Property:Bio

From Tsadra Commons

This is a property of type Text.

Showing 20 pages using this property.
G
Gyurme Tsewang Tenpel was one of the four sons of Chogyur Lingpa's daughter Könchok Paldrön. He was recognized as the rebirth of his mother's brother, Tsewang Drakpa, the oldest son of Chogyur Lingpa, and so he became known as Tersey Tulku, "the Emanation of the Treasure-revealer's Son." He was instrumental in the transmission of grandfather's Treasures to many of last generation of lineage holders, such as the late Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, who was his nephew, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.  +
György Kara earned a Ph.D. from Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary in 1961, and a doctorate of philology degree from Leningrad State University in 1975. His research interests include Mongol and Inner Asian studies; languages and cultures, including Old Turkic, Tibetan, Manchu, Evenki, Khitan and Altaic philology; history of writing systems; Altaic linguistics; Mongol literature and folklore. He regularly teaches classical Mongol, Mongol literature and folklore, and the history of Mongol writing systems. In 2011, Professor Kara was honored at the 54th annual Permanent International Altaistic Conference (PIAC); he received the PIAC gold medal in honor of his lifetime achievements in Altaic Studies. ([https://honorsandawards.iu.edu/awards/honoree/6436.html Source Accessed Mar 16, 2021])  +
Gérard Busquet, 82 ans, a été réalisateur de documentaires et courts-métrages au Bangladesh (1965-1971), correspondant de l’Agence France Presse à Dhaka (1971-1975), correspondant du Figaro pour l’Asie du Sud à Delhi (1975-1977). Il est l’auteur de nombreux livres sur l’Asie du Sud : À l’écoute de l’Inde (Transboréal, 2013) ; Tableaux du Rajasthan, avec Carisse Beaune-Busquet (Arthaud/Flammarion, 2003) ; Le tombeau de l’éléphant d’Asie, avec M. Cohen (éditions Chandeigne, 2002), prix du Petit Gaillon 2002… et traducteur de divers ouvrages en anglais. ([https://revue-ultreia.com/contributeurs/gerard-busquet/ Source Accessed April 6, 2023])  +
Gönpo Tseten was born in 1906 in Amdo, an eastern province of Tibet, into a family heritage of ngakpas. At the age of seven he was sent to Sangchen Mingye Ling, a Nyingmapa monastery. At the age of 15, having shown great promise as a future teacher, he studied with Kargi Tertön and accomplished the preliminary practices of Tibetan Buddhism. At Sangchen Mingye Ling, Gönpo Tseten continued his Dharma studies and the traditional Tibetan arts and sciences. It was at this time that he began to display great skill in drawing, painting, and sculpture. In 1925, at the age of 18, he completed two images of Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara, each standing over six feet high. About the age of twenty he married and had a son, Pema Rigdzin. He then undertook a journey of twenty days in order to study for a year with the Tertön Choling Tuching Dorje, a disciple of Dodrupchen Rinpoche. After this, he studied with the great Dzogchen master Khenchen Thubten Chöpel, who was also a guru of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Khenpo Jikmé Phuntsok, and the Sixth Dzogchen Rinpoche. During that time he received the complete transmission of the Rinchen Terdzö—he later received it twice more from Dilgo Khyentse around 1950 and 1978. Later, the ngakpa Gönpo Tsering taught him Tu, the art of overcoming enemies. This was essential since his gompa in Amdo needed protection from surrounding afflictions, including ruthless bandits and wild animals. After this, he studied sutra and tantra, including the Yönten Dzö, at Sukchen Tago Gompa in Golok, which was established by the First Dodrupchen Rinpoche in 1799. (Full bio available at [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=G%C3%B6npo_Tseten_Rinpoche Rigpa Wiki])  +
