a beacon of wisdom and compassion. She is buried at Dieu Khong Temple in Hoc Mon District, outside Ho Chi Minh City. The Dieu Khong Temple that she built in 2003 is now home to six nuns. Two of them, Bhikkhunīs Tue Dung and Tue Nguyen, are currently building a new temple complex and continue Tri Hai's charitable activities: visiting hospitalized cancer patients during the Lunar New Year to give donations ("red envelopes") and giving aid to the elderly, sick, handicapped, and orphaned.
Bhikkhunī Tue Dung became a nun in 1980 after hearing Tri Hai speak in 1979 on the ''Diamond Sutra''. She has completed some translations from English and French into Vietnamese. Each year on the death anniversary of Tri Hai, Tue Dung publishes a manuscript or republishes a work by Tri Hai, for example, the Majjhima Nikāya, translated from Pāli by Thich Minh Chau, abridged and annotated by Tri Hai. (Elise Anne DeVido, "Eminent Nuns in Hue, Vietnam," in ''Eminent Buddhist Women'', edited by Karma Lekshe Tsomo, 77–78)
Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "Heng Shou" - 釋恆授) is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch'an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present). Dharmamitra's principal educational foundations as a translator of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968-1972), undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work at the University of Washington's Department of Asian Languages and Literature (1988-90), and an additional three years of auditing graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by rya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the "Flower Adornment Sutra"), Nāgārjuna's 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāṣā ("Treatise on the Ten Grounds"), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the "Ten Grounds Sutra") . . . ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Bhikshu-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
A diligent, student and cultivator, Dharma Master Heng Ch'ien has been one of the foremost students to sit at the feet of the Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua. He studied the Dharma Blossom Sutra for over five years, and has been explaining it for more than four. His understanding of the Sutra is deep and comprehensive, and his lectures have made the Sutra's principles clear and easy to understand. ([http://www.dharmasite.net/vbs28/28_7.htm Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022]) +
Bhiksu Thich Tri Lai is a monk and lecturer at the Linh-Son World Buddhist Congregation. +
Bhamaha (Sanskrit: भामह, Bhāmaha) (c. 7th century) was a Sanskrit poetician believed to be contemporaneous with Daṇḍin. He is noted for writing a work called the ''Kāvyālaṃkāra'' (Sanskrit: काव्यालङ्कार, Kāvyālaṃkāra) ("The ornaments of poetry"). For centuries, he was known only by reputation, until manuscripts of the ''Kāvyālaṃkāra came to the attention of scholars in the early 1900s. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhamaha Source Accessed Jan 24, 2024]) +
BIANCA HORLEMANN is a Sinologist with a strong interest in Tibet. Her publications mainly focus on Sino-Tibetan relations in the Amdo area of Tibet and concern the period between the 7th and 11th century, as well as more recent history from the 19th to 20th century. (''Contributions to the Cultural History of Early Tibet'', list of contributors) +
Bimal Krishna Matilal was an eminent Indian philosopher whose writings presented the Indian philosophical tradition as a comprehensive system of logic incorporating most issues addressed by themes in Western philosophy. From 1977 to 1991 he was the Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics at the University of Oxford. He was also the founding editor of the Journal of Indian Philosophy.([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bimal_Krishna_Matilal Source Accessed July 3, 2020]) +
PROF. BIMALENDRA KUMAR did his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from University of Delhi in 1990 and has been teaching since then for 31 years in various Universities such as Delhi University, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan (W.B.) and Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.). Currently, he is working as a Professor, Department of Pali & Buddhist Studies, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.). He has six years of research experience during his doctoral and post-doctoral education. His areas of interest are Pali, Theravada Buddhism, Buddhist Philosophy (Abhidhamma Philosophy) and Tibetan Buddhism. ([https://www.linkedin.com/in/bimalendra-kumar-3b4bba5b/?originalSubdomain=in Source Accessed Oct 11, 2022]) +
