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Hiroko Kawanami is a social anthropologist and Buddhist studies scholar interested in gender and Buddhism, dissemination of knowledge and moral values, social justice and wellbeing, charismatic power(s) of monastic practitioners, and more recently on Buddhist orthodoxy and how heretical monks are created in Myanmar.
She is fluent in vernacular Myanmar and Japanese, can read classical Chinese and Pali, and has conducted research on the Buddhist monastic community in Myanmar for the last three decades.
Her most recent monographs are ''The Culture of Giving in Myanmar'' (2020 Bloomsbury) and ''Renunciation and Empowerment of Buddhist Nuns in Myanmar-Burma'' (2013 Brill) http://www.brill.com/renunciation-and-empowerment-buddhist-nuns-myanmar-burma. She has also also edited ''Buddhism, International Relief Work, and Civil Society'' (2013 Palgrave Macmillan) and ''Buddhism and the Political Process'' (2016 PM). ([https://www.research.lancs.ac.uk/portal/en/people/hiroko-kawanami(341ea850-733e-4a82-ae44-49389600e865).html Adapted from Source Nov 20, 2023]) +
Dr. Hiromi Habata is a faculty member at the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies in Tokyo, Japan. Before her appointment she was a researcher in Indology at the Institute of Indology and Tibetology at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich. Her scholarly interests include Buddhist Sanskrit, manuscripts of Central Asia, and methods of translation of Buddhist texts into Chinese and Tibetan. She is a member of the British Library Sanskrit Fragments Project and is currently working on a critical edition and analysis of the Mahaparinirvana-sutra of the Mahayanists. ([https://www.en.buddhismus-studien.uni-muenchen.de/people_vorlage/index.html Adapted from Source Aug 3, 2020])
Click here for a link to Hiromi Habata's [https://www.indologie.uni-muenchen.de/personen/3_privatdoz/habata/publ_habata/index.html publications] +
His Eminence Khangser Rinpoche (the 8th) was born in Kathmandu, Nepal, in May 1975. His ancestors followed the Nyingma tradition for centuries. Since Rinpoche’s line of reincarnations is affiliated with the Gelug tradition, he possesses both precious heritages. He is one of three high lamas responsible for recognizing the rebirth of the spiritual leader of Tibet, His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Khangser Rinpoche completed his preliminary study of Buddhist philosophy at the Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamshala, India. He later went on to advanced Buddhist studies in sutra and tantra at Sera Jey Monastery and Gyuto Tantric Monastic University. It was there he earned the geshe lharampa degree and a doctorate degree in tantra, both with the highest honors in the top division. Khangser Rinpoche presently serves as vice abbot of Gyuto Monastery and as the founder and administrative head of Thangkar Dechen Choling Monastic Institute. This institute is both a monastery and a school, and generously provides food, housing, and education in both Dharma and contemporary Western curricula to over eighty young monks in Nepal... Khangser Rinpoche is considered one of the great Buddhist teachers of the modern age. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/his-eminence-khangser-rinpoche/ Source: Wisdom Publications])
Recent publications include [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/a-monks-guide-to-finding-joy/ A Monk's Guide to Finding Joy:How to Train Your Mind and Transform Your Life], Wisdom Publications, 2024. [https://wisdomexperience.org/wisdom-podcast/khangser-rinpoche-wp192/ See the podcast at the Wisdom Experience here]. +
His Holiness Kyabgon Gongma Trichen Rinpoche (The Sakya Trichen) served as the 41st head of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism until March 2017, when the throneholder duties were handed over to His Holiness Ratna Vajra Rinpoche, the 42nd Sakya Trizin, formally addressed as His Holiness Kyabgon Gongma Trizin Rinpoche.
His Holiness the Sakya Trichen is a member of Tibet‘s noble Khon family, which founded the Sakya Order in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Just as His Holiness the Dalai Lama is an emanation of Avalokiteshvara, the manifestation of all the Buddha’s great compassion, His Holiness the Sakya Trichen is the manifestation of all the Buddha’s transcendent wisdom.
