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A list of all pages that have property "Bio" with value ""After the death of 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi grags pa (the 3rd Drukchen or Gyalwang Drukpa), monks found the rebirth in the house of a minor aristocrat of Kongpo, to the disappointment of both the families of Rwa lung and Bya. This child, the sprul sku Ngag dbang nor bu, was to be the great Padma dkar po. Padma dkar po was one of those rare renaissance men. The breadth of his scholarship and learning invites comparison with the Fifth Dalai Lama. It was Padma dkar po who systematized the teaching of the 'Brug pa sect. It is no wonder that the 'Brug pa Bka' brgyud pa always refer to him as Kun mkhyen, the Omniscient, an epithet reserved for the greatest scholar of a sect. Padma dkar po was a shrewd and occasionally ruthless politician. His autobiography is one of the most important sources for the history of the sixteenth century. Padma dkar po was a monk and insisted on adherence to the vinaya rules for his monastic followers. He also held that in the administration of church affairs the claims of the rebirth and the monastic scholar took priority over those of the scion of a revered lineage. Although he preached often at both Rwa lung and Bkra shis mthong smon, the seats of his two immediate predecessors, he never exercised actual control over these monasteries and their estates. He founded his monastery at Gsang sngags chos gling in Byar po, north of Mon Rta dbang, which became the seat of the subsequent Rgyal dbang 'Brug pa incarnation." (Gene Smith, ''Among Tibetan Texts'', 81)". Since there have been only a few results, also nearby values are displayed.

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Younghee Lee + (Younghee Lee earned her Ph.D. from the Uni … Younghee Lee earned her Ph.D. from the University of Hawai'i at Manoa and has taught at Smith College and the University of Aukland, where she serves concurrently as the Director of the Korean Studies Centre of the New Zealand Institute. Presently, she is an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Asian Studies, University of Aukland. Among her publications are ''Ideology, Culture and Han: Traditional and Early Modern Korean Women's Literature'' (2002) and several articles on Buddhist ''kasa''. ([https://www.jstor.org/stable/23943319 Source Accessed Aug 11, 2023])le/23943319 Source Accessed Aug 11, 2023]))
Zach Larson + (Zach Larson is a practitioner in the Longc … Zach Larson is a practitioner in the Longchen Nyingthig lineage of the Nyingma School, who works as a translator, editor and author. He was born in 1978 in Wisconsin and received a BA in "Buddhism and Politics" at UW-Madison in 2001 after a year-long study-abroad program in Kathmandu, Nepal in which he met his first teacher, Changling Tulku Rinpoche of Shechen Monastery, with whom he studied the Longchen Nyinthig preliminaries for six months. While working on the research project "Nonviolence in Tibetan Culture: A glimpse at how Tibetans view and practice nonviolence in politics and daily life," he met and received profound blessings from Chatral Sangye Dorje Rinpoche and offered to compile and translate teachings by him in the coming years. Chatral Rinpoche approved of the idea, and Larson returned to Wisconsin to study Tibetan language and Buddhism for three years at the UW-Madison Graduate School. He returned to Nepal in 2004 and compiled, edited, and translated Chatral Rinpoche's biography and teachings into the book ''Compassionate Action: The Teachings of Chatral Rinpoche'', which was published by Shechen Publications in New Delhi in 2005.Larson attended the full Nyingma Kama Wang with Trulshik Rinpoche in the winter of 2004 in Boudha and received the Kunsang Lama'i Shelung empowerment from Tsetrul Rinpoche in January 2005.Snow Lion Publications released an expanded and updated version of ''Compassionate Action'' in 2007. The book has since been translated into Spanish (2009), Indonesian (2009), and Russian (2010). ([https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Zachary_Larson Source Accessed Nov 21, 2023])hary_Larson Source Accessed Nov 21, 2023]))
Zachary Beer + (Zachary is currently a PhD student at the University of California, Berkeley. Zack began studying Tibetan in 2002. He has studied at Stanford University and at Rangjung Yeshe Institute.)
Zaya Pandita + (Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) w … Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) was a Buddhist missionary priest and scholar of Oirat origin who is the most prominent Oirat Buddhist scholar. Among his accomplishments is the invention of the Clear Script.Zaya Pandita was the fifth son of Babakhan, a minor Khoshut prince. After Babakhan converted to Tibetan Buddhism in the early 17th century, he, like many other Oirat princes, wished for one of his sons to enter the Buddhist clergy. In pursuit of his wish, Babakhan chose Zaya to become a śrāmaṇera ("novice monk"). In 1615, Zaya journeyed to Lhasa where he would study and practice Buddhism, including study under the guidance of the Lobsang Chökyi Gyaltsen, 4th Panchen Lama.In 1638, Zaya Pandita left Tibet at the direction of the Panchen Lama to conduct missionary work among the Mongols. One year later in 1640, he assisted Erdeni Batur, Khun Taiyishi of the Choros (Oirats) tribe, in assembling a pan-Mongol conference between the Oirat and the Khalkha Mongols. The purpose of the conference was to encourage the formation of a united Mongolian front against potential external enemies, such as the Kazakhs, Manchus, and Russians and to settle all internal matters peacefully. The conference produced a code, which provided protection from foreign aggression to both the Oirat and the Khalkha and guaranteed the free movement of people throughout Mongol land.When not engaged in diplomacy between the Oirat and the Khalkha, Zaya Pandita spread Tibetan Buddhism to the Oirats, the Khalkha and even the Kalmyk people in far away Russia. In furtherance of his missionary work, Zaya Pandita composed a new alphabet, based on the traditional Mongolian alphabet, called "Clear script" (''todo bichig'') to transcribe the Oirat language as it is pronounced. By doing so, Zaya Pandita eliminated the ambiguities of the traditional Mongolian alphabet.From the time Zaya Pandita developed the Clear Script in 1648 until his death in 1662, he translated approximately 186 Buddhist texts from Tibetan language to the Oirat language while still serving the religious needs of the Oirat tribes in Dzungaria.The todo bichig script is still used by Oirats in Xinjiang with slight revisions, and is taught alongside standard classical written Mongolian in that region. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaya_Pandita Source Accessed Oct 6, 2023])According to Fredrick Liland, "The Oirat scholar Zaya Pandita (1599-1662) according to his biography made a new translation of the BCA. Zaya Pandita was influential in spreading the Buddhist faith also among the Kalmyks, a Mongolian people who migrated to the shore of the Caspian Sea in the 17th Century. He is said to have translated a large number of texts into the Oirat/Kalmyk language, so it is quite likely that the BCA was among these. The translation of Zaya Pandita has however not been found. (Source: Liland, Fredrik. "Later Editions and Translations." In "The Transmission of the Bodhicaryāvatāra: The History, Diffusion, and Influence of a Mahāyāna Buddhist Text," 49–58. MA thesis, University of Oslo, 2009.)–58. MA thesis, University of Oslo, 2009.))
