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A specialist in the study of pre-Tang Buddhism and Daoism, James Ware was the first student to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard in the field of Chinese studies. He completed his dissertation in 1932, on the representation of Buddhism in the historical chronicle of the Wei dynasty known as the Weishu. He then taught courses in the Chinese language and Chinese history at Harvard, and was, together with Serge Elisséeff, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. In this capacity, he supervised the Chinese language program for much of the 1930s and 40s.
Much of the material for Ware’s early studies was drawn from the Weishu. He wrote on problems relating to the Toba rulers of the Wei, the history of Buddhism and Daoism in the Northern Dynasties, and the textual history of the ''Fanwang jing'' and other scriptures from the Buddhist canon. In the same years, he also published selected translations from several Buddhist sutras. He worked together with Serge Eliseeff to establish the ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' in 1936, and contributed numerous articles and book reviews to the journal over the course of the next decade. He also developed a series of Chinese language textbooks and wrote on aspects of modern Chinese linguistics.
In the latter years of his career, Ware turned his attention his attention to translating, primarily for a non-specialist audience. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he published selections from the Analects, Zhuangzi, and Mencius. His final significant work was a complete translation of Ge Hong’s fourth century ''Baopuzi'' (1967). ([https://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021]) +
James Burnell Robinson, religious educator. National Endowment of the Humanities scholar, 1987. Senior warden vestry St. Luke's Episcopal Church, Cedar Falls, 1990. Member American Academy Religion, International Association Buddhist Studies, Tibet Society, Constantian Society, Sarmatian Society. +
James Whelan is a Cambridge graduate and a Buddhist scholar, translator and lawyer. He has practiced Buddhism since the 1960s and is a founding member of The Zen Trust, London. He continues to teach Sanskrit and Pali and is a member of The Buddhist Society in the UK. ([https://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/content/library/docs/2023_03/tbs_catalogue_2023.pdf Source Accessed Apr 30, 2023]) +
James Donald Whitehill is Associate professor at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. He has been the Director of the Columbia Zen Center since 1980. He is a member of the American Academy Religion, Association for Asian Studies, and the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies. +
Jamie Cresswell was President of the European Buddhist Union from 2011 to 2017 and was elected Vice-President in 2017.
Jamie is a member of SGI-UK and the Network of Buddhist Organisations UK, which he represents at the EBU. He is director of the Centre for Applied Buddhism, a member of the European Council of Religious Leaders and a trustee of Religions for Peace, UK.
He has practised Buddhism for nearly 30 years and his Buddhist background includes a degree in Buddhist studies, as well as practice and study in many traditions and schools.
In his spare time Jamie sings with a male voice choir, attempts to compose music and walks in the beautiful Oxfordshire countryside. ([http://europeanbuddhism.org/about/ebucouncil/ Source Accessed may 19, 2021]) +
Jamie is a graduate student in Tibetan Studies at the Institute of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna, where he is currently completing his MA thesis on the life of Gö Lotsawa Shönu Pal. Jamie provides administrative support for the Translation Teams and is our source text researcher and catalogue curator.
Jamie’s research focuses mainly on the philosophical literature of Tibetan Buddhism, in particular the different Tibetan Madhyamaka interpretations, Tibetan biography writing, the Kadam teachings on mind training (blo sbyong), and experiential songs (mgur). He has also contributed to several translation projects, such as Study Buddhism (Berzin Archives) and 84000.