In addition to his leadership of the Sakya Order for over fifty years, His Holiness Sakya Trichen is renowned throughout the world for the brilliance and clarity of his teachings and his fluency and precise command of English. Receiving teachings directly from His Holiness carries a special lineage of blessings from the founders of the Sakya Order, as well as from Manjushri himself. ([http://hhsakyatrizin.net/sakya-trichen/ Source Accessed June 26, 2020])
His Holiness was born on the 7th of September 1945, the 1st day of the 8th Lunar month in the year of the Wood Bird at the Sakya palace in Tsedong.
A complete bio and family history is available here on [http://hhsakyatrizin.net/sakya-trichen/ H.H. the Sakya Trizin's personal website]. +
Hisao Inagaki (1929–2021) was born in 1929 in Kobe. He was Professor Emeritus of the Ryukoku University in Kyoto (Japan). He received his PhD from the University of London and taught Buddhism at the university. He returned to Japan to become a professor at the Ryukoku University.
In addition he served as a visiting professor at the University of California (Berkeley), the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. Aside from teaching, Inagaki also held offices for the International Association of Shin Buddhist Studies and has written numerous books.
He was the recipient of the 43rd Bukkyo Dendo Distinguished Service Award. The honour is presented to personalities who have made important contributions to the promotion of Buddhism. ([https://www.stonebridge.com/authors/hisao-inagaki Source Accessed Dec 19, 2024]) +
Hitoshi Inui is a professor at Koyasan University in the Department of Esoteric Buddhism. His main areas of specialization are Chinese, Indian, and Buddhist Philosophy and Esoteric Buddhism. He is the author of numerous articles on these topics. For a list of publications, visit Hitoshi Inui's page at [https://jglobal.jst.go.jp/en/detail?JGLOBAL_ID=200901092696376140&e=publication/misc J-Global] +
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Hokei Idzumi was a scholar and editor known for his work on Buddhist texts, particularly in the Mahayana tradition.
Hokei Idzumi collaborated with the renowned Buddhist scholar D.T. Suzuki on several projects. One notable work is the critical edition of ''The Gandavyuha Sutra'', which they edited together and published through the Sanskrit Buddhist Texts Publishing Society.
Idzumi was involved in the editing and translation of several important Buddhist texts. For example, he revised and edited ''The Suvarṇaprabhāsa sūtra'' (''The Golden Light Sutra''), a project initially started by Bunyiu Nanjio and completed under the auspices of the Keimeikwai.
He also contributed to the translation and editing of ''The Hymn of the Life and Vows of Samantabhadra'', specifically working on the ''Bhadracaripraṇidhāna'' section.
Idzumi's work has been published through various organizations, including the Eastern Buddhist society and the Society for the Publication of Sacred Books of the World. +
Holly Gayley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research focuses on the revitalization of Buddhism in Tibetan areas of the PRC in the post-Maoist period. Dr. Gayley became interested in the academic study of Buddhism through her travels among Tibetan communities in India, Nepal, and China. She completed her Masters in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University in 2000 and Ph.D. at Harvard University in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies in 2009. Dr. Gayley's first book titled ''Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet'' came out in November 2016 with Columbia University Press. The book charts the lives and love letters of a contemporary Buddhist tantric couple, Khandro Tāre Lhamo and Namtrul Jigme Phuntsok, who played a significant role in revitalizing Buddhism in eastern Tibet since the 1980s. Examining Buddhist conceptions of gender, agency and healing, this book recovers Tibetan voices in representing their own modern history under Chinese rule and contributes to burgeoning scholarly literature on Buddhist women, minorities in China, and studies of collective trauma.
