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Alexandre I. Andreyev, Ph.D. (1998) in History, St Petersburg University, is Senior Research Associate at the Institute for the History of Science & Technology, Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg. He has published extensively on Buddhism in Russia and Russian exploration in Central Asia including ''The Buddhist Shrine of Petrograd'' (1992) and ''From Lake Baikal to Sacred Lhasa'' (1997).([https://brill.com/display/title/8202?contents=editorial-content Source Accessed Feb 13, 2023]) +
Dr. Alfred Bloom has long been a pioneer in putting Shin Buddhism in modern context, showing its relevance to men and women of every age and culture. He began his life as a fundamentalist Christian, drawn to missionary work when, at the age of eighteen, he was sent to serve with the Army of Occupation in Japan. Hearing Amida Buddha used to interpret the Christian term "grace" roused his curiousity. When he returned to seminary, he became a liberal with an increasing interest in Buddhism.
In 1957, he returned to Japan for two years on a Fulbright, studying the life and thought of the radical thirteenth century monk Shinran, founder of Shin Buddhist tradition. From 1959 to 1961, he was at Harvard University, completing his doctorate and serving as the first proctor at Harvard's Center for the Study of World Religions. For several years he taught religious studies at the University of Oregon, joining the Religion Department of the University of Hawaii in 1970. (Source: ''The Promise of Boundless Compassion: Shin Buddhism For Today'', book jacket) +
During the last part of the twentieth century, from the 1980s onwards, he was one of the most important figures in Italian Sinology in the field of classical literary and religious studies. The subject of his degree thesis presented in the academic year 1978-79 (Yulu and denglu of the Chan Buddhist school as a source for the study of vernacular elements of "Middle Chinese") already demonstrated the two aspects that proved to be fundamental cornerstones of his research activity: a focus on the expressions of the Chinese religious-philosophical tradition (Chan, and later especially Daoism) and the centrality of a language-based approach, the vehicle of such expressions. Hallmarks of Alfredo's academic writing, teaching and thinking have always been close readings of the sources that transcend any form of hermeneutical relativism, readings that are grounded in the keen quest for meaning and the underlying semantic landscape. ([https://chinesestudies.eu/2020/in-memoriam-alfredo-mario-cadonna-1948-2020/ Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]) +
Alice Travers, Principal Investigator of the TibArmy ERC funded project, is a permanent researcher in Tibetan history at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), affiliated to the East Asian Civilisations Research Centre (CRCAO, UMR 8155, Paris, France, http://www.crcao.fr/).
Her work has focused on social history in pre-1959 Tibet, especially on the Lhasa aristocracy (PhD dissertation in 2009 and several published articles on this elite and on the careers of officials in the Ganden Phodrang administration) and on the intermediate/middle classes of Central Tibet (papers in the framework of the ANR-DFG project SHTS). She carries on research on the Tibetan aristocracy within the ANR-DFG project TibStat.
She worked on the Tibetan military history under the Ganden Phodrang government in the context of a post-doc position dedicated to the various reforms of the Tibetan army from 1895 to 1951. Since then she has been working on particular aspects of the Tibetan army according to legal sources (see her activities and publications related to the history of the Tibetan army below).
Within the framework of TibArmy and besides coordinating the research team, Alice Travers works on two particular aspects: the institutional development and the social history of the Tibetan Army from 1642-1959. She works on a book 1) analysing the evolution of the military institution under the Ganden Phodrang from its premises in the 17th century, the inception of standing army in the 18th century and through its several reforms until the 1950s; 2) bringing a social history light on this military institution through a prosopographical approach of the Tibetan soldiers.
[http://www.crcao.fr/spip.php?article153&lang=fr Academic webpage]
Activities and publications related to the history of the Ganden phodrang army:
'''Conferences'''
*“The Tibetan army of the Dga’ ldan pho brang in various legal documents (17th–20th c.),” Secular Law and Order in Tibetan Highland Conference (Andiast, Switzerland), 09/06/2014.
*“”God Save the Queen” au Tibet : le Raj britannique et la modernisation de l’armée tibétaine (1904–1950) [“God Save the Queen:” the British Raj and the modernisation of the Tibetan army (1904–1950)],” Seminar of the Société Asiatique, Paris, France, 16/05/2014.
*“L’armée tibétaine dans la première moitié du XXe siècle : héritages, organisation et réformes [The Tibetan army during the first half of the 20th century: heritages, organisation and reforms],” Cycle of seminars of the French Society for Tibetan Studies (SFEMT), Maison de l’Asie, Paris, France, 28/03/2013.
'''Publications'''
Travers, A., 2016, “The Lcags stag dmag khrims (1950): A new development in Tibetan legal and military history ?,” in Bischoff J. and Mullard S. (eds), Social Regulation – Case Studies from Tibetan History, Leiden, Brill, 99–125.
