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Peter N. Gregory (1945-2025) was the Jill Ker Conway Professor Emeritus of Religion and East Asian Studies at Smith College and an eminent scholar of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Peter passed away suddenly the evening of March 19th while he was reading in bed.
Peter was a specialist on Chinese Buddhism during the Tang and Song periods. He was renowned for his groundbreaking work on the Chan and Huayan figure Guifeng Zongmi, which led to two books, Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism (1991), and Inquiry into the Origin of Humanity: An Annotated Translation of Tsung-mi’s Yüan jen lun with a Modern Commentary (1995). Zongmi was his lifelong obsession. At the time of his death, Peter was continuing to work on a massive multi-volume, copiously annotated translation of Zongmi’s magnum opus, the Chan Preface, with an extensive scholarly commentary. It is hoped that at least some portions of this project will find their way into print.
Peter may be perhaps best known to the field for his long-time service as executive director and president of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism, from 1984 until his retirement from Smith College in 2014. The Kuroda Institute established two important book series, both copublished by the University of Hawaii Press: Studies in East Asian Buddhism and Classics in East Asian Buddhism. Peter built these series up from scratch until they became two of the preeminent series in the field of Buddhist Studies. Peter did not have his own graduate students, but gave generously of his time and scholarly expertise in helping young scholars transform their unwieldly dissertations into masterful, and often prize-winning, first books. He was a consummate mentor to junior faculty in the field, guiding them with his typical competence and empathy.
In addition to his authored volumes, Peter was also a masterful editor of multiauthor volumes that derived from conferences he sponsored through the Kuroda Institute, including Sudden and Gradual: Approaches to Enlightenment in Chinese Thought (1987) and Buddhism in the Sung (1999, with Daniel A. Getz, Jr.). These were no mere collection of papers. As editor, Peter demanded extensive rewrites of all the conference papers, so that contributors’ chapters were not simply stand-alone studies but directly engaged in issues raised in each others’ chapters. Peter also wrote an extensive introduction to each volume, framing each chapter within a larger set of issues addressed by the volume as a whole. These volumes demonstrated how the best edited volumes could be far more than the sum of their parts and served as a model for other multiauthor volumes published through the Studies in East Asian Buddhism series.
Peter’s scholarly interests in Buddhism developed in part due to his long-time practice of Zen with Maezumi Roshi and the Los Angeles Zen Center. This engagement with American instantiations of the religion led to an increasing focus in his research and teaching on Buddhism in America, which culminated in the documentary film The Gate of Sweet Nectar: Feeding Hungry Ghosts in an American Zen Community (2004) and the coedited volume Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences (2007). Peter’s interest in matters of the mind started as an undergraduate at Princeton back in the 1960s, when he worked at the New Jersey Neuro-Psychiatric Institute on a series of experiments on the hypnotic alteration of perception. Peter was the hypnotist and his subject was Harold (Hal) Roth, now professor of Religious Studies and East Asian Studies and director of the Contemplative Studies Initiative at Brown University.
Peter is survived by his beloved wife, Marguerite (Margi), his two daughters and their spouses, Jyana and Earl Browne and Tara and Steph Gregory, and his granddaughter, Sophie.
--Robert Buswell, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
Peter Oldmeadow is retired Head of the Department of Indian Subcontinental Studies in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Sydney where he taught Sanskrit language and Indian and Buddhist Philosophy. He has a long-standing interest in Buddhist theory and practice which he has pursued both through the study of the classical languages of India and Tibet and personally through contact with living traditions of Buddhism in Australia and Asia. He also has an interest in comparative philosophy and religion and in how the wisdom traditions of the world can help answer the fundamental questions of modern humanity. He travels regularly to his birthplace, the Indian subcontinent, which he regards as a kind of second home. ([https://www.shogam.com/project/927/ Source Accessed Mar 1, 2021]) +
Peter Skilling is a Fellow of the Lumbini International Research Institute (Lumbini, Nepal) and a Special Lecturer at Chulalongkorn University (Bangkok, Thailand). He is founder of the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation (Bangkok), a project dedicated to the preservation, study and publication of the Buddhist literature of Southeast Asia. He is a founding member of the International Centre for Buddhist Studies (Bangkok). Peter Skilling has lived in Thailand for over thirty years, and has travelled extensively in Asia. His interests include the early history of religion in Southeast Asia as known through inscriptions and archaeological remains; the history of Indian Buddhism and the development of Mahayana sutras; and the Pali and vernacular literature of pre-modern Siam, including jataka and sermon genres. He has also written about the history of the Buddhist order of nuns in India and Siam and the development of the Tibetan canonical collections (Kanjur). His publications include Mahasutras, a critical edition and study of ten Sarvastivadin texts preserved in Tibetan translation in the Kanjur compared with their Pali counterparts (Vols. I and II, Oxford: The Pali Text Society, 1994, 1997; Vol. III, translations, forthcoming). Skilling is reported to be overly fond of durian. He lives in Nandapuri on the outskirts of Bangkok with a turtle rescued from the streets after a flood some years ago.