Jamie currently lives in Vienna, where he has found the ideal environment to spend his free time pursuing his interest in classical music and playing the double bass. ([https://www.khyentsevision.org/team/jamie-creek/ Source Accessed Sep 7, 2021]) +
Born in 1930, Khensur Jampa Tegchok became a monk at the age of eight. He studied major Buddhist treatises at Sera Monastic University in Tibet for fourteen years before fleeing his homeland in 1959. The former abbot of the Jé College of Sera Monastic University in India, he was also a beloved teacher at several FPMT centers including the Masters Program at Instituto Lama Tsongkhapa in Italy, Land of Medicine Buddha in California, and Nalanda Monastery in France. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/khensur-jampa-tegchok/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Jamyang Donyo Gyeltsen, the Thirteenth Sakya Tridzin, was the brother of the Twelfth Sakya Tridzin, Namkha Lekpai Gyeltsen, and the son of the Eleventh. He held the seat of Sakya from 1343 to his death two years later. +
A disciple of Lorepa, Jamyang Gonpo was the main transmitter of the Lower Drukpa school. He was also an important teacher of the Chod tradition. +
Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro was one of the most influential religious teachers in Kham in the first half of the twentieth century. One of multiple reincarnations of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, he served as head of Dzongsar Monastery, which he enlarged, founding the monastic college, Khamshe, in 1918. Chokyi Lodro fled Kham in 1955 during the Communist takeover of Tibet, settling in Sikkim, where he passed away in 1959. ([http://www.treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Jamyang-Khyentse-Chokyi-Lodro/9990 Source: Treasury of Lives]). Also see his collected works at [https://khyentselineage.tsadra.org/index.php/%27jam_dbyangs_mkhyen_brtse_chos_kyi_blo_gros Tsadra Foundation's Khyentse Lineage webiste] and the translations of his texts at [https://www.lotsawahouse.org/tibetan-masters/jamyang-khyentse-chokyi-lodro/ Lotsawa House]. +
Jamyang Loter Wangpo was an important Rime Sakya master of Ngor Thartse Monastery who played a key role in the Rimé movement. He was a disciple of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and a teacher of Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He is well known for compiling the Compendium of Tantras under the inspiration of his guru, Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo as well as publishing the very first printed edition of the Explanation for Private Disciples of the Lamdre system of the Sakya School, which before that had been transmitted only orally and was tenuously preserved in manuscript form. Jamyang Loter Wangpo also received Dzogchen instructions from Nyoshul Lungtok. The collection of 139 painted mandala thangkas for the Compendium of Tantras was saved in 1958 by Sonam Gyatso Thartse Khen Rinpoche, and later published in more than one edition. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Jamyang_Loter_Wangpo Rigpa Wiki]) +
Jamyang Rinchen (蔣揚仁欽) moved away from his family in Taiwan at a very young age to become a monk and study at the Dalai Lama’s Institute of Buddhist Dialectics in Dharamsala. He later moved to Boston to complete his doctoral degree at Harvard. He now lives in Dharamsala, India, and travels in the Dalai Lama’s entourage as his principle Chinese translator. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/wisdom-podcast/jamyang-rinchen-1/ Adapted from Source Jan 9, 2025]) +
1708. founds bkra shis 'khyil
rgyal rabs lo tshigs shes bya mang 'dus mkhas pa'i spyi nor (p. 357)
1668. To Dbus and enters 'Bras-spungs Sgo-mang.
1674. Final ordination from 5th DL.
1676. Enters Rgyud Smad.
1680. Meditates at Ri-bo Dge-'phel.
1690. Becomes bla-ma [abbot] of 'Bras-spungs Sgo-mang.
Attempts to make peace between the Sde-srid and Lha-bzang Khan.
1709. Founds the Bkra-shis-'khyil Monastery with the patronage of Ju-nang Dpon.
1720. Granted title PaNDi-ta-e-rti-no-min-han by the Gong-ma Khang-shis Rgyal-po.
Year of death 1721 or 1722 (according to Ming mdzod); dates according to Tshad ma'i 'byung khungs: 1648-1722.
Gsung-'bum in 15 volumes. +
Johannes Cornelis Heesterman (10 November 1925, Amsterdam – 14 April 2014, Leiden) was a Dutch Indologist and historian of religions and professor at the University of Leiden.
He graduated in Hindi and Indian cultures at the University of Utrecht where in 1957 he also took a master's degree under the supervision of J.Gonda.
From 1958 to 1961 he lived in India participating in the project of a historical dictionary in San Cristo. Then he returned to Utrecht to teach at the university, from 1964 to 1990 he was a professor at the University of Leiden of linguistic and cultural history of South Asia after the Islamic invasion. Until his death he was professor emeritus of that university.
His main works include: ''The Broken World of Sacrifice: Study on Ritual in Ancient India'', 1993, Chicago; Italian transl. Milano, Adelphi, 2007) and ''The Inner Conflict of Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship, and Society'' (1985, Chicago). +
Jan Nattier is an American scholar of Mahāyāna Buddhism. She earned her PhD in Inner Asian and Altaic Studies from Harvard University (1988), and subsequently taught at the University of Hawaii (1988-1990), Stanford University (1990-1992), and Indiana University (1992–2005). She then worked as a research professor at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology, Soka University (2006–2010) before retiring from her position there and beginning a series of visiting professorships at various universities in the U.S.
Nattier is one of a group of scholars who have substantially revised views of the early development of Mahāyāna Buddhism in the last 20 years. They have in common their attention to and re-evaluation of early Chinese translations of texts.
