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Desmond Biddulph CBE is President of The Buddhist Society, London (est. 1924) and editor of their journal ''The Middle Way''. He is a Jungian therapist with a medical practice in London, co-author of ''The Teachings of the Buddha'', and an international lecturer. +
Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar (Marathi: देवदत्त रामकृष्ण भांडारकर; 19 November 1875 – 13 May 1950) was an Indian archaeologist and epigraphist who worked with the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). Born in Marathi Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family, he was the son of eminent Indologist, R. G. Bhandarkar.
Bhandarkar was born on 19 November 1875. On graduating in history, Bhandarkar joined the ASI and was posted to the western circle as an assistant to Henry Cousin.
As Assistant Superintendent, Bhandarkar worked in the then Rajputana, excavating the city of Nagari in Chittorgarh district in 1915–16. He succeeded George Thibaut as the Carmichael Professor of Ancient Indian History and Culture in the University of Calcutta and held the post from 1917 to 1936.
[. . .]
As Superintending Archeologist of the Western Circle of ASI, he visited Mohenjo-daro in 1911-12. He dismissed the ruins as only 200 years old, with 'bricks of a modern type' and 'a total lack of carved terra-cottas amidst the whole ruins'. John Keay had called his assessment as "wrong in every detail, this statement must rank amongst archaeology's greatest gaffes." ([https://research.tsadra.org/img_auth.php/b/b9/Bandyopadhyay-1984-Acarya-Vandana_D._R._Bhandarkar_Birth_Centenary_Volume.pdf Source Accessed Aug 22, 2025]) +
Rodney P. Devenish (Karma Kunzang Palden Rinpoche) and his wife Lisa Devenish are co-founders of the Hermitage, and Lama has been teaching meditation there from the start, personally guiding individuals as they develop their meditation practice. His specialty is the Kagyü teaching of Mahāmudrā, which he received chiefly from his root master Karma Namgyal Rinpoche, but also from Trungpa Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche and a number of other Lamas. From those Lamas, and from His Holiness the 16th Karmapa, he received an array of Kagyü empowerments--particularly the Marpa lineage full crown empowerments of Śrī Vajradhara and Hevajra-ḍākiṇī-jālasaṃvara. Having completed both the Kagyü and Nyingma preliminary practices, he has further received the crowning empowerment of the Gūhyagarbha from Penor Rinpoche, late head of the Nyingmapa school, the Mindrolling Vajrasattva-cycle and Dzogchen instruction from Khenpo Palden Sherab Rinpoche, and the transmission of Vajrakīlāya from Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche (1933-2004). The Chöd practice of Jigme Lingpa was given by Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche. During a ten year period as a celibate Buddhist monk, Lama Rodney spent his long winters in isolated meditation retreat in the snowy wilderness of the Rocky Mountains, where he completed the Kagyü practices given him by his teacher Namgyal Rinpoche, with particular focus on the Six Yogas of Nāropa and Mahāmudrā.
As a Western Lama inspired by the broad interests of his teacher Karma Namgyal Rinpoche, Lama's teaching style is ecumenical and universalist, while remaining deeply rooted in the Kagyü tradition. Originally trained as an artist, he has studied many subjects extensively, including analytical psychology, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, comparative religion, philosophy and classical metaphysics. He takes a non-dogmatic approach, believing that the essence of Dharma chiefly consists of personal self-enquiry, investigation of the nature of consciousness and the world in which we find ourselves, coupled with a persistent effort to establish love in the heart. Many students at the Hermitage have found Lama's method especially conducive for the rapid induction of blissful one-pointedness, the deep meditative state known as Samādhi. Students practice on their own, in the midst of nature, supported by frequent personal interviews with the teacher.
A student of Dkon mchog 'byung gnas. He had a student named Seng+ge ba rgyal ba'i rdo rje. +
[http://dharmapublishing.com/about/our-founder/ About Tarthang Tulku]
Keenly aware of Tibet’s irreparable loss and willing to do everything possible to sustain the precious heritage of the Land of Snows, Dharma Publishing has worked to realize three principle goals: preservation of Tibetan texts and art, publication of works in Western languages that communicate the meaning and value of the Dharma, and distribution of texts to monks and scholars of the Tibetan Community.
It is our hope that, even if the lineages do not survive in their traditional form, the texts and the knowledge they contain will be available for future generations. Although civilizations rise and fall, perhaps the day will come when this precious enlightened knowledge can once more be fully applied for the benefit of all sentient beings. ([http://dharmapublishing.com/about/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015]) +
Dharmacandra (法月, 653–743) is known to be from either eastern India or the kingdom of Magadha in central India. He traveled widely in central India and was accomplished in medical arts and the Tripiṭaka. Then he went to the kingdom of Kucha (龜茲, or 庫車, in present-day Aksu Prefecture, Xinjiang, China), where he taught his disciple Zhenyue (真月) and others.