Götsangpa Gönpo Dorje (Tib. རྒོད་ཚང་པ་མགོན་པོ་རྡོ་རྗེ་, Wyl. rgod tshang pa mgon po rdo rje) (1189-1258) was a mahasiddha of the Drukpa Kagyü school, well known for his songs of realization and said to have been an emanation of Milarepa. He was born in southern Tibet, but moved to Central Tibet, where he met his main teachers Tsangpa Gyaré Yeshe Dorje and Sangye Ön. Following his studies, he travelled from one isolated hermitage to another, never staying in the same place twice. He founded the branch of the Drukpa Kagyü school known as the Upper Drukpa (སྟོད་འབྲུག་, stod 'brug). His students included Orgyenpa Rinchen Pal. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Götsangpa_Gönpo_Dorje Rigpawiki])  +
H
The Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche, Jikmé Losel Wangpo (Tib. འཇིགས་མེད་བློ་གསལ་དབང་པོ་, Wyl. 'jigs med blo gsal dbang po) (b.1964) was born in Sikkim, into the Lakar family, as the son of Tsewang Paljor and Mayum Tsering Wangmo. Jikmé Losel Wangpo was recognized by Kyabjé Dodrupchen Rinpoche as the seventh in the line of Dzogchen Rinpoches, which began with the great 17th century master Dzogchen Pema Rigdzin. From an early age, he received teachings from many of the greatest Tibetan masters of the last generation, including Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoche and Kyabjé Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. After his initial studies with his tutor Dzogchen Khenpo Rahor Thubten, he went to Dharamsala, where his education was closely supervised by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and he spent seven years at the Buddhist School of Dialectics before graduating with the degree of Rabjampa. He is now the head of the newly established Dzogchen Monastery in Kollegal, in southern India, and since 1985 he has travelled widely giving teachings from the Dzogchen lineage in a direct and practical manner. Recent Publication: [[Meditation for Modern Madness]] (Wisdom, 2024). ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Dzogchen_Rinpoche Source Accessed September 12, 2024: Rigpa Wiki]) Dzogchen Rinpoche also has students all over the world who study and practice the Dzogchen lineage particularly the Dzogchen Khandro Nyingthig which was composed by the great 3rd Dzogchen Rinpoche, Ngedön Tendzin Zangpo. The international sangha support the charitable activity of Dzogchen Shri Senha Charitable Society (DSSCS), founded by Dzogchen Rinpoche in 1995. Shenpen, a network of organisations under the umbrella of DSSCS, dedicated to benefiting those in need without condition, has been established in America, Australia and throughout Europe. (Source: https://www.shenpenuk.org/seventh-dzogchen-rinpoche) '''Previous Incarnations:''' *1. [[The First Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Pema Rikzin]] *2. [[The Second Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Gyurme Thekchok Tenzin]] *3. [[The Third Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Ngedon Tendzin Zangpo]] (1759-92) *4. [[The Fourth Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Migyur Namkhe Dorje]] (1793-?) *5. [[The Fifth Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Thupten Chokyi Dorje]] *6. [[The Sixth Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Jigdral Jangchup Dorje]] *7. [[The Seventh Dzogchen Rinpoche]], [[Tenzin Jigdral Lhunpo]] (b. 1964) <br> [http://www.dzogchenmonastery.org/dzogchen_rinpoches.html Source (Accessed June 13, 2012)] Also see the [http://www.dzogchen.org.in/ official website of the Dzogchen Rinpoche].  