Dr. Gayley's second project explores the emergence of Buddhist modernism on the Tibetan plateau and a new ethical reform movement spawned by cleric-scholars at Larung Buddhist Academy in Serta. Her recent publications on the topic include "Controversy over Buddhist Ethical Reform: A Secular Critique of Clerical Authority in the Tibetan Blogosphere" (''Himalaya Journal'', 2016), "Non-Violence as a Shifting Signifier on the Tibetan Plateau" (''Contemporary Buddhism'', 2016 with Padma 'tsho), "Reimagining Buddhist Ethics on the Tibetan Plateau (''Journal of Buddhist Ethics'', 2013), and "The Ethics of Cultural Survival: A Buddhist Vision of Progress in Mkhan po 'Jigs phun's Advice to Tibetans of the 21st Century" in ''Mapping the Modern in Tibet'' (International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, 2011). ([https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/holly-gayley Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020])
Holmes Welch (1921–1981) taught at Harvard University, where he became a lecturer in Chinese studies. His contributions to Buddhist studies include a trilogy on Buddhism in China: ''The Practice of Chinese Buddhism, 1900– 1950'' (1967), ''The Buddhist Revival in China'' (1968), and ''Buddhism Under Mao'' (1972), all published by Harvard University Press. +
Hongzhi Zhengjue (Chinese: 宏智正覺; pinyin: ''Hóngzhì Zhēngjué''; Wade–Giles: ''Hung-chih Cheng-chueh'', Japanese: ''Wanshi Shōgaku''), also sometimes called Tiantong Zhengjue (Chinese: 天童正覺; pinyin: ''Tiāntóng Zhēngjué''; Japanese: ''Tendō Shōgaku'') (1091–1157), was an influential Chinese Chan Buddhist monk who authored or compiled several influential texts. Hongzhi's conception of silent illumination is of particular importance to the Chinese Caodong Chan and Japanese Sōtō Zen schools. Hongzhi was also the author of the Book of Equanimity, an important collection of kōans.
Life:<br>
According to the account given in Taigen Dan Leighton's ''Cultivating the Empty Field'', Hongzhi was born to a family named Li in Xizhou, present-day Shanxi province. He left home at the age of eleven to become a monk, studying under Caodong master Kumu Facheng (枯木法成), among others, including Yuanwu Keqin, author of the famous kōan collection, the ''Blue Cliff Record''.
In 1129, Hongzhi began teaching at the Jingde monastery on Mount Tiantong, where he remained for nearly thirty years, until shortly before his death in 1157, when he ventured down the mountain to bid farewell to his supporters.
Texts:<br>
The main text associated with Hongzhi is a collection of one hundred of his kōans called the ''Book of Equanimity'' (Chinese: 從容録; pinyin: ''Cóngróng Lù''; Japanese: 従容録; rōmaji: ''Shōyōroku''). This book was compiled after his death by Wansong Xingxiu (1166–1246) at the urging of the Khitan statesman Yelü Chucai (1190–1244), and first published in 1224, with commentaries by Wansong. This book is regarded as one of the key texts of the Caodong school of Zen Buddhism. A collection of Hongzhi's philosophical texts has also been translated by Leighton.
Hongzhi is often referred to as an exponent of Silent Illumination Chan (''Mokushō Zen'' (黙照禅) in Japanese).
Aside from his own teacher, Eihei Dōgen—the founder of the Sōtō school of Zen in Japan—quotes Hongzhi in his work more than any other Zen figure. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hongzhi_Zhengjue Source Accessed June 13, 2023])
Jeffrey Hopkins (1940-2024) was Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia where he taught Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language for thirty-two years from 1973, retiring in 2005. He received a B.A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America in Freewood Acres, New Jersey, USA (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey), and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973.<br> For ten years, from 1979 to 1989, Hopkins served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s chief interpreter into English on lecture tours. At the University of Virginia, he founded the largest academic program in Tibetan and Buddhist studies in the West, and served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He has published forty-eight books, some of which have been translated into a total of twenty-two languages. He published the first translation of the foundational text of the Jo-nang school of Tibetan Buddhism in ''Mountain Doctrine: Tibet’s Fundamental Treatise on Other-Emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix''. He has translated and edited sixteen books from oral teachings by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the last four being ''How to See Yourself as You Really Are''; ''Becoming Enlightened''; ''How to Be Compassionate''; and ''The Heart of Meditation: Discovering Innermost Awareness''.<br> He is the President and Founder of the UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies. ([https://uma-tibet.org/author-hopkins.html Source: Updated on July 2, 2024, original content from UMA accessed July 22, 2020])
His own reflections on his life and career can be found here: https://networks.h-net.org/node/6060/pages/3914200/hopkins-jeffrey
Curriculum Vitae available for download [https://uma-tibet.org/bod/cv/hopkins_cv.pdf here] +
Horst Lasic is a Senior Scholar at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Horst Lasic studied Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna and received his PhD in 1999. He has been a research fellow at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna since 1995. His main areas of research are religion and philosophy in South Asia and Tibet, with a special focus on the Buddhist philosophers Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, Jinendrabuddhi, Jñānaśrīmitra, and Ratnakīrti. He has been teaching at the University of Vienna since 1999. ([https://verlag.oeaw.ac.at/en/person/lasic-horst/502 Source Accessed Oct 9, 2025]) +
Hortön Namkha Pel (1373-1447) - a disciple of Tsongkhapa and the author of ''Mind Training Like the Rays of the Sun''.