*_____. 2015, “The Tibetan Army of the Ganden Phodrang in Various Legal Documents (17th-20th Centuries),” in Dieter Schuh (ed.), Secular Law and Order in the Tibetan Highland. Contributions to a workshop organized by the Tibet Institute in Andiast (Switzerland) on the occasion of the 65th birthday of Christoph Cüppers from the 8thof June to the 12th of June 2014, MONUMENTA TIBETICA HISTORICA, Abteilung III Band 13, Andiast, IITBS GmbH, 249–266.
*_____. 2011a, “The Horse-Riding and Target-Shooting Contest for Lay Officials (drung ’khor rtsal rgyugs): Reflections on the Military Identity of the Tibetan Aristocracy at the Beginning of the 20th Century,” EMSCAT [online], URL: http://emscat.revues.org/index1850.html.
*_____. 2011b, “The Careers of the Noble Officials of the Ganden Phodrang (1895-1959): Organisation and Hereditary Divisions within the Service of State,” in Kelsang Norbu Gurung, Tim Myatt, Nicola Schneider and Alice Travers (éds.), Revisiting Tibetan Culture and History, Proceedings of the Second International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, Paris, 2009, Volume 1, Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 21, Octobre, 155–174.
([http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol35/iss2/30/ Alternate Source]):<br>
Alice Travers (PhD, history, University of Paris-Ouest Nanterre La Défense, 2009) is a researcher in Tibetan history at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), working at the East Asian Civilisations Research Centre (CRCAO) in Paris. She is also teaching Tibet history at the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO, Paris). She specialized in social history and wrote her PhD dissertation on the aristocracy of Central Tibet (1895-1959). She is now researching the “intermediate classes” of Tibetan society within the project “Social History of Tibetan Society” (SHTS), as well as the history of the Ganden Phodrang army.
Also See: https://cnrs.academia.edu/AliceTravers
Rev. Dr. Alicia Orloff Matsunaga (1932~1998)
A native of Livermore California, who received B.A. degree from the University of California, and M.A. from the University of Redlands, theological training in Kyoto, Japan and a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University. She taught nine years of Buddhism and Oriental culture at UCLA and then was summoned back to Japan to become the Bomori or Vice Pastor of the Eikyoji and worked over a decade to further develop the temple. In 1989 she founded the Reno Buddhist Church with her husband and planted a seed of Buddhism in Nevada.
Her first book ''The Buddhist Philosophy of Assimilation'' was awarded the NHK (Japanese National Broadcasting) award. Together with her husband she has written and translated over a dozen books, the most well known being ''The Foundation of Japanese Buddhism'' Vol. I and II, which are nationally well known college text books. ([https://sites.google.com/a/renobuddhistcenter.org/site/home/rbc-history Source Accessed Apr 11, 2022]) +
Professor Melnick Dyer specializes in the history of Tibetan and Chinese Buddhism, with a focus on the uses of hagiography and revelatory literature in the historical record. She enjoys teaching a wide range of courses in Asian Religious traditions. Her research considers questions at the intersection of authority, gender, privilege, and the role of the religious institution in Tibetan and Chinese literature and society, and she writes about how women exercise authority in these contexts. Her current work focuses on the life of Mingyur Peldron (Tib. mi ‘gyur dpal sgron), an 18th century female Buddhist leader and teacher. ([https://www.bates.edu/faculty-expertise/profile/alison-melnick/ Source: Bates College]) +
Allan Badiner is the editor of ''Zig Zag Zen: Buddhism and Psychedelics'', ''Dharma Gaia: A Harvest in Buddhism and Ecology'', and ''Mindfulness in the Marketplace''.
He produced Psychedelic Integration at Esalen with Michael Pollan, MAPS founder Rick Doblin, psychiatrist Julie Holland, neurobiologist David Presti, UK psychiatrist Ben Sessa, youth safety advocate Marsha Rosenbaum, Project CBD’s Martin A. Lee, and special guests author James Fadiman and UC Berkeley psychiatrist Kristi Panik, as we explore the challenges and opportunities unique to this moment in history. Stanislav Grof, who lived and taught at Esalen for 14 years, opened the conversation remotely.
Allan is also a contributing editor of ''Tricycle'' magazine and co-producer of the Entheowheel series. ([https://www.esalen.org/faculty/allan-badiner Source Accessed Feb 14, 2023]) +
Allan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center located on New York City's upper west side. He is the author of ''Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living'', ''Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living'', and ''Through the Flames: Overcoming Disaster Through Compassion, Patience, and Determination''. His writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, Tricycle magazine, Beliefnet, and several anthologies.