Zhi Qian + (Zhi Qian. (J. Shi Ken; K. Chi Kyǒm 支謙) (fl … Zhi Qian. (J. Shi Ken; K. Chi Kyǒm 支謙) (fl. c. 220–252). Prolific earlier translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese. A descendant of an Indo-Scythian émigré from the Kushan. kingdom in the Kashmir-GandhAra region of northwest India, Zhi Qian is said to have been fluent in six languages. Although never ordained as a monk, Zhi Qian studied under the guidance of Zhi Liang (d.u.), a disciple of the renowned Indo-Scythian translator Lokakṣema (fl. c. 178–198 CE). Zhi Qian fled northern China in the political chaos that accompanied the collapse of the Han dynasty (206 BCE–220 CE), eventually migrating to the Wu Kingdom in the south. There, he settled first in Wuchang and later in the Wu Capital of Jianye, which was where the majority of his translations appear to have been made. Zhi Qian was known to have been artistically talented, and many of his translations were noted for their fluent style that did not strive to adhere to the exact meaning of each word and phrase, but instead sought to convey the insights of the text in an accessible fashion for a Chinese audience. The fifty-three translations that are attributed to Zhi Qian range widely between Āgama and didactic materials and early Mahāyāna scriptural literature, but also include many spurious later attributions. . . . Among the translations that may with confidence be ascribed to Zhi Qian are early renderings of the''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', the ''Pusa Benye Jing'', the ''Sukhāvatīvyūhasūtra'', the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā'', and a primitiverecension of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra''. Zhi Qian is also presumed to be one of the first Buddhist commentators in the East Asiantradition: Dao'an (314–385) States in his scriptural catalogue Zongli zhongjing mulu (now embedded in the Chu sanzang jiji) that Zhi Qian wrote a commentary to the ''Śālistambasūtra'' (C. ''Liaoben shengsi jing'') while preparing its translation. Late in his life, Zhi Qian retired to Mt. Qionglong, where he is said to have passed away at the age of sixty. (Source: "Zhi Qian." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1056. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Zhu Fonian + (Zhu Fonian. (J. Jiku Butsunen; K. Ch'uk Pu … Zhu Fonian. (J. Jiku Butsunen; K. Ch'uk Pullyǒm 竺佛念) (d.u.). A prolific early Chinese translator, who was active between the latter fourth and early fifth centuries. A native of Liangzhou, he collaborated with Buddhayaśas in the translation of the Dīrghāgama, with Dharmanandin in the translation of the Ekottarāgama, and the "Four-Part Vinaya" (Sifen lü), the Dharmaguptaka recension of the vinaya, which eventually becomes the definitive version of the vinaya in the Sinitic tradition. He was also involved in the translation of such texts as the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā'', the ''Udānavarga'', a Sarvāstivāda anthology of aphorisms, and the ''Jñānaprasthāna'', the central treatise of the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma. Some indigenous Chinese scriptures, such as the ''Pusa yingluo benye jing'', are also attributed to him. (Source: "Zhu Fonian." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1058. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Peter Zieme + (Zieme Peter (19.04.1942, Berlin), an exper … Zieme Peter (19.04.1942, Berlin), an expert in Turkic studies, Buddhology and Old Uyghur literature. In 1965 [he] graduated from Humboldt University of Berlin; from 1965 to 1969 [he] was a PhD student at the same University. After defending a PhD thesis (Linguistic and literature research of Turkic Manichean texts found in Turfan), he started his career as an academic researcher at the Institute of Oriental Research of the German Democratic Republic in 1969. In 1984 he received the Habilitation degree at the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic for the dissertation Die Stabreim Texte der Uiguren von Turfan und Dunhuang: Studien zur alttürkischen Dichtung.From 1993, [he became] a member of The Turfanforschung (Turfan Studies) at the Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities; Honored professor of Free University of Berlin (1994); member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1999); honorary member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (2000); honorary member of Turkish Language Society (Türk Dil Kurumu, 2012); [and a] member of the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences (2019). Professor Zieme’s contribution to Old Uyghur studies could not be overestimated. Being an author of 14 books and more than 200 articles, the chief editor of multiple works dedicated to Central Asian literature and paleography, he continues to conduct research of Old Uyghur Turfan texts. ([http://www.orientalstudies.ru/eng/index.php?option=com_personalities&Itemid=74&person=700 Adapted from Source Mar 15, 2021])&person=700 Adapted from Source Mar 15, 2021]))
Yamaguchi, Z. + (Zuiho Yamaguchi (山口瑞鳳, Yamaguchi Zuihō, b … Zuiho Yamaguchi (山口瑞鳳, Yamaguchi Zuihō, born 21 February 1926) is a Japanese Buddhologist and Tibetologist. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Tokyo, where he also took his doctorate degree in Sanskrit in 1954. He also studied in Paris and for many years was a researcher at the Tōyō Bunko. He retired in 1986. Zuiho Yamaguchi specializes in the history of Tibet and studied include the manuscripts of Dunhuang, but also dealt with other subjects, such as the Tibetan calendar which he published a work in 1973 in Japanese. He also did a thorough investigation of facts surrounding emperor Langdarma, where he challenged the assertion that Langdarma was a persecutor of Buddhism and a supporter of Bon. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuiho_Yamaguchi Source Accessed June 19, 2020])ed June 19, 2020]))
Anne Ansermet + ([Anne Ansermet] grew up in Geneva, alongsi … [Anne Ansermet] grew up in Geneva, alongside a father [Ernest Ansermet] totally absorbed by music, where she met Ravel, de Falla, Stravinsky, [and] Ramuz. Having become a nurse, she converted to Catholicism, then married and lived in Paris, where she discovered the misery of the suburbs. After a divorce and two remarriages, she lived in Zurich and in the South of France. A few years later, she returned to Rolle with her son and established very close relationships with her father, accompanying him on his concert tours, developing a very rich intellectual exchange with him. Then she left for India, became a Buddhist, and returned to Switzerland to settle at the Buddhist Center of Mont-Pèlerin, before settling in Rolle. ([https://www.plansfixes.ch/films/anne-ansermet/ Adapted from Source Feb 16, 2021])Anne was instrumental in helping to establish Rabten Choeling (formerly Tharpa Choeling) , one of the first Tibetan Buddhist monasteries to be established in the West after the exodus of Tibetans into India. At the age of 70, Anne was drawn to Buddhism and even traveled to India to be ordained by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. It was the hard work of Anne and her group that allowed the ordained and lay people in Tharpa Choeling to live a life of study and contemplation without having to worry about their material needs. ([https://www.dorjeshugden.com/places/rabten-choeling-switzerland/ Adapted from Source Feb 16, 2021])erland/ Adapted from Source Feb 16, 2021]))
C.W. "Sandy" Huntington + ([C. W. "Sandy"] Huntington was known forem … [C. W. "Sandy"] Huntington was known foremost for his work in Mahayana Buddhist thought, in particular the Madhyamaka philosophy of India and Tibet. More recently, he published a novel, Maya (Wisdom Publications 2015), set in India in the 1970s, and wrote an article, “The Triumph of Narcissism: Theravāda Buddhist Meditation in the Marketplace,” critiquing certain psychotherapeutic models of teaching and understanding vipassanā meditation found in the West today.* Until his death, Huntington served as a professor of religious studies at Hartwick College, in Oneonta, New York, where he won both the Margaret L. Bunn Award for Excellence in Teaching (2004) and the Teacher/Scholar Award (2019). Before teaching at Hartwick, Huntington worked at the University of Michigan, his alma mater, as well as Denison College and Antioch University’s Buddhist Studies in India program, based in Bodh Gaya.As a doctoral student, Huntington was guided at the University of Michigan by Luis Gómez, himself a beloved and prolific scholar of Indian Buddhist thought. During this time, Huntington traveled to India to study Sanskrit and Tibetan with the great masters of the day, returning many times over his career. On one such visit, he translated Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra with Geshé Namgyal Wangchen, later published as The Emptiness of Emptiness (Hawaii University Press 1989), a pioneering text in Buddhist philosophy. Huntington went on to work closely with fellow scholars on topics of hermeneutics and methodology in the study of Buddhist philosophy, asking scholars to look not only at what the texts mean, but what presuppositions and attitudes were influencing their own interpretations and understandings. ([https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/buddhist-scholar-cw-sandy-huntington-dies-aged-71 Source Accessed May 26, 2021])ies-aged-71 Source Accessed May 26, 2021]))