Binks devoted much of his life to the study and teaching of religion. Before coming to Williams, he taught religion at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., and served as a teaching assistant at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D. At Williams, he contributed greatly to the life of the college, both inside and outside the classroom. In the 20 years during which he chaired the Department of Religion, starting in 1967, rapid growth of departmental enrollments, followed by new faculty appointments, set the stage for the development of an exciting and rigorous introductory religion course that was both highly popular at Williams and emulated nationally. An intellectual who cared deeply about his students, Binks was intensely curious about developments in the full range of liberal arts disciplines. “Almost immediately following his faculty appointment in the Department of Religion, it became apparent that Binks Little had the potential to become a significant leader in his department and in the college generally,” says John Chandler, Williams president, emeritus, who served as dean of the faculty and religion department chair when Binks joined Williams. Binks was also the first-ever chair of the Committee of Undergraduate Life when it was conceived in the late 1960s. Under his leadership, the committee recommended and the college implemented major revisions of protocols governing residential life. He also paved the way for student membership on standing committees that, up until then, were strictly composed of faculty. “Binks had a great memory for students and a complete devotion to them,” says Mark C. Taylor, Cluett Professor of Humanities, emeritus. Binks became a full professor in 1974. That year he was appointed the managing editor of the American Academy of Religion Dissertation Series, a publishing venture organized to make outstanding doctoral research in the study of religion readily available to the wider scholarly community. Shortly before he retired from Williams, Binks participated for two years in an experimental faculty development program, mentoring second-year faculty across the academic divisions and coordinating and directing periodic seminars and conferences that addressed the myriad challenges faced by new faculty members. Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1932, Binks grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and Pasadena, Calif., and attended Deerfield Academy. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and earned a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1957, having spent the 1954-55 academic year at the University of Edinburgh. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1965. ([https://president.williams.edu/writings-and-remarks/articles-2/the-passing-of-professor-h-ganse-binks-little/ Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022])  
Tulku Pema Rigtsal Rinpoche is the Supreme Head of Namkha Khyung Dzong Monastery in Humla, Nepal ("upper Dudjom lineage" known as Namkha Khyung Dzong, formerly based at Mount Kailash in Tibet). At the age of three he was recognized by Dudjom Rinpoche as the reincarnation of “Chimed Rinpoche,” who is the emanation of the Great Indian Siddha “Dampa Sangye” and spiritual head of the renowned Shedphel Ling Monastery in Ngari, Tibet. In 1985 he reconstructed the Namkha Khyung Dzong Monastery in Humla, Nepal, and has taught the 13 major philosophical texts (Shungchen Chusum) for 24 years. His religious guidance has inspired hundreds of ascetics and other practitioners in Tibet. Rinpoche has studied the Vajrayana tradition of the Nyingma lineage from renowned spiritual masters: Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Dodrupchen Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche, Trulshik Rinpoche, and Domang Yangthang Rinpoche. ([https://rubinmuseum.org/events/event/mindfulness-meditation-with-tulku-pema-rigtsal-rinpoche-02-22-24/ Source Accessed January 23, 2024]) According to Rigpa Wiki: Tulku Pema Rigtsal gives teachings on the Dudjom Tersar Ngöndro, the ''The Words of My Perfect Teacher'', ''Bodhicharyavatara'', and the Richö, Nang Jang, Neluk Rangjung, and other Dudjom Tersar teachings, to the people of Humla and those from the Ngari part of Tibet. Tulku Pema Rigtsal also holds Summer and Winter Dharma Teaching sessions every year for more than five hundred practitioners including monks, ngakpas (yogis) and nuns residing in Humla and Ngari, Tibet. Hundreds of hermits are practising in caves and solitary locations in Humla, Nepal and Ngari, Tibet under his instruction and guidance. Among his writings, there are: :a commentary on the Calling The Lama From Afar of Dudjom Rinpoche :a biography of the Degyal Rinpoche (the first). :his first book in Tibetan, entitled “Semkyi Sangwa Ngontu Phyungwa” (translated and published in English as [[The Great Secret of Mind]]).  