Nam kha Pel was a direct disciple of Lama Tsongkhapa, who lived in Tibet around the 15th century. Little is known about him except that he appears to have been the scribe for many of Tsongkhapa's literary works and was praised by Je Rinpoche for his intelligence and faith. ([https://thubtenchodron.org/commentaries/nam-kha-pels-mind-training-like-rays-of-the-sun/ Source Accessed Mar 27, 2025]) +
Hsing Yun (Chinese: 星雲; pinyin: Xīng Yún) (born August 19, 1927) is a Chinese Buddhist monk. He is the founder of the Fo Guang Shan Buddhist order as well as the affiliated Buddha's Light International Association in Taiwan. Hsing Yun is considered to be one of the most prominent proponents of Humanistic Buddhism and is considered to be one of the most influential teachers of modern Taiwanese Buddhism. In Taiwan, he is popularly referred to as one of the "Four Heavenly Kings" of Taiwanese Buddhism, along with his contemporaries: Master Sheng-yen of Dharma Drum Mountain, Master Cheng Yen of Tzu Chi and Master Wei Chueh of Chung Tai Shan. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hsing_Yun Source Accessed Aug 10, 2021]) +
Professor Hsiung Ping-chen received her Ph.D. in History from Brown University and her S.M. in Population Studies and International Health from Harvard University. She is Professor of History and Director of the Taiwan Research Centre at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Her main research interest lies in the area of women’s and children’s health. Her works included ''A Tender Voyage: Children and Childhood in Late Imperial China'', ''Childhood in the Past: A History of Chinese Children'' and ''Ill or Well: Diseases and Health of Young Children in Late Imperial China''.
She is a visiting fellow at the Global and Transregional Studies Platform at the University of Göttingen. ([https://www.cemeas.de/meet-our-researchers-prof-hsiung-ping-chen/ Source Accessed June 19, 2023]) +
Huaiyu Chen is an associate professor of religious studies at the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies, with a joint appointment at the School of International Letters and Cultures. He has also held several visiting positions in North America, Europe, and Asia, such as a membership of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 2011-2012, a Spalding Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall of Cambridge University in 2014-2015, a visiting professorship at Beijing Normal University in June-July 2015, a visiting scholarship at Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin in June-July, 2018, and a visiting scholarship at Institute for Religions and Ethics of Tsinghua University in August, 2018. ([https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/1268668 Source Accessed Mar 21, 2022]) +
Jamie Hubbard graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a doctorate in Buddhist studies and has been teaching at Smith College since 1985.
Hubbard is the author of books, articles and films on Buddhism in East Asia, including ''Pruning the Bodhi Tree'' (with Paul Swanson), "Absolute Delusion, Perfect Buddhahood," and the film ''The Yamaguchi Story: Buddhism and the Family in Japan''. He also has extensive interests in the use of technology in Buddhist studies and has worked on numerous projects in the area of archiving Buddhist texts and digital publication, and more recently in the field of neuroscience and emerging technologies of awareness: Cyborg Buddha! ([https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/jamie-hubbard Source Accessed June 13, 2019]) +
'''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)'''
:by Andrew Quintman
With great sadness, we share news that our incomparable teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend Hubert Decleer passed away peacefully on Wednesday, August 25. He was at his home with his wife, the poet Nazneen Zafar, in Kathmandu, Nepal, near the Swayambhū Mahācaitya that had been his constant inspiration for nearly five decades. His health declined rapidly following a diagnosis of advanced-stage lung cancer in May, but he remained lucid and in high spirits and over the past weeks he was surrounded by family members and close friends. Through his final hours, he maintained his love of Himalayan scholarship and black coffee, and his deep and quiet commitment to Buddhist practice.