Isidro Gordi + ([Isidro Gordi] was born in Mollet del Vall … [Isidro Gordi] was born in Mollet del Vallés (Barcelona) in 1954. A pacifist from a very young age, he was one of the first conscientious objectors in Spain, which is why he suffered exile from 1973 to 1977. During this time he traveled throughout Europe, landing for a long period of time in Greece, whose culture and customs captivated him and aroused his “appetite for the East”. He returned to Spain thanks to the pardon granted after Franco's death.Nostalgic for the Greek islands, in 1979, he settled in Menorca where his first encounter with a Tibetan Master, Lama Orgyen, an expert in Buddhist rituals, took place with whom he took refuge. From those days he became a student of Tibetan Buddhism, a tireless seeker of the teaching that will already be an integral part of his life. Together with his wife, Marta Moll, became one of the pioneers of Buddhism in Spain, deploying its dissemination work through Ediciones Amara , a publishing house specializing in Buddhist philosophy.In Menorca, in 1980, he created the Dharma Institute under the guidance of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, a resident of England and abbot at the time of the Manjushri Institute. His wish was to establish a study center where the Buddhist Dharma could be made known with rigor and seriousness. Determined to have the best means to do so, Isidro invites Venerable Geshe Tamding Gyatso as Master resident in Menorca(1927-2002) exiled at that time in India. After a long legal process, Geshe Tamding Gyatso arrived on the island in 1987. That endearing old man would not only become the Master of the Heart of Isidro and Marta, but also almost a grandfather to his children Shanti and Amara who practically saw him daily. During twelve very intense years Isidro received the nectar of the Dharma from the mouth of Geshe Tamding Gyatso , who was one of the most learned Geshes of the famous Ganden monastery. ([https://escuelalaicadebudismoymeditacion.es/index.php/quienes-somos/isidro-gordi Source Accessed Mar 19, 2021])sidro-gordi Source Accessed Mar 19, 2021]))
Prabhubhai Bhikhabhai Patel + ([Prabhubhai Bhikhabhai Patel] belonged to … [Prabhubhai Bhikhabhai Patel] belonged to a peasant family of Kunabi caste and was born at Sarpor-Pardi of the district of Surat in 1906. He had one sister and five brothers, he himself being the fourth. His father was Sri Bhikhabhai and mother Srimati Benabai. His education began at the village school of Satem andthence he was sent with his nephew Sri Govindaji Bhulabhai Patel, now a Homeopathic Physician atNavasari, to the Central Boarding School of Supa. It was a village middle school. After his reading up to Matriculation came the call of Mahatma Gandhi for triple boycott of schools and colleges, Government Law Courts and foreign cloths. This was in 1919. Having given up school he joined a National School at Surat and from that time till his death he used to put on ''khaddar'' [homespun cotton cloth of India].After two years in 1921 he went to the Gujarat Vidyapith, the National University founded by Mahatma Gandhi, and plunged deep in Congress ideology. There he came under the influence of such leaders and thinkers as Principal A. T. Gidwani, Acharya J. B. Kripalani, Kaka Kalelkar and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, andProf. Dharmananda Kausambi. The last-named teacher impressed upon him the glory of the ancient lore ofIndia.Prabhubhai then come to Visva-bharati, Santiniketan with some other students from that part of the country. Indeed, it was owing to his personal influence that at that time a good number of Gujarati students came to Santiniketan and joined the different departments of Visva-bharati. In due time Prabhubhai was admitted to the Yidya-bhavana, the Research Department of the institution of which I was then the Principal. I had there the good fortune of teaching students coming not only from the different parts of the country, but also from such distant lands as Japan and Germany.As a student Prabhubhai endeared himself to all his teachers and inmates of the Asrama including our revered Gurudeva, Rabindranath. He was very intelligent and promising. In the Vidya-bhavana he was one of those students who studied under my personal guidance and I felt fortunate and proud to have him as a pupil. His subject of study here was Buddhism with special reference to its Tibetan and Chinese sources.Here in Yisva-bharati he lived for more than seven years and made it almost his permanent home. Once again come the call from Mahatma Gandhi, and Prabhubhai left his studies for the time being in order to serve his motherland and courted arrest and was imprisoned. This proved too much for him, for after two years of jail life he came out a total wreck in health. His robust constitution broke down and he developed hemiplagia from a little strain in his spine. Best of India's doctors, physicians, surgeons and specialists in nature-cure could do no better than giving some temporary relief. He removed to the house of his nephew Dr. G. B. Patel, already referred to, at Navasari. He was now a complete invalid, crippled and confined to his wheel-chair and bed, but his mind was clear till the end which came on the 30th December, 1942. He was taken to his village home where he breathed his last after an agony of red sores and now lies buried in his family land. He remained unmarried after the divorce from his wife with whom he was married at a very tender age according to the social custom prevailing there at the time. (Vidhushekhara Bhattacharya, foreword to ''Cittavisuddhiprakarana of Aryadeva'', vi–vii)tavisuddhiprakarana of Aryadeva'', vi–vii))
Dharma Publishing Staff + ([http://dharmapublishing.com/about/our-fou … [http://dharmapublishing.com/about/our-founder/ About Tarthang Tulku]Keenly aware of Tibet’s irreparable loss and willing to do everything possible to sustain the precious heritage of the Land of Snows, Dharma Publishing has worked to realize three principle goals: preservation of Tibetan texts and art, publication of works in Western languages that communicate the meaning and value of the Dharma, and distribution of texts to monks and scholars of the Tibetan Community.It is our hope that, even if the lineages do not survive in their traditional form, the texts and the knowledge they contain will be available for future generations. Although civilizations rise and fall, perhaps the day will come when this precious enlightened knowledge can once more be fully applied for the benefit of all sentient beings. ([http://dharmapublishing.com/about/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015])m/about/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015]))
Tsechokling Yeshe Gyaltsen + ([https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A1%E … [https://bo.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BC%E0%BD%84%E0%BD%A6%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A0%E0%BD%9B%E0%BD%B2%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A1%E0%BD%BA%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A4%E0%BD%BA%E0%BD%A6%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%A2%E0%BE%92%E0%BE%B1%E0%BD%A3%E0%BC%8B%E0%BD%98%E0%BD%9A%E0%BD%93%E0%BC%8B You can read a short Tibetan biography on the Bo Wiki here]. First Tsechokling Yongdzin Tulku, Yeshe Gyeltsen (yongs 'dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan, 1713-1793) was an important scholar of the Geluk School of Tibetan Buddhism and was a tutor of the 8th Dalai Lama Jampel Gyatsho (1758-1804).He received his education in the monastery Trashilhünpo. In 1756 he founded the monastery Trashi Samtenling (bkra shis bsam gtan gling).One of his most famous works is The Necklace of Clear Understanding, An Elucidation of Mind and Mental Factors (Tib. སེམས་དང་སེམས་བྱུང་གི་ཚུལ་གསལ་པར་སྟོན་པ་བློ་གསལ་མགུལ་རྒྱན་, Wyl. sems dang sems-byung gi tshul gsal-par ston-pa blo gsal mgul rgyan). A commentary on the Abhidharma topic of the mind and mental factors. This Tibetan text has been translated into English by Herbert Guenther & Leslie S. Kawamura, in a text entitled Mind in Buddhist Psychology. ([https://encyclopediaofbuddhism.org/wiki/Yongdzin_Yeshe_Gyeltsen Source: Encyclopedia of Buddhism])Six printings of his collected works (each in 19 or 25 volumes, depending on the printing, and [[Yongs 'dzin ye shes rgyal mtshan gyi gsung 'bum|32 volumes in modern book print]]) are cataloged on [https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:WA1022 BDRC.org].ary.bdrc.io/show/bdr:WA1022 BDRC.org].)