Among the places he has taught are Columbia University Teachers College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Marymount Manhattan College, The Rubin Museum of Art Brainwave Series, BuddhaFest, NY Insight Meditation Center, The NY Open Center, Tibet House US, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Lokos has practiced meditation since the mid-nineties and studied with such renowned teachers as Sharon Salzberg, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Joseph Goldstein, Andrew Olendzki, and Stephen Batchelor.
Earlier in this life Lokos enjoyed a successful career as a professional singer. He was in the original Broadway companies of Oliver!, Pickwick (musical), and the Stratford Festival/Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Lokos Source Accessed May 25, 2021]) +
Allan R. Bomhard (born 1943) is an American linguist.
Born in Brooklyn, New York, he was educated at Fairleigh Dickinson University, Hunter College, and the City University of New York, and served in the U.S. Army from 1964 to 1966. He currently resides in Florence, South Carolina. He has studied the controversial hypotheses about the underlying unity among the proposed Nostratic and Eurasiatic language families. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_R._Bomhard Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]) +
Allison Choying Zangmo is Anyen Rinpoche's personal translator and a longtime student of both Rinpoche and his root lama, Kyabje Tsara Dharmakirti. She has either translated or collaborated with Rinpoche on all of his books. She lives in Denver, Colorado.
She has received empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instructions in the Longchen Nyingthig tradition from Khenchen Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, as well as others of his main students, such as Khenpo Tashi from Do Kham Shedrup Ling. She also received an unusually direct lineage of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje’s chod from the realized chodpa Lama Damphel.
After moving to the US with Anyen Rinpoche, she received many other empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instructions in the Secret Mantryana tradition from eminent masters such as Taklong Tsetrul Rinpoche, Padma Dunbo, Yangtang Rinpoche, Khenpo Namdrol, Denpai Wangchuk, and Tulku Rolpai Dorje.
Allison Choying Zangmo works diligently for both Orgyen Khamdroling and the Phowa Foundation, as well as composing books and translations of traditional texts & sadhanas with Anyen Rinpoche, and spending a portion of each year in retreat. Although she never had any wish to teach Dharma in the west, based on encouragement by Anyen Rinpoche, Tulku Rolpai Dorje and Khenpo Tashi, she began teaching the dharma under Anyen Rinpoche's guidance in 2017. ([https://orgyenkhamdroling.org/rinpoche/allison Source: Orgyen Khamdroling]) +
Orna Almogi studied Tibetology (major) and Religious Studies and Psychology (minors) at the University of Hamburg (MA 1998). She received her PhD in Tibetology from the same University in 2006 (doctoral thesis: “Rong-zom-pa’s Discourses on Traditional Buddhology: A Study on the Development of the Concept of Buddhahood with Special Reference to the Controversy Surrounding the Existence of Gnosis (ye shes: jñāna) at the Stage of a Buddha”). From 1999 until 2004 she had been working for the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project (NGMPP) and the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (NGMCP), where she had been responsible for the Tibetan materials. From 2008 to 2011 she has been a member of the Researcher Group “Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa” with the subproject “The Manuscript Collections of the Ancient Tantras (rNying ma rgyud ’bum): An Examination of Variance.” From 2011 to 2015 she has been working at the “Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures” as the leader of the subproject “Doxographical Organisational Schemes in Manuscripts and Xylographs of the Collection of the Ancient Tantras.”<br> Since 2015 she has been involved in the “Academic Research Program Initiative” (ARPI). Since 2016 she is leading the project “A Canon in the Making: The History of the Formation, Production, and Transmission of the ''bsTan 'gyur'', the Corpus of Treatises in Tibetan Translation.” Her research interests extend to a number of areas connected with the Tibetan religio-philosophical traditions and Tibetan Buddhist literature, particularly that of the rNying-ma school. The primary focus of her research the past years has been the concept of Buddhahood in traditional Buddhist sources, early subclassifications of Madhyamaka, the ''rNying ma rgyud ’bum'', and the ''bsTan ʼgyur''. Another interest of her is the culture of the book in Tibet in all its variety, specifically in connection with the compilation and transmission of Buddhist literary collections, both in manuscripts and xylographs forms. ([https://www.kc-tbts.uni-hamburg.de/en/people/almogi.html Source Accessed Jul 14, 2020])
DIANA ALTNER is a postdoctoral student at the Institute of Asian and African
Studies, Humboldt University in Berlin. Her research focuses on infrastructure
development and the transformation of everyday life in central Tibet. +
Amber Carpenter is Associate Professor at Yale-NUS College, and supervises doctoral students at the University of York. Dr. Carpenter specializes in Ancient Greek philosophy and Indian Buddhist philosophy. She is particularly concerned with the place of reason in a well-lived life— what might reason be that it could be ethically relevant, or even required? Addressing this question opens up lines of inquiry in metaphysics, epistemology and philosophical psychology.