At the written recommendation of Lu Xiulin (呂休林), the governor appointed to keep peace with the western region (安西節度使), in 732, the twentieth year of the Kaiyuan (開元) years of Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907), Dharmacandra arrived in Chang-an (長安), China. As an offering to the Emperor, he presented Sanskrit texts on alchemy and herbal remedies, as well as the Sūtra of the Mighty Vidya King Ucchuṣma (T21n1227), translated by Ajitasena, who was from northern India. With the help of his disciple Liyan (利言), Dharmacandra translated into Chinese the Sanskrit text of herbal remedies as well as of the Sūtra of the All-Encompassing Knowledge Store, the Heart of Prajñā-Pāramitā (T08n0252).
During an uprising in China, Dharmacandra moved to the kingdom of Yütian (于闐), or Khotan (和闐), present-day Hetian (和田), in Xinjiang, China. He stayed at the Golden Wheel Temple (金輪寺), teaching people attracted to him, until his death in 743, at the age of ninety-one. ([http://www.sutrasmantras.info/translators.html#dharmacandra Source Accessed Aug 19, 2021]) +
Dharmakṣema. (C. Tanwuchen; J. Donmusen; K. Tammuch'am 曇無讖 (385-433 CE). Indian Buddhist monk who was an early translator of Buddhist materials into Chinese. A scion of a brāhmaṇa family from India, Dharmakṣema became at the age of six a disciple of Dharmayaśas (C. Damoyeshe; J. Donmayasha) (d.u.), an Abhidharma specialist who later traveled to China c. 397–401 and translated the ''Śāriputrābhidharmaśāstra''. Possessed of both eloquence and intelligence, Dharmakṣema was broadly learned in both monastic and secular affairs and was well versed in mainstream Buddhist texts. After he met a meditation monk named "White Head" and had a fiery debate with him, Dharmakṣema recognized his superior expertise and ended up studying with him. The monk transmitted to him a text of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' written on bark, which prompted Dharmakṣema to embrace the Mahāyāna. Once he reached the age of twenty, Dharmakṣema was able to recite over two million words of Buddhist texts. He was also so skilled in casting spells that he earned the sobriquet "Great Divine Spell Master" (C. Dashenzhou shi). Carrying with him the first part of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' that he received from "White Head," he left India and arrived in the Kucha kingdom in Central Asia. As the people of Kucha mostly studied Hīnayāna and did not accept the Mahāyāna teachings, Dharmakṣema then moved to China and lived in the western outpost of Dunhuang for several years. Juqu Mengxun, the non-Chinese ruler of the Northern Liang dynasty (397–439 CE), eventually brought Dharmakṣema to his capital. After studying the Chinese language for three years and learning how to translate Sanskrit texts orally into Chinese, Dharmakṣema engaged there in a series of translation projects under Juqu Mengxun's patronage. With the assistance of Chinese monks, such as Daolang and Huigao, Dharmakṣema produced a number of influential Chinese translations, including the ''Dabanniepan jing'' (S. ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''; in forty rolls), the longest recension of the sūtra extant in any language; the ''Jinguangming jing'' ("Sūtra of Golden Light"; S. ''Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra''; in four rolls); and the ''Pusa dichi jing'' (S. ''Bodhisattvabhūmisūtra''; in ten rolls). He is also said to have made the first Chinese translation of the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' (C. ''Ru Lengqie jing'', but his rendering had dropped out of circulation at least by 730 CE, when the Tang Buddhist cataloguer Zhisheng (700–786 CE) compiled the Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu. The Northern Wei ruler Tuoba Tao, a rival of Juqu Mengxun's, admired Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise and requested that the Northern Liang ruler send the Indian monk to his country. Fearing that his rival might seek to employ Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise against him, Juqu Mengxun had the monk assassinated at the age of forty-nine. Dharmakṣema's translation of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese had a significant impact on Chinese Buddhism; in particular, the doctrine that all beings have the buddha-nature (''foxing''), a teaching appearing in Dharmakṣema's translation of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', exerted tremendous influence on the development of Chinese Buddhist thought. (Source: "Dharmakṣema." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 247–48. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Dharmamitra ［曇摩蜜多・曇無蜜多］ (356–442) (Skt; Jpn Dommamitta or Dommumitta): A monk from Kashmir in ancient India who translated Buddhist sutras into Chinese. He entered the Buddhist Order while young and traveled through various kingdoms to pursue study of the sutras. He dedicated himself to the practice of meditation and, passing through Kucha and Tun-huang, went to China in 424, where he exhorted people to practice meditation. In 433 he went to Chien-k’ang, the capital of the Liu Sung dynasty, and in 435 founded Ting-lin-shang-ssu temple, where he lived. He converted the empress and crown prince of the Liu Sung dynasty. His works include ''The Secret Essentials of Meditation'' and Chinese translations of the ''Universal Worthy Sutra'' and the ''Meditation on Bodhisattva Space Treasury Sutra''. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/55 Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