Translation & Transmission Conference Bio: Professor Skilling is a Fellow of the Lumbini
International Research Institute (Lumbini, Nepal) and a Special Lecturer at Chulalongkorn
University (Bangkok, Thailand). At present he is Maître de Conférences with the École
française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and Head of the Buddhist Studies Group of the EFEO.
He is founder of the Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation (Bangkok), a project dedicated to the
preservation, study and publication of the Buddhist literature of Southeast Asia. He received a PhD with honours and a Habilitation in Paris (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes). Peter’s publications include numerous articles and several books, the most recent being ''How Theravada is Theravada?'' (University of Washington Press, 2012) and ''Mahāsātras: Great Discourses of the Buddha'' (2 vols., Oxford, The Pali Text Society, 1994 and 1997) and the edited volume ''Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai: Art, Architecture and Inscriptions'' (River Books, Bangkok, 2008).
Emeritus professor of Theology at Trinity College in the Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto. +
Peter Vernezze is greatly inspired by the philosophical traditions of ancient Greece, China, and India, and has devoted a substantial amount of time to the study of each of these cultures. He has a special interest in Stoicism, Existentialism, and Buddhism. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Washington, a Masters of Social Work from Arizona State University and a BA from University of Wisconsin. He is the author of ''Blogging the Plague: Camus, Covid-19, and the Current Chaos'', ''Socrates in Sichuan: Chinese Students Search for Truth, Justice and the (Chinese) Way'', ''Don't Worry, Be Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Troubled Times'', ''Bob Dylan and Philosophy'', and ''The Sopranos and Philosophy''. Vernezze is also a mindfulness teacher, and currently has provisional teacher status with the UCSD Center for Mindfulness. ([http://www.petervernezze.com/about-me Adapted from Source Feb 17, 2022]) +
Peter Woods completed a degree in Philosophy at University of Virginia in 2009, and later earned a Master's in Religion from Yale in 2015. He went on to study at Rangjung Yeshe Institute in the Translator Training Program and the Master's program in Buddhist Studies as a Tsadra Scholar, living in Nepal from 2015 to 2019. Peter works with Lhasey Lotsawa Translations and Publications and their Nekhor project, and serves as program director at Rangjung Yeshe Gomde California. ([https://www.lotsawahouse.org/translators/peter-woods/ Source: Lotsawa House Translations]) +
Zieme Peter (19.04.1942, Berlin), an expert in Turkic studies, Buddhology and Old Uyghur literature. In 1965 [he] graduated from Humboldt University of Berlin; from 1965 to 1969 [he] was a PhD student at the same University. After defending a PhD thesis (Linguistic and literature research of Turkic Manichean texts found in Turfan), he started his career as an academic researcher at the Institute of Oriental Research of the German Democratic Republic in 1969. In 1984 he received the Habilitation degree at the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic for the dissertation Die Stabreim Texte der Uiguren von Turfan und Dunhuang: Studien zur alttürkischen Dichtung.
From 1993, [he became] a member of The Turfanforschung (Turfan Studies) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Honored professor of Free University of Berlin (1994); member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1999); honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2000); honorary member of Turkish Language Society (Türk Dil Kurumu, 2012); [and a] member of the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences (2019).
Professor Zieme’s contribution to Old Uyghur studies could not be overestimated. Being an author of 14 books and more than 200 articles, the chief editor of multiple works dedicated to Central Asian literature and paleography, he continues to conduct research of Old Uyghur Turfan texts. ([http://www.orientalstudies.ru/eng/index.php?option=com_personalities&Itemid=74&person=700 Adapted from Source Mar 15, 2021]) +
Petra Kieffer-Pülz studied Indology, Tibetology and Archaeology in Berlin, Basel, Bern and Göttungen. Her dissertation (concluded 1989 under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Heinz Bechert) deals with Buddhist monastic boundaries (sima).