Gene Smith + ([https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genes … [https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genesmith Founder of TBRC, now BDRC]*[https://84000.co/obituary-of-e-gene-smith/ Obituary on 84000]*[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102390.html Obituary in Washington Post]*[http://digitaldharma.com/home Documentary film about his life and work: Digital Dharma]''[https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/genesmith Biography from BDRC]:'' E. Gene Smith (BDRC Founder and Senior Research Scholar) was born in Ogden, Utah in 1936. He studied at a variety of institutions of higher education in the United States: Adelphi College, Hobart College, University of Utah, and the University of Washington in Seattle.In 1959, the Rockefeller Foundation, seeing the opportunity to promote Tibetan studies, funded the establishment of nine centers of excellence worldwide, one of which was at the University of Washington.Under the auspices of the Rockefeller grant to the Far Eastern and Russian Institute, nine Tibetans were brought to Seattle for teaching and research, including the Ven. Deshung Rinpoche Kunga Tenpai Nyima, the tutor to the Sakya Phuntsho Phodrang. Smith had the good fortune to study Tibetan culture as well as Buddhism with Deshung Rinpoche and the rest of the Tibetan teachers in Seattle from 1960 to 1964. He lived with the Sakya family for five years. He spent the summer of 1962 travelling to the other Rockefeller centers in Europe to meet with the Tibetan savants there.In 1964 he completed his Ph.D. qualifying exams and travelled to Leiden for advanced studies in Sanskrit and Pali. In 1965 he went to India under a Foreign Area Fellowship Program (Ford Foundation) grant to study with living exponents of all of the Tibetan Buddhist and Bonpo traditions.He began his studies with Geshe Lobsang Lungtok (Ganden Changtse), Drukpa Thoosay Rinpoche and Khenpo Noryang, and H.H. Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He decided to remain in India to continue serious study of Tibetan Buddhism and culture. He travelled extensively in the borderlands of India and Nepal. In 1968 he joined the Library of Congress New Delhi Field Office. He then began a project which was to last over the next two and a half decades: the reprinting of the Tibetan books which had been brought by the exile community or were with members of the Tibetan-speaking communities in Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal.He became field director of the Library of Congress Field Office in India in 1980 and served there until 1985 when he was transferred to Indonesia. He stayed in Jakarta running the Southeast Asian programs until 1994 when he was assigned to the LC Middle Eastern Office in Cairo.In February 1997 he took early retirement from the U.S. Library of Congress to become a consultant to the Trace Foundation for the establishment of the Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources (HIAR) library.In December 1999 he and a group of friends established the Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center in Cambridge.He passed away on December 16, 2010. (Source Accessed on June 30, 2020), 2010. (Source Accessed on June 30, 2020))
Linda Lojda + (is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of … is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Vienna. Her teaching areas include Asian Art in Viennese Collections and Ritual Art of the Tibetan Bön tradition. She is co-editor of the exhibition catalogue ''Bön: Geister aus Butter: Kunst und Ritual des alten Tibet'', with Deborah Klimburg-Salter, and Charles Ramble.Wien: Museum für Völkerkunde 2013, and also of the first volume of the papers from the 20th conference of the European Association for South Asian Archaeology and Art entitled ''Changing Forms and Cultural Identity: Religious and Secular Iconographies'', edited by Deborah Klimburg-Salter, and Linda Lojda. Turnhout: Brepols 2014. ([https://brill.com/display/book/9789004307438/B9789004307438_001.xml Source Accessed Aug 1, 2023])7438_001.xml Source Accessed Aug 1, 2023]))
Émile Senart + (Émile Charles Marie Senart (26 March 1847 … Émile Charles Marie Senart (26 March 1847 – 21 February 1928) was a French Indologist.[1]Besides numerous epigraphic works, we owe him several translations in French of Buddhist and Hindu texts, including several Upaniṣad.He was Paul Pelliot's professor at the Collège de France.He was elected a member of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1882, president of the Société asiatique from 1908 to 1928 and founder of the "Association française des amis de l'Orient" in 1920. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89mile_Senart Source Accessed Aug 25, 2023])mile_Senart Source Accessed Aug 25, 2023]))
Étienne Lamotte + (Étienne Paul Marie Lamotte (21 November 19 … Étienne Paul Marie Lamotte (21 November 1903 – 5 May 1983) was a Belgian priest and Professor of Greek at the Catholic University of Louvain, but was better known as an Indologist and the greatest authority on Buddhism in the West in his time. He studied under his pioneering compatriot Louis de La Vallée-Poussin and was one of the few scholars familiar with all the main Buddhist languages: Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan. His first published work was his PhD thesis: ''Notes sur le Bhagavad-Gita'' (Paris, Geuthner, 1929). In 1953, he was awarded the Francqui Prize in Human Science.He is also known for his French translation of the ''Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa'' (Chinese: 大智度論, English: ''Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom''), a text attributed to Nāgārjuna. Lamotte felt that the text was most likely composed by an Indian bhikkhu from the Sarvāstivāda tradition, who later became a convert to Mahāyāna Buddhism. Lamotte's translation was published in five volumes but unfortunately remains incomplete, since his death put an end to his efforts.In addition to the ''Mahāprajñāpāramitāupadeśa'', Lamotte also composed several other important translations from Mahāyāna sūtras, including the ''Śūraṃgamasamādhisūtra'', and the ''Vimalakīrtisūtra''. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne_Lamotte Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022])nne_Lamotte Source Accessed Sep 30, 2022]))
Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu + (Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu (born Osbert John S. Moor … Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu (born Osbert John S. Moore; 25 June 1905 – 8 March 1960) was a British Theravada Buddhist monk and translator of Pali literature.Born in Cambridge, Osbert was the only child of biologist John Edmund Sharrock Moore and Heloise Moore (née Salvin). He was named after Heloise's father, the naturalist Osbert Salvin. He studied modern languages at Exeter College, Oxford. He helped a friend to run an antiques shop before joining the army at the outbreak of World War II, joining the anti-aircraft regiment before being transferred to the Intelligence Corps officer-cadet training camp. He was posted to a camp on the Isle of Man to help oversee Italian internees.In 1944 he was posted to Italy serving as an intelligence officer interrogating spies and saboteurs. During this period he discovered Buddhism via Julius Evola's ''The Doctrine of Awakening'', a Nietzschean interpretation of Buddhism. This work had been translated by his friend Harold Edward Musson, also an intelligence officer serving in Italy.After the war Moore joined the Italian section of the BBC. Moore and Musson, who shared a flat in London, were quite disillusioned with their lives and left to Sri Lanka in 1949 to become Buddhist monks. On 24 April 1949 they received the novice (samanera) ordination or going forth, ''pabbajjā'', from Ñāṇatiloka at the Island Hermitage. In 1950 they received their bhikkhu ordination at Vajirarama Temple Colombo. Ñāṇamoli spent almost his entire monk life of eleven years at the Island Hermitage.After having been taught the basics of Pali by Nyanatiloka Mahathera, Ñāṇamoli acquired a remarkable command of the Pali language and a wide knowledge of the canonical scriptures within a comparatively short time. He is remembered for his reliable translations from the Pali into English, mostly of abstruse texts such as the Nettippakaraṇa which are considered difficult to translate. He also wrote essays on aspects of Buddhism. By 1956 he had translated ''Visuddhimagga'' into English and got it published as ''The Path of Purification''. He also compiled ''The Life of the Buddha'', a reliable and popular biography of the Buddha based on authentic records in the Pali Canon. His notes with his philosophical thoughts were compiled by Nyanaponika Thera and published as ''A Thinker's Note Book''.His handwritten draft translation of the Majjhima Nikaya was typed out after his death and edited by Bhikkhu Khantipalo, and partly published as ''A Treasury of the Buddha's Discourses'' and then edited again by Bhikkhu Bodhi and published as ''Middle Length Discourse of the Buddha'' and published by Wisdom Publications in 1995. Other draft translations, edited and published after his death, are ''The Path of Discrimination'' (''Paṭisambhidāmagga'') and ''Dispeller of Delusion'' (''Sammohavinodanī''). ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%91%C4%81%E1%B9%87amoli_Bhikkhu Source Accessed May 18, 2021])oli_Bhikkhu Source Accessed May 18, 2021]))
Āryadeva + (Āryadeva (3rd century), a disciple of Nāgā … Āryadeva (3rd century), a disciple of Nāgārjuna, is a central figure in the development of early Indian Madhyamaka philosophy. Āryadeva’s Hundred Verses Treatise (Bai lun) was one of the three basic texts of the Chinese Madhyamaka school founded by the central Asian monk Kumārajīva (b. 344–d. 413), which accordingly was called the Sanlun (Jpn. Sanron), or “three-treatise” school. According to the biography that Kumārajīva translated into Chinese, Āryadeva was born into a South Indian Brahmin family, became Nāgārjuna’s disciple, was renowned for his skill in debate, and was murdered by a student of a defeated teacher. Candrakīrti (b. c. 570–d. 650), in his commentary on Āryadeva’s major work, the Four Hundred Verses (Catuḥśataka), reports that Āryadeva was born on the island of Sinhala (Sri Lanka) as a king’s son, renounced his royal status, became a monk, and traveled to South India, where he studied with Nāgārjuna. Some scholars suggest that Āryadeva is the elder deva mentioned in the Mahāvaṃsa and Dīpavaṃsa chronicles of early Sri Lankan religious history. Āryadeva did not write commentaries on Nāgārjuna’s works but, rather, wrote autonomous treatises that defended Madhyamaka beliefs against its Buddhist and non-Buddhist critics. He devotes the first eight chapters to explaining ethical behavior and such practices as generosity, which form the basis for the bodhisattva’s accumulation of merit (puṇya). The latter eight chapters refute wrong views about the independent existence of external phenomena and the self, defending the Madhyamaka philosophy of emptiness and the dependently arisen nature of all things. The Catuḥśataka presents the path to the attainment of buddhahood as structured around these two requisites of merit and knowledge (jñāna). As an introduction to the practices of a bodhisattva, the Catuḥśataka prepares the ground for Śāntideva’s later (c. 8th-century) and more extensive treatment in Introduction to the Practices of a Bodhisattva (Bodhicaryāvatāra). Apart from some fragments of the Catuḥśataka, none of the works the Chinese and Tibetan canons attributed to Āryadeva survive in Sanskrit. [https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195393521/obo-9780195393521-0065.xml From Oxford Bibliogrpahies ][https://www.academia.edu/39006061/%C4%80ryadeva_full_version_ See Tillemans article on Āryadeva] appearing in the forthcoming 2022 Routledge Handbook of Indian Buddhist Philosophy (McClintock, Edelglass, and Pierre-Julien Harter).ock, Edelglass, and Pierre-Julien Harter).)