Cotranslator with Zhu Fonian of the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā''. +
Dharmarakṣa. (C. Zhu Fahu; J. Jiku Hōgo; K. Ch’uk Pǒpho 竺法護) (c. 233-310). One of the most prolific translators in early Chinese Buddhism, who played an important role in transmitting the Indian scriptural tradition to China. Presumed to be of Yuezhi heritage, Dharmarakṣa was born in the Chinese outpost of Dunhuang and grew up speaking multiple languages. He became a monk at the age of eight and in his thirties traveled extensively throughout the oasis kingdoms of Central Asia, collecting manuscripts of Mahāyāna scriptures in a multitude of Indic and Middle Indic languages, which he eventually brought back with him to China. Because of his multilingual ability, Dharmarakṣa was able to supervise a large team in rendering these texts into Chinese; the team included scholars of Indian and Central Asian origin, as well as such Chinese laymen as the father-and-son team Nie Chengyuan and Nie Daozhen. Some 150 translations in over three hundred rolls are attributed to Dharmarakṣa, including the first translation of the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'', the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', the ''Lalitavistara'', the ''Bhadrakalpikasūtra'', and some of the prajñāpāramitā literature. Although many of Dharmarakṣa's pioneering renderings were later superseded by the fourth-century retranslations of Kumārajīva, Dharmarakṣa is generally considered the most important translator of the early Chinese Buddhist saṃgha. (Source: "Dharmarakṣa." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 251. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Dharmarakṣita is a c. 9th century Indian Buddhist credited with composing an important Mahayana text called the ''Wheel of Sharp Weapons'' (Tib. ''blo-sbyong mtshon-cha 'khor-lo''). He was the teacher of Atiśa, who was instrumental in establishing a second wave of Buddhism in Tibet.
''Wheel of Sharp Weapons'' is an abbreviated title for ''The Wheel of Sharp Weapons Effectively Striking the Heart of the Foe''. This text is often referenced as a detailed source for how the laws of karma play out in our lives; it reveals many specific effects and their causes. A poetic presentation, the "wheel of sharp weapons" can be visualized as something we throw out or propel, which then comes back to cut us... something like a boomerang. In the same way, Dharmarakṣita explains, the non-virtuous causes we create through our self-interested behavior come back to 'cut us' in future lives as the ripening of the negative karma such actions create. This, he explains, is the source of all our pain and suffering. He admonishes that it is our own selfishness or self-cherishing that leads us to harm others, which in turn creates the negative karma or potential for future suffering. Our suffering is not a punishment, merely a self-created karmic result. In most verses, Dharmarakṣita also offers a suggested alternative virtuous or positive action to substitute for our previous non-virtuous behavior, actions that will create positive karma and future pleasant conditions and happiness.
Despite the fact that ''Wheel of Sharp Weapons'' has come to be considered a Mahayana text, Dharmarakṣita is said to have subscribed to the Vaibhāṣika view. His authorship of the text is considered questionable by scholars for various reasons. [(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dharmarak%E1%B9%A3ita_(9th_century) Source Accessed May 18, 2021]) +
A fifth-century monk from Central Asia. In 405 he went to Ch'ang-an in China. He completed the Chinese translation of The Ten Divisions of Monastic Rules with Kumārajīva. Kumārajīva and Punyatāra earlier had begun to translate this work from Sanskrit into Chinese, but due to Punyatāra's death the translation had been suspended. Upon the request of the priest Hui-yüan and the ruler Yao Hsing of the Later Ch'in dynasty, Dharmaruchi, who was well versed in rules of monastic discipline, completed the translation with Kumārajīva. Later aspiring to disseminate the rules of monastic discipline to areas where they were still unknown, he embarked on a journey. His life after that is not known. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/59 Source Accessed Aug 27, 2021]) +
Translator, ca. 10th-11th Century A.D. Translated the ''Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'' (''Bodhicaryāvatāra'') along with Rin chen bzang po and Śākya blo gros. +
Dharmottara. (T . Chos mchog) (fl. eighth century). Indian author of a number of works on pramāṇa, the most important of which are his detailed commentary on Dharmakīrti's ''Pramāṇaviniścaya'' and a shorter commentary on his ''Nyāyabindu''. A Contemporary or Student of Prajñākaragupta, Dharmottara