Hajime Nakamura (中村 元, Nakamura Hajime, November 28, 1912 – October 10, 1999) was a Japanese Orientalist, Indologist, philosopher and academic of Vedic, Hindu, and Buddhist scriptures. Nakamura was born in Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, Japan. In 1943 he graduated from the Department of Literature at Tokyo Imperial University on a study on "The History of Early Vedanta Philosophy" under the supervision of Prof. Hakuju Ui. In 1943 he succeeded Prof. Ui and was appointed Associate Professor of Tokyo Imperial University. He was a professor there from 1954 to 1973. After retiring from Tokyo University, he established Toho Gakuin (The Eastern Institute, Inc.) and lectured on philosophy to the general public. Nakamura was an expert on Sanskrit and Pali, and among his many writings are commentaries on Buddhist scriptures. He is most known in Japan as the first to translate the entire Pali Tripitaka into Japanese. This work is still considered the definitive translation to date against which later translations are measured. The footnotes in his Pali translation often refer to other previous translations in German, English, French as well as the ancient Chinese translations of Sanskrit scriptures. Because of his meticulous approach to translation he had a dominating and lasting influence in the study of Indic philosophy in Japan at a time when it was establishing itself throughout the major Japanese universities. He also indirectly influenced the secular scholastic study of Buddhism throughout Eastern and Southern Asia, especially Taiwan and Korea. Japan, Korea, Taiwan and recently China is the only area in which all major scriptural languages of Buddhism (Chinese, Tibetan, Sanskrit and Pali) are taught and studied by academics of Indic philosophy. Nakamura was influenced by the Indian philosophy of Buddhism, Chinese, Japanese and Western thought. He made remarks on the problem of bioethics. Nakamura published more than 170 monographs, both in Japanese and in Western languages, and over a thousand articles. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hajime_Nakamura Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021])  
Halvor Eifring, PhD (born 1960 in Norway) is the general secretary of Acem International and the head of Acem Norway. He learned Acem Meditation in 1976, became an instructor in 1979 and an initiator in 2001. He started Acem in Taiwan and has taught and lectured on Acem Meditation in 11 countries in Europe, Asia and America. He has co-authored the book ''Acem Meditation: An Introductory Companion'' (with Dr. Are Holen) and written several articles on Acem Meditation and related topics. He is one of the editors of Acem's quarterly journal ''Dyade''. Dr. Eifring is Professor of Chinese at the University of Oslo, Norway. He has published books and articles on Chinese language and literature and is currently leading a research project on the cultural history of meditation. He is married and lives in Oslo, Norway. ([https://acem.com/allobjects/acemperson/halvor_eifring Source Accessed May 19, 2021])  +
Hamish Gregor's training is in the field of Hispanic Philology; but he describes himself now as a feral scholar in the field of Buddhist studies. (Source: ''Tantra and Popular Religion in Tibet'', 205)  +
Hammalawa Saddhatissa Maha Thera (1914–1990) was an ordained Buddhist monk, missionary and author from Sri Lanka, educated in Varanasi, London, and Edinburgh. He was a contemporary of Walpola Rahula, also of Sri Lanka. Saddhatissa was born in 1914 Hammalawa, a hamlet in the northwest of Sri Lanka. He ordained as a sāmaṇera (novice monk) at the age of twelve in 1926. He received his early education at the Sastrodaya Pirivena at Sandalankawa and continued his higher studies at Vidyodaya Pirivena, Colombo, where he passed the final examinations with honours. The Maha Bodhi Society invited Saddhatissa to become a missionary (dharmaduta) monk in India like his contemporary Henepola Gunaratana. In order to teach to Indians he learnt Indian languages such as Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. While in India, he came to know B. R. Ambedkar, who reportedly obtained advice from him on how to draft the Indian constitution along the lines of the vinaya. He also obtained an M.A. Degree from the Banaras Hindu University and then became a lecturer there. In 1957 he traveled to London at the request of the Maha Bodhi Society and lived the rest of his life in the West. He obtained his PhD from the University of Edinburgh and held academic appointments at a number of universities. He was a visiting lecturer in Buddhist studies at Oxford University; a lecturer in Sinhala at the University of London; and Professor of Pali and Buddhism at the University of Toronto. He was a Buddhist