Śaṃkarasvāmin + (Śaṃkarasvāmin. (T. Bde byed bdag po; C. Sh … Śaṃkarasvāmin. (T. Bde byed bdag po; C. Shangjieluozhu; J. Shökarashu; K. Sanggallaju 商羯羅主) (c. sixth Century CE). Sanskrit proper name of an Indian philosopher and logician, who was a student of the Indian logician Dignāga. Śaṃkarasvāmin is credited with the authorship of the ''Nyāyapraveśa'', or "Primer on Logic," which became an important work in many Asian schools. Some have argued, based on the Tibetan tradition, that the ''Nyāyapraveśa'' was actually written by Śaṃkarasvāmin's teacher Dignāga, and that the recension translated into Chinese is a version that Śaṃkarasvāmin later edited. The ''Nyāyapraveśa'' provides an introduction to the logical system of Dignāga, covering such subjects as valid and invalid methods of proof, methods of refutation, perception, erroneous perception, inference, and erroneous inference. Although Śaṃkarasvāmin's work was not as extensive, detailed, or original Dignāga's, it proved to be popular within the tradition, as attested by its extensive commentarial literature, including exegeses by non-Buddhists. Large parts of the work survive in the original Sanskrit. (Source: "Śaṃkarasvāmin." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 755. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Śikṣānanda + (Śikṣānanda. (C. Shichanantuo; J. Jisshanan … Śikṣānanda. (C. Shichanantuo; J. Jisshananda; K. Silch'anant'a 實叉難陀) (652-710). A monk from Khotan (C. Yutian), who was an important translator of Buddhist texts into Chinese during the Tang dynasty. The Empress Wu Zetian (r. 690-705) invited Śikṣānanda to the Chinese Capital of Luoyang, asking him to bring from Khotan its Sanskrit recension of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'' (alt. ''Buddhāvataṃsakasūtra''; C. ''Dafangguang Fo huayan jing''), which was longer and more comprehensive than the sixty-roll version then in use in China, which had previously been translated by the Indian monk Buddhabhadra (359-429). Śikṣānanda arrived in Luoyang in 695 and supervised a translation team in rendering this Khotanese recension into Chinese; his team included Bodhiruci (693-727), Yijing (635-713), and Wǒnch'ǔk (613-696). Śikṣānanda and his team finished their translation in 699, after four years of work, in a total of eighty rolls. The translation that Śikṣānanda supervised is typically called within the tradition the "new" (xin) translation, in contrast to Buddhabhadra's "old" translation. (Li Tongxuan's commentary to Śikṣānanda's new rendering of the text is, for example, called the ''Xin Huayan jing lun''; see ''Huayan jing helun''.) Śikṣānanda continued with his translation projects until 705, when he returned to Khotan to care for his aged mother. Some thirteen other translations are attributed to him, including the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' and several shorter dhāraṇī sūtras, as well as a version of the ''Dasheng qixin lun'' ("Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna"). Emperor Zhongzong (r. 705-710) invited Śikṣānanda to return once again to China in 708, but he died of illness in 710 at the age of fifty-nine without beginning any new translation work. It is reported that after his cremation, his tongue remained untouched by flames—an indication of his remarkable erudition. (Source: "Śikṣānanda." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 820. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Śākya Lodro + (Śākya blo gros, Tibetan translator, ca. 10 … Śākya blo gros, Tibetan translator, ca. 10th-11th Century A.D. *''Byaṅ chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'' (Tibetan translation of ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''), in Tg, vol. la 1b1-40a7 (with Dharmaśrībhadra and Rin chen bzaṅ po). Bca*''Brgya lṅa bcu pa źes bya ba'i bstod pa'' (Tibetan translation of ''Śatapañcāśatka''), Tg bstod tshogs ka 110a3-116a5.*''Brgya lṅa bcu pa źes bya ba'i bstod pa'i ’grel pa'', Tg bstod tshogs ka 116a5-178a1. ([https://www2.hf.uio.no/polyglotta/index.php?page=person&bid=2&vid=&entity=106 Source Accessed Aug 31, 2021])amp;vid=&entity=106 Source Accessed Aug 31, 2021]))
Śāntideva + (Śāntideva (late 7th to mid-8th century CE) … Śāntideva (late 7th to mid-8th century CE) was a Buddhist monk, philosopher, and poet whose reflections on the overall structure of Buddhist moral commitments reach a level of generality and theoretical power that is hard to find elsewhere in Indian thought. His writings were immensely influential in the development of the Tibetan religious tradition. Though Śāntideva repeatedly denied that he had said anything original, his two major works may nevertheless represent the single most significant contribution of the Buddhist tradition to the global enterprise of ethical theory. And some of Śāntideva’s poetic passages exhibit an emotional and rhetorical power that gives them a claim to be included among the greatest achievements of world literature. (Source: [https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/shantideva/ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]) The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy]))