was influential in the transmission of pramāņa (T . tshad ma) studies in Tibet. Rngog Blo ldan shes rab's translation of Dharmakīrti's ''Pramāṇaviniścaya'' and ''Nyāyabindu'' into Tibetan together with Dharmottara's commentaries and his own explanations laid the foundations for the study of pramāṇa in
Gsang phu ne'u thog monastery. This importance continued unchallenged until Sa skya Paņḍita's detailed explanation of Dharmakīrti's ideas based on all his seven major works, particularly his ''Pramāṇavārttika'', opened up a competing tradition of explanation. (Source: "Dharmottara." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 254. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Dharmāgatayaśas (曇摩伽陀耶舍, 5th–6th centuries) means Dharma come to renown (法生稱). He was a Buddhist monk from central India, who could write Chinese. In 481, the third year of the Jianyuan (建元) years of the Xiao Qi Dynasty (蕭齊, 479–501, second of the four successive Southern Dynasties), at the Chaoting Temple (朝亭寺) in Guangzhou (廣州), Guangdong Province, he translated, from Sanskrit into Chinese, the ''Sūtra of Immeasurable Meaning'' (T09n0276). Nothing more is known about him. ([http://www.sutrasmantras.info/translators.html#kumarajiva Source Accessed Aug 19, 2021]) +
Dhongthog Rinpoche Tenpé Gyaltsen (Wyl. gdong thog bstan pa’i rgyal mtshan) aka T.G. Dhongthog Rinpoche (1933-2015) was one of the foremost Tibetan Buddhist scholars of recent times, noted especially for his work as a historian, lexicographer and prolific author. From 1979 Rinpoche was based in Seattle, USA. He published a number of books in Tibetan and English, especially through the Sapan Institute, of which he was the founding-director.
After being recognized as the fifth reincarnation of Jampal Rigpai Raldri by the Sakya Dagchen Ngawang Kunga Rinchen, Rinpoche studied Tibetan literature and Buddhist philosophy at Dzongsar Shedra. Before leaving Tibet in 1957, Rinpoche was the head teacher of Dhongthog Rigdrol Phuntsog Ling Monastery, Kardze, Tibet. Rinpoche served the Tibetan Government-in-Exile for 13 years before moving to the United States in 1979. In those 13 years, Rinpoche worked at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala and at Tibet House in New Delhi.
He wrote several books, including The History of Sakyapa School of Tibetan Buddhism, The Cleansing Water-drops, The Earth Shaking Thunder of True Word, The History of Tibet, and New Light English-Tibetan Dictionary. In addition, he worked as a translator and editor on the Tibetan version of Sogyal Rinpoche's The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying and translated David Jackson's biography of Dezhung Rinpoche into Tibetan.
Ven. Dhongthog Rinpoche passed away on the morning of 13th January, 2015 in Seattle, Washington.
([http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Dhongthog_Rinpoche Source Accessed, April 10, 2015]) +
Along with her husband, Joshua W. C. Cutler, Diana Cutler serves as co-director of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center (TBLC) in Washington, N.J. +
I have specialized on Tibet and the Himalayas as well as East Asia as my primary research areas and have wide-ranging interests including the history of knowledge and exploration, material and visual cultures, history of mapping and cartography and cultural interactions. Trained in Sinology, Central Asian Studies (Tibetology) and Economics I hold a Ph.D. in Central Asian Studies from Humboldt University of Berlin (2008). In 2018 I completed my habilitation (HDR) on the British Library’s Wise Collection at the EPHE (École pratique des hautes études) in Paris, published under the title “An Atlas of the Himalayas by a 19th Century Tibetan Lama. A Journey of Discovery” (Brill 2020). Between 2018 and 2021 I studied the collection of East Asian maps at the Museum am Rothenbaum (MARKK) in Hamburg in the context of the BMBF-research project “Coloured maps”. Currently I am Principal Investigator of the project "Maps as Knowledge Resources and Mapmaking as Process: The Case of the Mapping of Tibet" at the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts” at the Universität Hamburg. ([https://uni-hamburg.academia.edu/DianaLange Source Accessed Feb. 14, 2022.]) +
Diana Y. Paul was born in Akron, Ohio and is a graduate of Northwestern University with a degree in both psychology and philosophy and of the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a Ph.D in Buddhist Studies.
. . . Her short stories have appeared in a number of literary journals and she is currently working on a second novel, ''A Perfect Match''. Currently, she lives in Carmel, CA with her husband and loves to create mixed media art, focusing on printmaking in her studio.
As a Stanford professor, she has authored three books on Buddhism, one of which has been translated into Japanese and German (''Women in Buddhism'', University of California Press). ([https://dianaypaul.com/about/ Source Accessed Jan 14, 2020])
Her other Buddhist works include ''Philosophy of Mind in Sixth-Century China: Paramartha’s Evolution of Consciousness'' and ''The Buddhist Feminine Ideal: Queen Srimala and the Tathagatagarbha''. +