Chaplain at the London University and a vice president of the Pali Text Society. At the time of his death he was the head of the London Buddhist Vihara and the Head of the Sangha (Sanghanayaka) of the United Kingdom and Europe of the Siam Nikaya of Sri Lanka. He was posthumously honored in 2005 by Sri Lanka with a postage stamp bearing his image. Due to spending years at SOAS, University of London, Saddhatissa developed a sensitivity to Western philosophical discourse. He thus developed his thought, specifically in Buddhist ethics, with both traditional training and Western thought in mind. His primary Western influence (in Buddhist Ethics at least) appears to be Fyodor Shcherbatskoy, followed by the French philologist Louis de La Vallée-Poussin. His main interest was in staying close to the 'lived expression' of Buddhism as opposed to abstract academic theorizing. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammalawa_Saddhatissa Source Accessed Apr 13, 2021])  
Han Yongun. (한용운) (1879-1944). Korean monk, poet, and writer, also known by his sobriquet Manhae or his ordination name Pongwan. In 1896, when Han was sixteen, both his parents and his brother were executed by the state for their connections to the Tonghak ("Eastern Learning") Rebellion. He subsequently joined the remaining forces of the Tonghak Rebellion and fought against the Chosǒn-dynasty government but was forced to flee to Oseam hermitage on Mt. Sǒrak. He was ordained at the monastery of Paektamsa in 1905. Three years later, as one of the fifty-two monastic representatives, he participated in the establishment of the Wǒn chong (Consummate Order) and the foundation of its headquarters at Wǒnhǔngsa. After returning from a sojourn in Japan, where he witnessed Japanese Buddhism’s attempts to modernize in the face of the Meiji-era persecutions, Han Yongun wrote an influential tract in 1909 calling for radical changes in the Korean Buddhist tradition; this tract, entitled ''Chosǒn Pulgyo yusin non ("Treatise on the Reformation of Korean Buddhism"), set much of the agenda for Korean Buddhist modernization into the contemporary period. After Korea was formally annexed by Japan in 1910, Han devoted the rest of his life to the fight for independence. In opposition to the Korean monk Hoegwang Sasǒn's (1862-1933) attempt to merge the Korean Wǒn chong with the Japanese Sōtōshū, Han Yongun helped to establish the Imje chong (Linji order) with its headquarters at Pǒmǒsa in Pusan. In 1919, he actively participated in the March First independence movement and signed the Korean Declaration of Independence as a representative of the Buddhist community. As a consequence, he was sentenced to three years in prison by Japanese colonial authorities. In prison, he composed the ''Chosǒn Tongnip ǔi so'' ("Declaration of Korea’s Independence"). In 1925, three years after he was released from prison, he published a book of poetry entitled ''Nim ǔi ch'immuk'' ("Silence of the Beloved"), a veiled call for the freedom of Korea (the "beloved" of the poem) and became a leader in resistance literature; this poem is widely regarded as a classic of Korean vernacular writing. In 1930, Han became publisher of the monthly journal ''Pulgyo'' ("Buddhism"), through which he attempted to popularize Buddhism and to raise the issue of Korean political sovereignty. Han Yongun continued to lobby for independence until his death in 1944 at the age of sixty-six, unable to witness the long-awaited independence of Korea that occurred a year later on August 15th, 1945, with Japan's surrender in World War II. (Source: "Han Yongun." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 344–45. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)  
Hank's research focuses on sacred art, religious narrative, preaching traditions and gender in medieval Japanese Buddhism. His publications include “Shaka no honji: Preaching, Intertextuality, and Popular Hagiography,” ''Monumenta Nipponica'' 62/3 (Autumn 2007); “Chinese Buddhist Death Ritual and the Transformation of Japanese Kinship,” in ''The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses, Representations'', ed. by Cuevas and Stone (Hawai'i, 2007); and ''The Face of Jizō: Image and Cult in Medieval Japanese Buddhism'' (Hawai'i, 2012).  +
Hanna Havnevik is Associate Professor, Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo (since 2002). Undergraduate studies in Social Anthropology, History, and the Study of Religion at the universities of Bergen and Oslo. Magister Artium thesis: "Tibetan Buddhist Nuns; History, Cultural Norms and Social Reality"; Doctor philos. thesis: The Life on Jetsun Lochen Rinpoche (1865-1951) as Told in Her Autobiography." Associate Professor at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages from 2003, Professor from 2012. Chair of the Network for University Cooperation Tibet-Norway 2003-2010. President of the International Association for Tibetan Studies from 2019. In 2016 Hanna convened the 14th International Seminar of Tibetan Studies (IATS) at the University of Bergen, in cooperation with Astrid Hovden, Associate Professor, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, and a group of researchers from UiO and UiB.  +