Hubert’s contributions to the study of Tibetan and Himalayan traditions are expansive, covering the religious, literary, and cultural histories of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and India. For nearly thirty-five years he directed and advised the School for International Training’s program for Tibetan Studies, an undergraduate study-abroad program that has served as a starting point for scholars currently working in fields as diverse as Anthropology, Art History, Education, Conservation, History, Religious Studies, Philosophy, and Public Policy. The countless scholars he inspired are connected by the undercurrent of Hubert's indelible "light touch" and all the subtle and formative lessons he imparted as a mentor and friend.
Hubert embodied a seemingly inexhaustible curiosity that spanned kaleidoscopic interests ranging from Chinese landscapes to Netherlandish still lifes, medieval Tibetan pilgrimage literature to French cinema, 1940s bebop to classical Hindustani vocal performance. With legendary hospitality, his home, informally dubbed “The Institute,” was an oasis for scholars, former students, artists, and musicians, who came to share a simple dinner of daal bhaat or a coffee on the terrace overlooking Swayambhū. The conversations that took place on that terrace often unearthed a text or image or reference that turned out to be the missing link in the visitor's current research project. When not discussing scholarship, Hubert inspired his friends to appreciate the intelligence and charm of animals—monkeys and crows especially—or to enjoy the marvels of a blossoming potted plum tree. His attentiveness to the world around him generated intense sensitivity and compassion. He was an accomplished painter and a captivating storyteller, ever ready with accounts of the artists’ scene in Europe or his numerous overland journeys to Asia. The stories from long ago flowed freely and very often revealed some important insight about the present moment, however discrete.
Hubert François Kamiel Decleer was born on August 22, 1940, in Ostend, Belgium. In 1946, he spent three months in Switzerland with a group of sixty children whose parents served in the Résistance. He completed his Latin-Greek Humaniora at the Royal Atheneum in Ostend in 1958, when he was awarded the Jacques Kets National Prize for biology by the Royal Zoo Society of Antwerp. He developed a keen interest in the arts, and during this period he also held his first exhibition of oil paintings and gouaches. In 1959 he finished his B.A. in History and Dutch Literature at the Regent School in Ghent. Between 1960 and 1963 he taught Dutch and History at the Hotel and Technical School in Ostend, punctuated by a period of military service near Köln, Germany in 1961–62. The highlight of his military career was the founding of a musical group (for which he played drums) that entertained officers’ balls with covers of Ray Charles and other hits of the day.
In 1963 Hubert made the first of his many trips to Asia, hitchhiking for thirteen months from Europe to India and through to Ceylon. Returning to Belgium in 1964, he then worked at the artists’ café La Chèvre Folle in Ostend, where he organized fortnightly exhibitions and occasional cultural events. For the following few years he worked fall and winter for a Belgian travel agency in Manchester and Liverpool, England, while spending summers as a tour guide in Italy, Central Europe, and Turkey. In 1967 he began working as a guide, lecturer, and interpreter for Penn Overland Tours, based in Hereford, England. In these roles he accompanied groups of British, American, Australian, and New Zealand tourists on luxury overland trips from London to Bombay, and later London to Calcutta—excursions that took two and a half months to complete. He made twenty-six overland journeys in the course of fourteen years, during which time he also organized and introduced local musical concerts in Turkey, Pakistan, India, and later Nepal. He likewise accompanied two month-long trips through Iran with specialized international groups as well as a number of overland trips through the USSR and Central Europe. In between his travels, Hubert wrote and presented radio scenarios for Belgian Radio and Television (including work on a prize-winning documentary on Nepal) and for the cultural program Woord. The experiences of hospitality and cultural translation that Hubert accumulated on his many journeys supported his work as a teacher and guide; he was always ready with a hint of how one might better navigate the awkward state of being a stranger in a new place.
With the birth of his daughter Cascia in 1972, Hubert’s travels paused for several years as he took a position tutoring at the Royal Atheneum in Ostend. He also worked as an art critic with a coastal weekly and lectured with concert tours of Nepalese classical musicians, cārya dancers, and the musicologist and performer Michel Dumont.