Her first notable contribution was a book based on her PhD thesis which looked at the Chinese Doctrine of the Three Ages with a focus on the third i.e. ''Mofa'' (Chinese: 末法; pinyin: ''Mò Fǎ'') or ''Age of Dharma Decline''. She showed that the latter was a Chinese development with no India parallel. The translation and study of the ''Ugraparipṛcca'' published as ''A Few Good Men: The Bodhisattva Path according to The Inquiry of Ugra (Ugraparipṛcchā)'' in 2003 also contained an extended essay on working with ancient Buddhist texts, particularly in Chinese.
Nattier's notable articles include a study of the ''Akṣobhyavūhya'' Pure Land texts, which asserts the early importance of this strand of Mahāyāna ideology; an evaluation of early Chinese Translations of Buddhist texts and the issue of attribution (which summarises several earlier articles on the subject); and a detailed re-examination of the origins of the ''Heart Sutra'' (1992), which proposes that the sutra was composed in China.
Nattier was married to John R. McRae (1947-2011),[ a professor and researcher who specialized in the study of Chinese Chan Buddhism and was the author of ''The Northern School and the Formation of Early Chan Buddhism'' (University of Hawai`i Press, 1986) and ''Seeing through Zen: Encounter, Transformation, and Genealogy in Chinese Chan Buddhism'' (University of California Press, 2003). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Nattier Source Accessed Jan 11, 2021])
Jan Christoph Westerhoff is a philosopher and orientalist with specific interests in metaphysics and the philosophy of language. He is currently Professor of Buddhist Philosophy in the Faculty of Theology and Religion of the University of Oxford.
Westerhoff was educated at the Annette-von-Droste-Hülshoff Gymnasium, a Gymnasium in Düsseldorf, Germany. He studied philosophy at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating with a first class Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1999. He continued his studies of philosophy at Trinity and completed a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in 2000. He undertook postgraduate research at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Cambridge; his doctoral supervisor was Michael Potter. He completed his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 2003, with a doctoral thesis titled "An Inquiry into the Notion of an Ontological Category". He undertook research for a second doctorate, this time in Oriental studies, at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (SOAS). He completed his second PhD in 2007 with a doctoral thesis titled "Nāgārjuna's Madhyamaka: A Philosophical Investigation".
He is a specialist in metaphysics and Indo-Tibetan philosophy. In particular, his research focuses on the philosophy of the early Indian Mahāyāna Buddhist thinker, Nāgārjuna, with comprehensive books such as ''Nagarjuna's Madhyamaka''. His research interests also include the history of ideas in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His most recent research interests focus on the history of solipsism. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Westerhoff Source Accessed May 12, 2021]) +
J. W. de Jong was born in Leiden. He attended primary school and gymnasium in Leiden, and went on to study at the University of Leiden from 1939–1945, where he began his lifelong study of the "canonical languages" of Buddhism: he took Chinese as his major, while minoring in Japanese and Sanskrit. With the closing of the university in 1940 following the German invasion of the Netherlands, de Jong was forced to continue his studies on his own. With the war's end in 1945, the university reopened and de Jong passed his candidaatsexamen. In 1946, he traveled to the United States as a visiting professor at Harvard University, where he continued his study of Sanskrit texts.
From 1947-1950, he lived in Paris, studying at both the Sorbonne and the Collège de France, where he began studying Tibetan. While still in Paris, he met his future wife Gisèle Bacquès, whom he married in 1949. That same year, he was awarded his PhD from the University of Leiden; his doctoral thesis was a critical translation of Candrakīrti's ''Prasannapadā''. He also began studying Mongolian.
He returned to the Netherlands in 1950 to act as senior research assistant (1950–1954) and continuing academic employee (1954–1956) at the Univ. of Leiden, working at the university's Sinologisch Instituut; in 1956, he became the first Chair of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies when the position was created at the Insituut Kern (the Indological institute at the Univ. of Leiden). In 1957, de Jong founded the Indo-Iranian Journal with Univ. of Leiden colleague F. B. J. Kuijper in 1957 in order to facilitate the publishing of scholarly articles in Indology. In 1965, he moved to Australia to become professor of Indology at the Australian National University in Canberra, a position he held until his retirement in 1986.
De Jong became a corresponding member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1978.
De Jong is well known for his amazing linguistic ability having had a command of Dutch, French, English, German, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Danish, Mongolian, Sanskrit, Pāli, and Tibetan, as well as the rather acerbic quality of his reviews. His scholarly publications number more than 800; 700 of these are reviews. He made major contributions to the field of Tibetan studies, including a study of an account of the life of Milarepa by Tsangnyong Heruka Rüpägyäncän (Gtsang-smyon he-ru-ka rus-pa'i-rgyan-can) (1490), and the editing and translation of all Dunhuang fragments apropos of the Rāmāyaṇa story in Tibetan. Furthermore, his work on Madhyamaka philosophy in the 1940s is some of the earliest to treat that topic in detail.