Ǔich'ǒn + (Ǔich'ǒn. (C. Yitian) (1055-1101). Korean p … Ǔich'ǒn. (C. Yitian) (1055-1101). Korean prince, monk, and bibliophile, and putative founder of the Ch’ōnt’ae chong (C. Tiantai zong) in Korea. Ǔich'ǒn was born the fourth son of the Koryǔ king Munjong (r. 1047-1082). In 1065, Ǔich'ǒn was ordained by the royal preceptor (wangsa) Kyǒngdǒk Nanwǒn (999-1066) at the royal monastery of Yǒngt’ongsa in the Koryǒ capital of Kaesǒng. Under Nanwǒn, Ǔich'ǒn studiedthe teachings of the ''Avatamsakasūtra'' and its various commentaries. In 1067, at the age of twelve, Ǔich'ǒn was appointed 'saṃgha overseer' (K. sǔngt’ong; C. sengtong). Ǔich'ǒn is known on several occasions to have requested permission from his royal father to travel abroad to China, but the king consistently denied his request. Finally, in 1085, Ǔich'ǒn secretly boarded a Chinese trading ship and traveled to the mainland against his father’s wishes. Ǔich'ǒn is said to have spent about fourteen months abroad studying under various teachers. His father sent his friend and colleague Nakchin (1045-1114) after Ǔich'ǒn, but they ended up studying together with the Huayan teacher Jingyuan (1011-1088) of Huiyinsi in Hangzhou. Ǔich'ǒn and Nakchin returned to Korea in 1086 with numerous texts that Ǔich'ǒn acquired during his sojourn in China. While residing as the abbot of the new monastery of Hǔngwangsa in the capital, Ǔich'ǒn devoted his time to teaching his disciples and collecting works from across East Asia, including the Khitan Liao kingdom. He sent agents throughout the region to collect copies of the indigenous writings of East Asian Buddhists, which he considered to be the equal of works by the bodhisattva exegetes of the imported Indian scholastic tradition. A large monastic library known as Kyojang Togam was established at Hǔngwangsa to house the texts that Ǔich'ǒn collected. In 1090, Ǔich'ǒn published a bibliographical catalogue of the texts housed at Hǔngwangsa, entitled ''Sinp'yǒn chejong kyojang ch’ongnok'' ('Comprehensive Catalogue of the Doctrinal Repository of All the Schools'), which lists some 1,010 titles in 4,740 rolls. The Hǔngwangsa collection of texts was carved on woodblocks and titled the ''Koryǒ sokchanggyǒng'' ("Koryǒ Supplement to the Canon"), which was especially important for its inclusion of a broad cross section of the writings of East Asian Buddhist teachers. (The one exception was works associated with the Chan or Sǒn tradition, which Ǔich'ǒn refused to collect because of their "many heresies.") Unfortunately, the xylographs of the supplementary canon were burned during the Mongol invasion of Koryǒ in 1231, and many of the works included in the collection are now lost and known onlythrough their reference in Ǔich'ǒn’s catalogue. In 1097, Ǔich'ǒn was appointed the founding abbot of the new monastery of Kukch’ǒngsa (named after the renowned Chinese monastery of Guoqingsi on Mt. Tiantai). There, he began to teach Ch'ǒnt’ae thought and practice and is said to have attracted more than athousand students. Ǔich'ǒn seems to have seen the Tiantai/Ch’ǒnt’ae synthesis of meditation and doctrine as a possible means of reconciling the Sǒn and doctrinal (kyo) traditions in Korea. Ǔich'ǒn’s efforts have subsequently been regarded as the official foundation of the Ch’ǒnt’ae school in Korea; however, it seems Ǔich'ǒn was not actually attempting to start a new school, but merely to reestablish the study of Ch’ǒnt’ae texts in Korea. He was awarded the posthumous title of state preceptor (K. kuksa; C. Guoshi) Taegak (Great Enlightenment). (Source: "Ǔich'ǒn." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 935–36. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))

The Fourth Drukchen Pema Karpo + ("After the death of 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi … "After the death of 'Jam dbyangs chos kyi grags pa (the 3rd Drukchen or Gyalwang Drukpa), monks found the rebirth in the house of a minor aristocrat of Kongpo, to the disappointment of both the families of Rwa lung and Bya. This child, the sprul sku Ngag dbang nor bu, was to be the great Padma dkar po. Padma dkar po was one of those rare renaissance men. The breadth of his scholarship and learning invites comparison with the Fifth Dalai Lama. It was Padma dkar po who systematized the teaching of the 'Brug pa sect. It is no wonder that the 'Brug pa Bka' brgyud pa always refer to him as Kun mkhyen, the Omniscient, an epithet reserved for the greatest scholar of a sect. Padma dkar po was a shrewd and occasionally ruthless politician. His autobiography is one of the most important sources for the history of the sixteenth century. Padma dkar po was a monk and insisted on adherence to the vinaya rules for his monastic followers. He also held that in the administration of church affairs the claims of the rebirth and the monastic scholar took priority over those of the scion of a revered lineage. Although he preached often at both Rwa lung and Bkra shis mthong smon, the seats of his two immediate predecessors, he never exercised actual control over these monasteries and their estates. He founded his monastery at Gsang sngags chos gling in Byar po, north of Mon Rta dbang, which became the seat of the subsequent Rgyal dbang 'Brug pa incarnation." (Gene Smith, ''Among Tibetan Texts'', 81) (Gene Smith, ''Among Tibetan Texts'', 81))

Candrākaragupta + (Candrākaragupta, often referred to in Tibetan as the Scholar with a Golden Umbrella (paN+Di ta gser gdugs can) was an Indian Buddhist scholar known for his sādhana practice of Mañjuśrī in the form of prajñācakra (''shes rab 'khor lo).)
Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti + (Dharmakirti (Skt. Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti … Dharmakirti (Skt. Suvarṇadvīpa Dharmakīrti; Tib. ཆོས་ཀྱི་གྲགས་པ་, Chökyi Drakpa, Wyl. chos kyi grags pa) or Dharmapala (Wyl. chos skyong) of Suvarnadvipa (b. 10th century) was the most important of Atisha's teachers. In Tibetan he is known simply as Serlingpa (Tib. གསེར་གླིང་པ་, Wyl. gser gling pa), literally 'the master from Suvarnadvipa'. Atisha is said to have stayed with him for twelve years receiving teachings on Lojong. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Dharmakirti_of_Suvarnadvipa Source Accessed Jun 21, 2022])uvarnadvipa Source Accessed Jun 21, 2022]))
Gruber, E. + (ELMAR R. GRUBER, PhD, was born in Vienna, … ELMAR R. GRUBER, PhD, was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1955. He is a psychologist, an independent scholar and freelance popular-science writer, as well as a scientific advisor for radio and television in Europe. He is the author of twenty books that have been published in fifteen languages throughout the world. A longtime practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, he is a student of Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche.is a student of Drikung Chetsang Rinpoche.)