In 1975, during extended layovers between India journeys, Hubert began a two-year period of training in Buddhist Chinese at the University of Louvain with pioneering Indologist and scholar of Buddhist Studies Étienne Lamotte. He recalled being particularly moved by the Buddhist teachings on impermanence he encountered in his initial studies. He also worked as a bronze-caster apprentice and assistant to sculptor—and student of Lamotte—Roland Monteyne. He then resumed his overland journeying full time, leading trips from London to Kathmandu. These included annual three-month layovers in Nepal, where he began studying Tibetan and Sanskrit with local tutors. He was a participant in the first conference of the Seminar of Young Tibetologists held in Zürich in 1977. In 1980 he settled permanently in Kathmandu, where he continued his private studies for seven years. During this period he also taught French at the Alliance Française and briefly served as secretary to the Consul at the French Embassy in Kathmandu.
It was during the mid 1980s that Hubert began teaching American college students as a lecturer and fieldwork consultant for the Nepal Studies program of the School for International Training (then known as the Experiment in International Living) based in Kathmandu. In 1987 he was tasked with organizing SIT’s inaugural Tibetan Studies program, which ran in the fall of that year. Hubert served as the program’s academic director, a position he would hold for more than a decade. Under his direction, the Tibetan Studies program famously became SIT’s most nomadic college semester abroad, regularly traveling through India, Nepal, Bhutan, as well as western, central, and eastern Tibet. It was also during this period that Hubert produced some of his most memorable writings in the form of academic primers, assignments, and examinations. In 1999 Hubert stepped down as academic director to become the program’s senior faculty advisor, a position he held until his death.
Hubert taught and lectured across Europe and the United States in positions that included visiting lecturer at Middlebury College and Numata visiting faculty member at the University of Vienna.
Hubert’s writing covers broad swaths of geographical and historical territory, although he paid particular attention to the Buddhist traditions of Tibet and Nepal. His research focused on the transmission history of the Vajrabhairava tantras, traditional narrative accounts of the Swayambhū Purāṇa, the sacred geography of the Kathmandu Valley (his 2017 lecture on this topic, “Ambrosia for the Ears of Snowlanders,” is recorded here), and the biographies of the eleventh-century Bengali monk Atiśa. His style of presenting lectures was rooted in his work as a musician and lover of music—he prepared meticulously to be sure his talks were rhythmic, precise, and yet had an element of the spontaneous. One of his preferred mediums was the long-form book review, which incorporated new scholarship and original translations with erudite critiques of subjects ranging from Buddhist philosophy to art history and Tibetan music. His final publication, a forthcoming essay on an episode contained in the correspondence of the seventeenth-century Jesuit António de Andrade (translated by Michael Sweet and Leonard Zwilling in 2017), uses close readings of Tibetan historical sources and paintings to complicate and contextualize Andrade’s account of his mission to Tibet. This exemplifies the spirit and method of his review essays, which demonstrate his deep admiration of published scholarship through a meticulous consideration of the work and its sources, often leading to new discoveries.
In addition to Hubert’s published work, some of his most endearing and enduring writing has appeared informally, in the guise of photocopied packets intended for his students. Each new semester of the SIT Tibetan Studies program would traditionally begin with what is technically called “The Academic Director’s Introduction and Welcome Letter.” These documents would be mailed out to students several weeks prior to the program, and for most other programs they were intended to inform incoming participants of the basic travel itinerary, required readings, and how many pairs of socks to pack. The Tibetan Studies welcome letter began as a humble, one-page handwritten note, impeccably penned in Hubert’s unmistakable hand.
Hubert’s welcome letters evolved over the years, and they eventually morphed into collections of three or four original essays covering all manner of subjects related to Tibetan Studies, initial hints at how to approach cultural field studies, new research, and experiential education, as well as anecdotes from the previous semester illustrating major triumphs and minor disasters. The welcome letters became increasingly elaborate and in later years regularly reached fifty pages or more in length. The welcome letter for fall 1991, for example, included chapters titled “Scholarly Fever” and “The Field and the Armchair, and not ‘Stage-Struck’ in either.” By spring 1997, the welcome letter included original pieces of scholarship and translation, with a chapter on “The Case of the Royal Testaments” that presented innovative readings of the Maṇi bka’ ’bum. Only one element was missing from the welcome letter, a lacuna corrected in that same text of spring 1997, as noted by its title: Tibetan Studies Tales: An Academic Directors’ Welcome Letter—With Many Footnotes.