Dr. Carpenter’s work considers the intersections of these areas of inquiry. In both Greece and India, metaphysics and epistemology mattered. Debates over them were parts of wider disputes about the nature and domain of the moral. Dr. Carpenter’s work in Ancient Greek philosophy focuses on Plato’s metaphysical ethics and related epistemological issues— including the intelligence of plants. Her book, Indian Buddhist Philosophy, appeared in 2014, and her study of the pudgalavādins can be found in The Moon Points Back (2015). In her current work, she creates a conversation between these two philosophical traditions, under the rubric ‘Metaphysics and Epistemology as Ethics’, as for instance in ‘Ethics of Substance’.
She recently held a fellowship with the Beacon Project, exploring “Ethical Ambitions and Their Formation of Character”.
Dr. Carpenter is currently Rector of Elm College, Yale-NUS. From 2015 to 2017, she was Head of Philosophy at Yale-NUS, where she initiated the Ancient Worlds Research Group. She was a co-founder of the Yorkshire Ancient Philosophy Network; and collaborates with Rachael Wiseman on the Integrity Project.
[https://integrityproject.org/amber-carpenter/ Read more at the Integrity Project] +
Buddhist émigré ācarya who played a major role in the introduction and translation of seminal Buddhist texts belonging to the esoteric tradition or mijiao. His birthplace is uncertain, but many sources allude to his ties to Central Asia. Accompanying his teacher Vajrabodhi, Amoghavajra arrived in the Chinese capital of Chang'an in 720–1 and spent most of his career in that cosmopolitan city. In 741, following the death of his mentor, Amoghavajra made an excursion to India and Sri Lanka with the permission of the Tang-dynasty emperor and returned in 746 with new Buddhist texts, many of them esoteric scriptures. Amoghavajra's influence on the Tang court reached its peak when he was summoned by the emperor to construct an abhiṣeka, or consecration, altar on his behalf. Amoghavajra's activities in Chang'an were interrupted by the An Lushan rebellion (655–763), but after the rebellion was quelled, he returned to his work at the capital and established an inner chapel for homa rituals and abhiṣeka in the imperial palace. He was later honored by the emperor with the purple robe, the highest honor for a Buddhist monk and the rank of third degree. Along with Xuanzang, Amoghavajra was one of the most prolific translators and writers in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Among the many texts he translated into Chinese, especially important are the ''Sarvatathāgatasaṃgraha'' and the ''Bhadracarīpraṇidhāna''. (Source: "Amoghavajra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 36. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa is an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Occidental College. She is the author of ''The Social Life of Tibetan Biography: Textuality, Community, and Authority in the Lineage of Tokden Shakya Shri'' (Lexington, 2014), which explores the trans-Himalayan lineage of Tokden Sakya Sri that spanned communities in eastern Tibet, western China, Bhutan, Sikkim, Nepal, Ladakh, and beyond. Her current research focuses on Buddhism, book culture, language, and community formation across the Himalayas. (Source: ''A Gathering of Brilliant Moons'', 329) +
Said to be a teacher from Kashmir, Amṛtākara wrote the ''Catuḥstavasamāsārtha'', a commentary on the ''Catuḥstava'' (Four Hymns) of Nāgārjuna. +
An Xuan (Chinese: 安玄; pinyin: Ānxuán) was a Parthian layman credited with working alongside An Shigao (Chinese: 安世高; pinyin: Ānshìgāo) and Yan Fotiao (Chinese: 嚴佛調; pinyin: Yán Fúdiào) in the translation of early Buddhist texts in Luoyang in Later Han China. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Xuan Source Accessed Aug 30, 2021]) +
Anagarika Govinda (born Ernst Lothar Hoffmann, 17 May 1898 – 14 January 1985) was the founder of the order of the Arya Maitreya Mandala and an expositor of Tibetan Buddhism, Abhidharma, and Buddhist meditation as well as other aspects of Buddhism. He was also a painter and poet. Read more [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anagarika_Govinda here]. +
Anders holds a Bachelors degree from Naropa University and joined the Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2006. At CBS Anders graduated with a BA in Buddhist Studies in 2010 and afterwards joined the MA program.
His thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers and the external reader was Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the University of Vienna, Austria.
Anders also secured a Tsadra foundation scholarship for his MA studies and recently took ordination. ([http://ryi-student-blog.blogspot.com/2012/12/congratulations-anders-bjonback.html Source Accessed Aug 12, 2020]) +
Andrea Miller is the deputy editor of ''Lion's Roar'' magazine (formerly the Shambhala Sun) and the author of two picture books: ''The Day the Buddha Woke Up'' and ''My First Book of Canadian Birds''. She's also the editor of three anthologies, most recently ''All the Rage: Buddhist Wisdom on Anger and Acceptance''. ([https://newbooksnetwork.com/andrea-miller-the-day-the-buddha-woke-up-wisdom-publications-2018/ Source Accessed July 28, 2020]) +