From 1984-96 she was research assistant at the Sanskrit-Wörterbuch der Turfan-Funde (Academy of Sciences in Göttingen), from 2001-2007 research assistant at the Martin-Luther-University in Halle.
Main publications are: Die Sima. Vorschriften zur Regelung der buddhistischen Gemeindegrenze in älteren buddhistischen Texten, Berlin: Reimer-Verlag 1992; "Die buddhistische Gemeinde", in: Der Buddhismus I. Der indische Buddhismus und seine Verzweigungen, ed. Heinz Bechert et alii, Stuttgart: Kohlhammer-Verlag, 2000, pp. 281-402.([https://www.congress-on-buddhist-women.org/51.0-&L=220.html Source Accessed Nov 18, 2021]) +
Kyabgön Phakchok Rinpoche was born in 1981 and is a lineage holder of the Profound Treasures of Chokgyur Lingpa from the Nyingma School of Early Translations and one of the throne-holders of the Riwoche Taklung Kagyu Lineage. Phakchok Rinpoche’s primary root gurus are his grandfather, the late Kyabje Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, and late Kyabje Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche.
Phakchok Rinpoche has received a traditional education from the Dzongsar Shedra in India, the complete Chokling New Treasures lineage from Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche and Kyabje Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, and the Great Perfection lineage from Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche. Rinpoche’s teaching style is direct, addressing the needs of those present; traditional, not compromising the methods of practice and transmission in the slightest; and, accessible, teaching the profound meaning in a way that is able to be understood and glimpsed by people of diverse backgrounds.
As a yogi practitioner with a family and the responsibility of monastic institutions, Rinpoche is deeply familiar with both ways of life and practice. Rinpoche’s life defines what it means to be a dharma practitioner in today’s world by emphasising that a practitioner should find a balance in their life. There should be a base of study and contemplation in order to understand the profound views of the Buddhas teachings, and practice should be emphasized in a way that genuinely reduces ego clinging and negative emotions through a range of methods and practices. Altruistic activity should address the needs of those in one’s community and beyond as an expression of the compassion and wisdom cultivated in practice. These are some of the main principles that Rinpoche practices and teaches to his own students. ([https://phakchokrinpoche.org/biography/ Source Accessed April 9, 2025]) +
Philip Boas Yampolsky (October 20, 1920 – July 28, 1996) was an eminent translator and scholar of Zen Buddhism and a former Director of the C. V. Starr East Asian Library of Columbia University. A scholar of Chinese and Japanese religious traditions and a specialist in Zen studies, Yampolsky was known for his translations of canonical Zen writings, which were used as textbooks in both graduate and undergraduate Asian studies courses in American universities. His style was regarded as highly analytical.
Yampolsky’s translations included the ''Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch'' (1967) and ''The Zen Master Hakuin: Selected Writings'' (1971), both published by Columbia University Press. Yampolsky's last books before his death, ''Selected Writings of Nichiren'' and ''Letters of Nichiren'', translated and elucidated the writings of the 13th century Buddhist intellectual and reformer whose thoughts inspired religious and political movements that remain active in Japan to this day. These books were published by Columbia University Press in 1990 and 1996.
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Yampolsky Source Accessed July 14, 2021]) +
Philip Kapleau (August 20, 1912 – May 6, 2004) was an American teacher of Zen Buddhism in the Sanbo Kyodan tradition, which is rooted in Japanese Sōtō and incorporates Rinzai-school koan-study. He also strongly advocated for Buddhist vegetarianism. [(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Kapleau Source Accessed Nov 20, 2023]) +
Philippe Cornu (b. 1957) began studying Tibetan at the age of 18 and became a Buddhist in 1978. He was one of the first Rigpa students in France and has studied and practised Tibetan Buddhism with Dudjom Rinpoche, Sogyal Rinpoche, Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche, and other teachers of the Nyingma tradition.