Brambilla, F. + (Filippo Brambilla is a PhD candidate at th … Filippo Brambilla is a PhD candidate at the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies of the University of Vienna. He is currently writing his dissertation on Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho (1880–1940), a late Jo nang scholar whose philosophical works are characterized by a distinctive approach that reconciles typically rang stong positions with more orthodox Jo nang views. Filippo’s PhD thesis will include a complete edition and translation of Tshogs gnyis rgya mtsho’s Illuminating Light (''Rab gsal snang''). Recently, Filippo also started working as a researcher in the FWF funded project “Emptiness of Other (gZhan stong) in the Early Jo nang Tradition.” He holds a BA and an MA in Languages and Cultures of Eastern Asia, with specialization in Chinese language and culture, from Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. Filippo has also spent long periods of study and research in China and Eastern Tibet. (Source: [https://conference.tsadra.org/session/empty-of-true-existence-yet-full-of-qualities-tshogs-gnyis-rgya-mtsho-1880-1940-on-buddha-nature/ Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia])ddha-nature/ Tathāgatagarbha Across Asia]))
Ui, H. + (Hakuju Ui (1882-1963) was a Doctor of Lit … Hakuju Ui (1882-1963) was a Doctor of Literature, Emeritus Professor of the University of Tokyo, Member of the Japanese Bachelor's College, and an Indian Philosophy, Buddhist History, and Buddhist Literature Research Expert. In 1894, he joined Cao Dongzong and later graduated from Imperial University of Tokyo in 1909. From 1913 to 1917, he went to the UK, Germany, and India to study. In 1919, he was a lecturer at the University of Tokyo. In 1923, he was a professor at Northeastern Imperial University. In 1930, he was a professor at Tokyo Imperial University and received a doctorate in literature. In 1945, he was elected as a member of the Japanese Academy of Sciences and was awarded the honorary professor of the University of Tokyo. In 1953, he received the Cultural Medal. He was fluent in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan, and has contributed greatly to the study of Buddhist history. His main works include: ''Buddhist Thought Research'' (Yanbo Bookstore, 1943), ''Pan Buddhism'' (2 volumes, Yanbo Bookstore, 1947-1949), ''Buddhist Classic History'' (Dongcheng Publishing House, 1957), ''Vietnamese and Contradiction Bodhisattva Index'' (Suzuki Academic Foundation, 1961), ''Study on Western Region Buddhist Scriptures - Brief Introduction to Dunhuang Yishu'' (Yanbo Bookstore, 1969), ''Tibetan Buddhist Scriptures'' (Masterpieces Press, 1970) Year), and ''Translation of History Studies'' (Yanbo Bookstore, 1971). ([https://list.wiki/Ui_Hakuju Accessed and Adapted from List.Wiki July 6, 2020])iki July 6, 2020]))
Watt, J. + (Jeff Watt (Wikipedia), one of the leading … Jeff Watt (Wikipedia), one of the leading scholars of Himalayan art, acquired his prodigious knowledge of Buddhist, Bon and Hindu iconography from a longtime study of Buddhism and Tantra. As a teenager, he studied with Dezhung Rinpoche (Seattle, Wash.) and Sakya Trizin (Dehradun, India), dropping out of school at seventeen to take monastic vows from the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. For the next eleven years, Watt trained intensively in India, Canada and the U.S., with teachers such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, and Sakya Jetsun Chimey. In 1985 he gave back his monastic ordinations but continued to study and to translate sacred Tibetan and Sanskrit texts, along with completing numerous traditional retreats over years of periodic isolated practice, much of it in the rugged mountains of British Columbia, Canada. He is the Director and Chief Curator of Himalayan Art Resources (HAR), a website and 'virtual museum' featuring upwards of 100,000 images with detailed descriptions, making it the most comprehensive resource for Himalayan 'style' art and iconography in the world. He has worked on HAR since April 1998 at which time there were 625 images in total (Tibetan paintings only). Source: ([https://www.himalayanart.org/search/set.cfm?setID=1769 Himalayan Art Resources])rg/search/set.cfm?setID=1769 Himalayan Art Resources]))
Davenport, J. + (John Davenport is a water resources develo … John Davenport is a water resources development specialist with wide experience as an aid consultant in South and East Asia and Tibet, including for the Tibetan government-in-exile. He is currently the team leader of the ADB supported Western Basins Water Resources Management Project in Herat, Afghanistan. He has served as vice president of Deer Park Buddhist Center near Madison, Wisconsin. He lives in Eugene, Oregon. Source: ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/john-davenport/ Wisdom Publications])thor/john-davenport/ Wisdom Publications]))
Bajetta, N. + (Nicola Bajetta is a Hamburg University graduate. Received the Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies (In recognition of distinction in the field of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies for the year 2018).)
Gregory, P. + (Peter N. Gregory taught at Smith College f … Peter N. Gregory taught at Smith College from 1999 until 2014. After receiving his doctorate in East Asian languages and civilizations from Harvard University in 1981, he taught in the Program for the Study of Religion at the University of Illinois for 15 years. He has also served as the president and executive director of the Kuroda Institute for the Study of Buddhism and Human Values since 1984, and in that capacity he has directed two publication series with the University of Hawaii Press: "Studies in East Asian Buddhism" and "Classics in East Asian Buddhism."Gregory's research has focused on medieval Chinese Buddhism, especially the Chan and Huayan traditions during the Tang and Song dynasties, on which he has written or edited seven books, including ''Tsung-mi and the Sinification of Buddhism'' (1991). He is currently completing a translation of a ninth-century Chinese Buddhist text on the historical and doctrinal origins of the Chan tradition.After coming to Smith, Gregory's research and teaching became increasingly concerned with Buddhism in America, on which he produced a film, ''The Gate of Sweet Nectar: Feeding Hungry Spirits in an American Zen Community'' (2004), and co-edited a book, ''Women Practicing Buddhism: American Experiences'' (Wisdom Publications, 2007). ([https://www.smith.edu/academics/faculty/peter-gregory Source Accessed June 13, 2019])er-gregory Source Accessed June 13, 2019]))
Maurer, P. + (Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies … Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. My interests include subjects such as Tibetan traditional sciences, Buddhism and history of Tibet. ([https://lmu-munich.academia.edu/PetraMaurer Source:Academia.edu])emia.edu/PetraMaurer Source:Academia.edu]))
Villarreal, C. + (Rice University PhD under Anne Klein in 20 … Rice University PhD under Anne Klein in 2015. Thesis: "To Know a Buddha: A Tibetan Contemplative History and Its Implications for Religious Studies". This dissertation examines the introduction, critique, and re-framing of other-emptiness (gzhan-stong) by Dolpopa Sherab Gyaltsen (1292–1361), Tsongkhapa Lobsang Drakpa (1357–1419), and Jamgon Kongtrul (1813-1899) respectively. Each author's writings on emptiness were deeply informed by his own contemplative and visionary experiences. Such peak religious moments—along with historical, social, and textual context—must be considered seriously to provide the richest possible history of other-emptiness.From Academia.edu: I work to adapt traditional Buddhist teachings for the demands of modern life. (Want a free mini-course with some of my guided meditations and other resources for meditation? Here you go: https://clairevillarreal.teachable.com/p/essential-tools-for-meditation.) I've made trips to Thailand, India, and Nepal totaling over two years to study and meditate in traditional settings in those countries, with pilgrimage to Tibet. I began meditating daily in 1997 in the Theravada and Vajrayāna traditions, and my teachers include Anne Klein, PhD, Harvey Aronson, PhD, Lama Tenzin Samphel, and Kamalo Bhikkhu. I've spent two and a half months in various degrees of retreat in the Thai forest tradition, four months in group retreats in India and Nepal, and cumulatively over a year of solitary retreat since 2007. A former Programs Director for Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism and former board member for Compassionate Houston, I earned my doctorate in Religious Studies from Rice University with a dissertation and publications exploring contemplative ways of knowing and how they speak to the contemporary academic study of mysticism. These days I'm a member of the GenX dharma teachers community, and I recently received a grant from the Hemera Foundation to write and podcast about what Tibetan teachings on reincarnation can teach us about living well. ([https://rice.academia.edu/ClaireVillarreal Source])ice.academia.edu/ClaireVillarreal Source]))
Sūryagupta + (Sūryagupta, also known as Ravigupta, was a … Sūryagupta, also known as Ravigupta, was a Kashmiri adept that cured himself of leprosy and achieved realization through a series of pure vision encounters with Tārā. In the Tibetan tradition he is mostly known for his iconographic tradition for the ''Praises to the Twenty-One Tārās''.r the ''Praises to the Twenty-One Tārās''.)