De Jong died in Canberra. In April 2000, some 12,000 items from his personal library (which itself contained over 20,000 volumes) was purchased from his family in Canberra by the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Willem_de_Jong Source Accessed Mar 17, 2020])
Janice Dean Willis, or Jan Willis (born 1948) is Professor of Religion at Wesleyan University, where she has taught since 1977; and the author of books on Tibetan Buddhism. She has been called influential by Time Magazine, Newsweek (cover story), and Ebony Magazine. Aetna Inc.'s 2011 African American History Calendar features professor Willis as one of thirteen distinguished leaders of faith-based health initiatives in the United States.
Willis grew up in Docena, Alabama (near Birmingham), as the daughter of a Baptist deacon and steelworker. While traveling through Asia during the early 1970s, she became the student of Tibetan lama Thubten Yeshe, who encouraged her academic pursuits. She received BA and MA degrees in philosophy from Cornell University (thesis: History, Faith, and Kerygma; A Critique of Bultmann's Existentialist Theology.), and a Ph.D. in Indic and Buddhist Studies from Columbia University (dissertation: A Study of the Chapter on Reality Based Upon the Tattvartha-patalam of Asanga's Bodhisattvabhumi.).
Since 2006, she has contributed to the group blog On Faith (sponsored by Newsweek and the Washington Post) alongside Elie Wiesel, Desmond Tutu, and Madeleine Albright, among others. In 2003, she was awarded Wesleyan University's Binswanger Prize for Excellence in Teaching. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Willis Source Accessed May 17, 2021]) +
Yūn-hua Jan was Professor of Religion in the Department of Religious Studies, McMaster University, Hamilton. He received a Canada Council Fellowship (1973-74) and has lectured in Chinese Studies at Visva-Bharati University, India. He has been a visiting researcher at the Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo (1974). He was the author of ''A Chronicle of Buddhism in China 581-906 A.D.'' (1967) and ''The Autobiography of Ch'i Pai-shih''. He has contributed many articles written in Chinese and English to various journals. He received his Ph.D. from the Visva-Bharati University, India. (Source: Adapted from [https://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/content/search?search_in%5B%5D=all&SearchText=the+bodhisattva+doctrine+in+buddhism ''The Bodhisattva Doctrine in Buddhism''], Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 1981) +
Jan Sobisch studied Tibetology as main subject at Hamburg University (1985-1992, Prof. Seyfort Ruegg), and the minor subjects Classical Indology (1986-1992, Profs. Schmithausen and Wezler), and Philosophy (1990-1992, Prof. Schnädelbach). During his dissertation (Prof. David Jackson), he worked on a genre of Tibetan literature that debates theories of simultaneously practising without conflicts and within a single mental continuum the ethics and vows of sravakas, bodhisattvas and mantra adepts. During these years (1994-1999) he also worked half time in the Nepal-German Manuscript Preservation Project for Prof. Wezler. While working for the project, he discovered among microfilms made available to us the 30 volumes of the complete works of A mes zhabs (1597-1659), one of the most prolific Tibetan writers on history and mantra.
This enabled him to obtain two stipends from the German Research Council (DFG) for studying the manuscripts of A mes zhabs' works (leading to the publication of a catalogue and study) and his documents of transmission (gsan yig or thob yig). The latter project Sobisch passed on to a successor when he accepted the position of an assistant professor in Copenhagen. Within A mes zhabs' works he found numerous writings on the Hevajra Tantra and the connected Path with Its Fruits cycle (lam 'bras). These he researched in his early years in Copenhagen, leading to the publication of a study of the Indian and Tibetan literatures of these teachings. In 2006, he received tenure in Copenhagen and put much effort into building a study program for Tibetan that included classical, Buddhist, and modern studies. His research in the past ten years focussed on the early 'Bri gung bKa' brgyud pas and their unique dGongs gcig, a text that had a tremendous impact on the formation of the bKa' brgyud pas from the 13th c. onwards. His monograph on this work is accepted for publication in the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Studies Series of Wisdom Publications.
Unfortunately, the Danish government began a series of dramatic budget cuts that resulted in the dismissal of over 500 persons at the University of Copenhagen. In order to save the larger programs like Chinese and Religious Studies, his institute leadership decided to sacrifice the smaller subjects like Tibetan, Sanskrit and Thai Studies, and Sobisch was laid-off with six months notice in February, 2016. In the same year he was granted the Humboldt Research Award in recognition of his entire achievements in research to date.
([https://ceres.rub.de/de/personen/jsobisch/ Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020])