Philippe is an author and translator from Tibetan into French of several books on the Nyingma school and Dzogchen. He has also devoted a large part of his career to teaching and transmitting Buddhist philosophy in French speaking universities such as the French National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO), and at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCLouvain), as well as in different Buddhist centres. He joined Rigpa's new Vision Board in 2019. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Philippe_Cornu Source Accessed June 10, 2021]) +
Philippe was born in Canada, and has studied Buddhism in both traditional and academic contexts. Since 1996 he has studied primarily with Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal Rinpoche. Philippe’s academic studies have mostly been at McGill University and the Central Institute for Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, India. Philippe joined RYI in 2011 where he currently teaches on both the BA and MA programs. ([https://www.ryi.org/faculty/philippe-turenne Source Accessed April 14, 2020]) +
Philippe Édouard Foucaux (15 September 1811 – 20 May 1894) was a French tibetologist. He published the first Tibetan grammar in French and occupied the first chair of Tibetan Studies in Europe.
He was born in the town of Angers on 15 September to [a] merchant family. At the age of 27, he left for Paris to study Indology with Eugène Burnouf. After becoming aware of the work of Sándor Kőrösi Csoma, he studied Tibetan by himself for two years. After this he was appointed as a Tibetan teacher at the École des langues orientales where he gave his inaugural lecture on January 31, 1842. Funding for the position was canceled but Foucaux continued to instruct his students thereafter on a pro bono basis. Some of his most well-known students include Léon Feer [fr], William Woodville Rockhill, and Alexandra David-Néel.
Foucaux was a member of the Sociéte d'Ethnographie. After France became the Second Empire, Foucaux was elected as a member of the Collège de France. Foucaux was married to Mary Summer, born Marie Filon, who also did work as a buddhologist. He was a corresponding member of the American Oriental Society from 1865. A number of Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese manuscripts and printed books from his library were acquired by the National Library of France and are preserved there. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippe_%C3%89douard_Foucaux Source Accessed July 29, 2021]) +
Phillippa holds a graduate diploma in psychology from Monash University, a BA (Honours I) in psychology from the University of Queensland, and a Master of Professional Psychology from the University of Southern Queensland, where she is now completing a Masters in Clinical Psychology.
Phillippa has a diverse range of clinical interests and experience. A mother of two young children, she has an interest in parenting practices cross-culturally. She is an accredited facilitator of the attachment-based parenting group program, Circle of Security, and a Level 4 Triple P Parenting provider. For many years she has worked with both children and adults on the Autism spectrum. Phillippa has a keen interest in mindfulness-based therapies, psychological treatments for chronic pain, health psychology, and positive psychology. She has worked with clients across the lifespan with a range of mental health concerns such as anxiety, depression, PTSD, grief and loss, work stress, trauma, and personality vulnerabilities. She is experienced in conducting cognitive assessments for ADHD and specific learning disorders in adults, youth, and children.
Phillippa’s therapeutic orientation is client-centred, collaborative, empathic, and non-judgemental. She draws from a rich and diverse life experience, including many years spent overseas in out-of-the-way places, living and working with people from many cultures, backgrounds, and walks of life. She uses techniques and modalities from CBT, ACT, mindfulness-based therapies, DBT, and Schema-informed therapeutic approaches, in accord with each client’s unique goals and needs. ([https://cbtprofessionals.com.au/find-psychologists/phillippa-sison/ Source Accessed Mar 17, 2025]) +
Khenpo Puntsok Namgyal (b. 1965) learned to read and write when he was seven years old. He was ordained when he was fourteen and studied with Khenpo Pema Damchok. In 1983 he began studying the Five Major Basic Texts. In 1986, he took up monastic vows and became one of the first students at the Dzongsar Kham-jé Buddhist Institute after the reconstruction of Dzongsar Monastery. He studied all the teachings and traditions of sutra and tantra, and qualified as a khenpo at 23, completing the traditional three year retreat soon afterwards. Between 1992 and 1999, he taught at the Institute and in 2000 he became its abbot. Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche believes that he will become one of the most influential rimé masters of our times.
In recent years Khenpo has been invited to teach at five other monasteries or Buddhist academies, including the class for reincarnated lamas at the Highest Buddhist Academy in Beijing. In 2005, he was invited to be the examiner and supervising professor for the Doctoral Class on Buddhist Studies for all of China. He is currently the head of the Dzongsar Kham-jé Insitute and the Vice Director of the Dzongsar Monastery Management Committee.