Hans Gruber was born on January 5, 1959 in Ingolstadt. After graduating from high school, he came into contact with the perspectives and meditative practice of Tibetan Buddhism and in particular with many contemporary teachers and schools of early Buddhism in South Asia and Europe through various trips to Asia. He studied Indology in Hamburg with a focus on Buddhist studies, Tibetology and European history and then completed further training in journalism and public relations. Hans wrote the guide "Vipassana course book - ways and teachers of insight meditation" and practiced Vipassana and Anapanasati meditation for many decades. His website and blog focuses primarily on the early Buddhist meditations and what Buddhism means to the West today. Above all, he was in close contact with the English Vipassana teacher Christopher Titmuss for decades and was actively involved in his “Dharma Facilitator Program”. Hans interprets for various Dharma teachers at lectures and retreats, in particular the Malay-Chinese Vipassana teacher Bhante Sujiva, whose book "The Buddhist Heart Meditations" he translated into German. At the Hamburg Mindfulness Congress in 2011, he gave a widely acclaimed lecture on the early Buddhist mindfulness practice Vipassana. He dealt extensively with Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka teachings - the Middle Way - and the various physical and sensory Anapanasati training methods of Burmese and Thai Dhamma teachers such as S. N. Goenka, Ajahn Lee Dhammadaro and Buddhadasa Bikkhu. Hans was a passionate debater, sharp thinker and loved clarifying philosophical arguments. This sometimes led to challenging encounters, which often pushed the other person to their own limits. Some of us felt very alienated by his political and ideological drafts of the last few years, so that some broke off contact. His sudden, early and unexpected death brought a great deal of gratitude to many of us, and we remembered the generosity with which he shared his understanding of the Dhamma teachings and the opportunity for clarifying discussions on philosophical and practical questions of Buddhist teachings to lead him. In everyday life, Hans was an open, lovable, warm-hearted and helpful friend for many years. ([https://buddhismus-deutschland.de/nachruf-hans-gruber/ Source Accessed Oct. 20, 2022]) —Alexandra Reif, Paul Stammeier  
REICHELT, HANS (b. 20 April, 1877 in Baden near Vienna, d. 12 May 1939 in Baden), Austrian scholar of Indo-European and Iranian studies (FIGURE 1). The son of a printer he enrolled in 1896 at Vienna University for taking up studies of classical, Germanic and Indo-Iranian philology and comparative linguistics with Georg Bühler, Friedrich Müller, Rudolf Meringer and others; later he went to Giessen, where Christian Bartholomae became his teacher in the stricter sense. In 1900 Reichelt obtained his doctorate with a thesis encouraged by Bartholomae on the Frahang ī oīm. After several years’ teaching at grammar schools in Lower Austria he returned as a librarian to Giessen, where in 1908 he qualified as a university lecturer for Sanskrit, comparative philology and history of religion with a study of Avestan syntax as his habilitation dissertation, which he later included in his Awestisches Elementarbuch (see below). In 1911 he was appointed the first extraordinary professor of comparative philology at the easternmost university of the Habsburg Empire in Czernowitz (now Chernovtsy). When Bukovina was annexed to Romania at the end of World War I and the university was closed, Reichelt first taught as a honorary lecturer in Innsbruck and Graz, but in 1920 after Johann Kirste’s death he was appointed full professor of Indo-Iranian philology in Graz. In 1926 he was appointed professor of Iranian studies at Hamburg University, before in 1930 he returned to Graz, and took over the chair of Sanskrit and comparative philology held until then by his teacher Meringer. In 1938/39 academic year, he was Rector of his university. Among his disciples were the Iranist Olaf Hansen (1902–69) and Wilhelm Brandenstein (1898–1967), the author of various studies about Old Persian and the Achae menid royal inscriptions in general. (https://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/reichelt-hans-1 Read more here])[  +