Hubert was adamant that even college students on a study-abroad program could undertake original and creative research, either for assignments in Dharamsala, in Kathmandu or the hilly regions of Nepal, or during independent-study projects themselves, which became the capstone of the semester. Expectations were high, sometimes seemingly impossibly high, but with just the right amount of background information and encouragement, the results were often triumphs.
Hubert regularly spent the months between semesters, or during the summer, producing another kind of SIT literature: the “assignment text.” These nearly always included extensive original translations of Tibetan materials and often extended background essays as well. They would usually end with a series of questions that would serve as the basis for a team research project. For fall 1994 there was “Cultural Neo-Colonialism in the Himalayas: The Politics of Enforced Religious Conversion”; later there was the assignment on the famous translator Rwa Lotsāwa called “The Melodious Drumsound All-Pervading: The Life and Complete Liberation of Majestic Lord Rwa Lotsāwa, the Yogin-Translator of Rwa, Mighty Lord in Magic Intervention.” There were extended translations of traditional pilgrimage guides for the Kathmandu Valley, including texts by the Fourth Khamtrul and the Sixth Zhamar hierarchs, for assignments where teams of students would race around the valley rim looking for an elusive footprint in stone or a guesthouse long in ruins that marked the turnoff of an old pilgrim’s trail. For many students these assignments were the first foray into field work methods, and Hubert's careful guidance helped them approach collaborations with local experts ethically and with deep respect for diverse forms of knowledge.
One semester there was a project titled “The Mystery of the IV Brother Images, ’Phags pa mched bzhi” focused on the famous set of statues in Tibet and Nepal and based on new Tibetan materials that had only just come to light. Another examined the “The Tibetan World ‘Translated’ in Western Comics.” Finally, there was a classic of the genre that examined the creative nonconformity of the Bhutanese mad yogin Drugpa Kunleg in light of the American iconoclast composer and musician Frank Zappa: “A Dose of Drugpa Kunleg for the post–1984 Era: Prolegomena to a Review Article of the Real Frank Zappa Book.”
Frank Zappa was, indeed, another of Hubert’s inspirations and his aforementioned review included the following passage: “If there’s one thing I do admire in FZ, it is precisely these ‘highest standards’ and utmost professional thoroughness that does not allow for any sloppiness (in the name of artistic freedom or spontaneous freedom)…. At the same time, each concert is really different, [and]…appears as a completely spontaneous event.” Hubert’s life as a scholar, teacher, and mentor was a consummate illustration of this highest ideal.
Hubert is survived by his wife Nazneen Zafar; his daughter Cascia Decleer, son-in-law Diarmuid Conaty, and grandsons Keanu and Kiran Conaty; his sister Annie Decleer and brother-in-law Patrick van Calenbergh; his brother Misjel Decleer and sister-in-law Martine Thomaere; his stepmother Agnès Decleer, and half-brother Luc Decleer. A traditional cremation ceremony at the Bijeśvarī Vajrayoginī temple near Swayambhū is planned for Friday.
Benjamin Bogin, Andrew Quintman, and Dominique Townsend
Portions of this biographical sketch draw on the introduction to [[Himalayan Passages]]: Newar and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer (Wisdom Publications, 2014)
Reverend Master Hubert was a senior disciple of Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett. He was ordained a monk in 1988 and was transmitted by Rev. Master Jiyu in 1992. He translated the ''Shobogenzo'', as well as numerous scriptures and religious texts. He was a resident of [Shasta] Abbey from the time of his ordination. ([https://www.facebook.com/olympiazencenter/posts/remembering-rev-hubert-nearmanrev-hubert-nearman-obc-died-at-shasta-abbey-on-the/10153432879308214/ Source Accessed June 28, 2021]) +