Khenpo visited the USA in January 2007 at the invitation of the University of Virginia. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Puntsok_Namgyal Rigpa Wiki]) +
To present Alexander Piatigorsky in the conventional format of biography would be not only an extremely difficult but also an entirely futile enterprise. Piatigorsky himself wrote about people without a “biography”, that is those who do not set themselves any goals and thus could not be said to march victoriously (or ingloriously) from one milestone of their life to another; those who do not bear on their weary shoulders the burden of their achievements or newly exposed and fossilised truths to be recorded in the annals of history. Such people Piatigorsky characterised as “freely passing” since at no point could they be pinned down or drawn over to a particular standpoint or world view to be exploited as its advocates. Piatigorsky himself can be reckoned among these “freely passing” individuals. So he lived his life and so he travelled, always light-handed, with two mantra books (which he knew off by heart anyway) and a packet of cigarettes in his pocket. His lightness was often taken for light-mindedness, and his fluidity of thought for scientific frivolity. ([https://alexanderpiatigorsky.com Alexander Piatigorsky]) +
Pierre Gustave Brunet (18 November 1805 – 24 January 1896) was a French bibliographer, historian and editor.
====Works====
*(ed.) ''Poèsies basques de Bernard Dechepare, recteur de Saint-Michel-le-Vieux, Publiéés d'après l'édition de Bordeaux, 1545, et traduites pour la première fois en fraçais'', 1847.<br>
*(ed.) ''Histoire maccaronique de Merlin Coccaie : prototype de Rabelais ou est traicté les ruses de Cingar, les tours de Boccal, les adventures de Léonard, les forces de Fracasse, les enchantemens de Gelfore et Pandrague et les rencontres heureuses de Balde'' by Teofilo Folengo. 1859.<br>
*''Fantaisies bibliographiques'', 1864<br>
*''La France littéraire au XVe siècle; ou, Catalogue raisonné des ouvrages en tout genre imprimés en langue franc̜aise jusqu'à l'an 1500'', 1865<br>
*''Imprimeurs imaginaires et libraires supposés; étude bibliographique, suivie de recherches sur quelques ouvrages imprimés avec des indications fictives de lieux ou avec des dates singuliéres'', 1866<br>
*(ed.)'' Les sociétés badines, bachiques, littéraires et chantantes, leur histoire et leurs travaux'' by Arthur Dinaux. 1867.<br>
*(ed.) ''Les supercheries littéraires dévoilées. Galerie des écrivains français de toute l'Europe qui se sont déguisés sous des anagrammes, des astéronymes, des cryptonymes, des initialismes, des noms littéraires, des pseudonymes facétieux ou bizarres, etc.'' by Joseph Marie Quérard. 1869.<br>
*''Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes [by Barbier], suivi des Supercheries littéraires dévoilées [by Quérard]; supplément à la dernière édition de ces deux ouvrages'', 1889. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Gustave_Brunet Source Accessed Aug 25, 2021]) +
Associate Professor Dr. Pinit Rattanakul is a bioethics academic. He graduated with a bachelor's degree (Second Class Honors) from Chulalongkorn University and hold a Ph.D. in Philosophy from Yale University.
At present, Pinit Rattanakul is a consultant and special lecturer at the College of Religious Studies, Mahidol University. ([https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B8%9E%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%88_%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%95%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B8%E0%B8%A5 Adapted from Source June 16, 2023]) +
Piotr Balcerowicz, presently teaching at the University of Warsaw (Department of South-Asian Studies) and professor of Social Sciences and Humanities (Asian Studies and Department of International Relations), specialises in Indian philosophical tradition, with emphasis on Indian epistemological thought and Jainism. He lectures on Indian philosophy and Indian religions as well as on intercultural relations and contemporary history of Asia, esp. SouthAsia, Central Asia and the Middle East. He received his M.A. degree in Indology from the University of Warsaw in 1990 and his Ph.D. degree in Sanskrit and Indian Studies from Hamburg University in 1999. He studied Sanskrit, Prakrits and Pāṇini at Banaras Hindu University in 1987–1988 and Western philosophy at postgraduate level at Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw in 1990–1994. He earned his 'Habilitation' (post-doctoral degree) in Eastern philosophies in 2005 from Polish Academy of Sciences with his postdoctoral thesis (''History of Classical Indian Philosophy. Part One: Beginnings, Analytical Trends and Philosophy of Nature''. Warsaw 2003). He published extensively on Indian philosophy, but also on the Middle East and Central Asia, and authored a number of books on Indian philosophy, Jainism and history of Afghanistan. ([http://www.balcerowicz.eu/indology/Logic_and_Belief_in_Indian_Philosophy_2016.pdf Source Accessed Apr 8, 2021]) +