Hans T. Bakker (born 1948) is a cultural historian and Indologist, who has served as the Professor of the History of Hinduism and Jan Gonda Chair at the University of Groningen. He currently works in the British Museum as a researcher in project "Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State". Career Before joining the British Museum in 2014, Bakker was at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands where he was director of the Institute of Indian Studies at Groningen and, from 1996, Professor of the History of Hinduism in the Sanskrit Tradition and Indian Philosophy and holder of the Jan Gonda Chair at the University of Groningen. He has been a visiting fellow of All Souls College at the University of Oxford and a visiting professor at the University of Vienna and the University of Kyoto. Bakker's main research interest has been the political and religious culture of India in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries. As part of this work he led the study of the earliest known version of the ''Skanda Purāṇa'' preserved in Kathmandu, Nepal. This version of the Skanda Purāṇa is substantially different from the ''Skanda Purāṇa'' known from manuscripts and the printed edition in India. Bakker has continued and expanded the best traditions of Dutch Indology and has trained a number of able scholars, among them Peter Bisschop (Leiden University), Harunaga Isaacson (University of Hamburg) and Yuko Yokochi (University of Kyoto). Bakker has been working as researcher in "Beyond Boundaries: Religion, Region, Language and the State", a project based in the British Museum that is funded by the European Research Council (2013–2019) ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_T._Bakker Source Accessed Feb 16, 2023])  +
Hans-Rudolf Kantor is Associate Professor at Huafan University’s Graduate Institute of East Asian Humanities, Taipei. His fields of specialization are Chinese Buddhism, Chinese philosophy, comparative philosophy, and Chinese Intellectual History. He has published numerous articles on these topics and is also author of ''Die Heilslehre im Tiantai-Denken und der philosophische Begriff des Unendlichen bei Mou Zongsan'' (1909-1995): ''Die Verknüpfung von Heilslehre und Ontologie in der chinesischen Tiantai'' (1999). ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/pdf/4-publikationen/hamburg-buddhist-studies/hamburgup-hbs03-authors-linradich-mirror.pdf Source Accessed June 29, 2020])  +
Hānshān Déqīng (traditional Chinese: 憨山德清) (1546–1623), formerly transliterated Han-Shan Te-Ch’ing, was a leading Buddhist monk and poet of Ming Dynasty China who widely propagated the teachings of Chán and Pure Land Buddhism. According to his autobiography, Hanshan Deqing entered a monastic school in Nanjing’s Bao’en temple at the age of twelve. While there he studied literature as well as religious subjects and began writing poetry when he was 17. Two years later he was ordained as a Chan monk under the Buddhist name of Cheng Yin. When the monastery burned down in 1566, he busied himself for some years in keeping the community together and raising money for repairs. Then in 1571 he set out as a religious wanderer, going from monastery to monastery in search of instruction and growing in meditative attainment. After four years he settled on Mount Wutai but by 1583 he had become famous as a Buddhist Master and set out travelling to remote areas again. It was at this time that he prefixed his name with that of Hanshan Peak so as to return to anonymity. In consequence of having organized a successful ceremony to ensure the birth of a male heir to the throne while he was still at Mount Wutai, Hanshan obtained the patronage of the emperor's mother. With her support he was able eventually to establish a new monastery at Mount Lao on the coast of the Shandong Peninsula. But when relations between the Wanli Emperor and his mother broke down over the choice of heir, Hanshan was caught in a conflict which also included tensions between Daoists and Buddhists. In 1595, he was put on trial and imprisoned, then afterwards exiled to the Guangdong area. While there, he made himself socially useful and also helped restore Nanhua Temple at Caoxi which, since the time that Huineng was entombed there, had been converted into a meat market. Some of the monks at the temple made a false accusation of embezzlement of the restoration funds against him and, though he was acquitted, he did not return there. Between 1611-22 Hanshan resumed his wanderings from monastery to monastery and also continued writing the religious expositions and commentaries he had begun during his exile. Shortly before his death in 1623 he returned south to Caoxi, where his body was eventually enshrined. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanshan_Deqing Source Accessed Apr 19, 2022])