Wangyal, Tenzin Rinpoche + (Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a lama in the Bön … Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, a lama in the Bön tradition of Tibet, presently resides in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the founder and director of Ligmincha Institute, an organization dedicated to the study and practice of the teachings of the Bön tradition. He was born in Amritsar, India, after his parents fled the Chinese invasion of Tibet. He received training from both Buddhist and Bön teachers, attaining the degree of Geshe, the highest academic degree of traditional Tibetan culture. He has been in the United States since 1991 and has taught widely in Europe and America. Source: ([https://www.shambhala.com/authors/u-z/tenzin-wangyal-rinpoche.html Shambhala Publications])yal-rinpoche.html Shambhala Publications]))
Cha, S. + (The Korean scholar Sangyeob Cha, who was b … The Korean scholar Sangyeob Cha, who was born in 1969, is Humanities Korea Professor at Geumgang Center for Buddhist Studies at Geumgang University (金剛大學校，甘フネ邙哥丑 Geumgang Daehakgyo) in South Korea and is the Head of the center’s research team for tathãgatagarbha studies. He received the MA degree in 1999 from Dongguk University (東國大學校，吾号邙計丑 Dongguk Daehakgyo) in Seoul, followed by the PhD degree in 2007 from the same institution with a dissertation on ''śamatha'' meditation practice, comparing the explanations given in Tsong kha pa's ''Lam rim chen mo'' with related explanations from Indian Yogācāra texts, particularly the YBh. This made him one of the first Tibetologists to be educated in South Korea. He joined the Geumgang Center for Buddhist Studies in 2007 as a researcher and was promoted to Professor in 2011.His research has mainly been concerned with meditation doctrines of the Yogācāra tradition in India and Tibet as represented in texts and Buddhist art, as well as the doctrine of buddha-nature (''tathāgatagarbha'') especially as found in the commentarial writings on the ''Ratnagotravibhāga'' by the Tibetan scholar Rngog Bio ldan shes rab (1059-1109). (Source: The Foundation for Yoga Practitioners, page 239, footnote 428)oga Practitioners, page 239, footnote 428))
Thonden, Lobsang + (Tibetan Scholar, Calligrapher, Government … Tibetan Scholar, Calligrapher, Government Official, and Author who appeared in Seven Years in Tibet and several other films. He published the early and popular Modern Tibetan Language books in the 1980s, as well as ''Learn to Speak Tibetan and Hindi'' and ''English for Beginners'' (''dbyin ji'i skad yig slob tshul gom pa dang po''). He spent time as a resident scholar at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives and interacted with western scholars and translators there. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losang_Thonden Source Accessed May 20, 2020])ang_Thonden Source Accessed May 20, 2020]))
Tilopa + (Tilopa. (T. Ti lo pa) (988–1069). An India … Tilopa. (T. Ti lo pa) (988–1069). An Indian tantric adept counted among the eighty-four mahāsiddhas and venerated in Tibet as an important source of tantric instruction and a founder of the Bka' brgyud sect. Little historical information exists regarding Tilopa's life. According to his traditional biographies, Tilopa was born a brāhmaṇa in northeast India. As a young man he took the vows of a Buddhist monk, but later was compelled by the prophecies of a ḍākinī messenger to study with a host of tantric masters. He lived as a wandering yogin, practicing tantra in secret while outwardly leading a life of transgressive behavior. For many years Tilopa acted as the servant for the prostitute Barima (in truth a wisdom ḍākinī in disguise) by night while grinding sesame seeds for oil by day. The name Tilopa, literally "Sesame Man," derives from the Sanskrit word for sesamum. Finally, Tilopa is said to have received instructions in the form of a direct transmission from the primordial buddha Vajradhara. Tilopa instructed numerous disciples, including the renowned Bengali master Nāropa, who is said to have abandoned his prestigious monastic position to become Tilopa's disciple, undergoing many difficult trials before receiving his teachings. Those teachings were later received by Marpa Chos kyi blo gros, who brought Tilopa's teachings to Tibet. As with many Indian siddhas, Tilopa's main instructions are found in the form of dohā, or songs of realization. Many of his songs, together with several tantric commentaries and liturgical texts, are included in the Tibetan canon. Among the teachings attributed to him are the bka’ ’babs bzhi ("four transmissions"), the lus med mkha’ ’gro snyan rgyud chos skor dgu ("nine aural lineage cycles of the formless ḍākinīs"), and the Mahāmudropadeśa. (Source: "Tilopa." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 914. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
Ahmad, Z. + (Zahiruddln Ahmad was a Senior Lecturer in … Zahiruddln Ahmad was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of History at La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia. He is the author of several books on Tibetan history, including ''China and Tibet, 1708-1959'' (Oxford University Press, 1960); ''Tibet and Ladakh: A History'' (Chatto & Windus, 1963); ''Sino-Tibetan Relations in the 17th Century'' (Istituto Italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, 1970); ''Life of the Fifth Dalai Lama, Vol. IV, Part I'' (International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 1999); ''An introduction to Buddhist Philosophy in India and Tibet'' (International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 2007); ''The Song of the Queen of Spring'' (International Academy of Indian Culture and Aditya Prakashan, 2008); and ''The Historical Status of China in Tibet'' (Aditya Prakashan, 2012). He is also the author of numerous articles on Tibetan history and related subjects.icles on Tibetan history and related subjects.)
The Fourth Drukchen Pema Karpo +
Hubert Decleer + ('''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021) … '''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)''':by Andrew QuintmanWith 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 TownsendPortions of this biographical sketch draw on the introduction to [[Himalayan Passages]]: Newar and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer (Wisdom Publications, 2014))
Khetsun Sangpo + ('''Khetsün Zangpo Rinpoche''' ([[Wyl.]] … '''Khetsün Zangpo Rinpoche''' ([[Wyl.]] ''mkhas btsun bzang po rin po che'') (1920-2009) was born in Central Tibet in 1920 from a patrilineal descent of [[ngakpa]]s. He studied the [[sutra]]s and [[tantra]]s from 1937 to 1949. After which and until 1955 he mainly practised in closed retreat. In 1959 he fled Tibet for India where he first spent two years on retreat. Then he went to Japan to teach for 10 years at the request of Kyabjé [[Dudjom Rinpoche]]. Back in India he became in charge of the [[Library of Tibetan Works and Archives]] in [[Dharamsala]]. He is the author of many volumes of teachings including the outstanding ''Biographical Dictionary of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism'' in 12 vol.Rinpoche lived at his monastery in Sundarijal in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, which he established at the request of Kyabjé Dudjom Rinpoché. He passed into [[parinirvana]] on 6th December, 2009.He attended the historic gathering at [[Prapoutel 1990|Prapoutel]] in 1990. ([http://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khetsun_Zangpo_Rinpoche Source Accessed Jun 24, 2015])po_Rinpoche Source Accessed Jun 24, 2015]))
Elliot Sperling + ('''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)'' … '''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)''' by Tenzin Dorjee. (''HIMALAYA''. Volume 37, Number 1, pp 149-150)Professor Elliot Sperling’s death was a colossal tragedy byevery measure. He was only 66 years old, and he exudedlife, health, and purpose—the antithesis of death. Afterretiring from a long professorship at Indiana Universityin 2015, where he was director of the Tibetan Studiesprogram at the department of Central Eurasian Studies,Sperling moved back to his native New York. He bought anapartment in Jackson Heights, where he converted everywall into meticulously arranged bookshelves—only thewindows were spared. He was clearly looking forward toa busy retirement, living in what was basically a librarypretending to be an apartment.Sperling was the world’s foremost authority on historicalSino-Tibetan relations. For his landmark work “on the political, religious, cultural, and economic relations betweenTibet and China from the fourteenth through seventeenthcenturies,” he was awarded a MacArthur genius grant atthe age of 33.1He accumulated a compact but enduring body of work that defined and shaped Tibetan studiesover the last three decades. No less important, he was alsoa phenomenal teacher, storyteller, entertainer, whiskey connoisseur (he delighted in teaching us how to enjoythe peaty Scotch whiskies), and a passionate advocate forTibetan and Uyghur causes.Through his seminal writings on Tibet’s relations withChina during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, hebecame arguably the first historian to use both Chineselanguage archives and Tibetan language sources extensively, bringing to light the separation and independence thatcharacterized the relationship between the two nations.Until he came along, most Western academics viewedTibet through Chinese eyes, largely because they couldnot access Tibetan sources. Sperling, fluent in Tibetan aswell as Chinese, upended the old Sino-centric narrativeand transformed the field. Roberto Vitali, who organized afestschrift for Sperling in 2014, writes that Sperling’s work“will stay as milestones” in Tibetan studies.2 His writingshave become so central to the field that any scholar whowrites a paper about historical Sino-Tibetan relations cannot do so without paying homage to Sperling’s work. He is,so to speak, the Hegel of Sino-Tibetan history.One can imagine the joy many of us felt when ProfessorSperling chose to make his home in Jackson Heights, thesecond (if unofficial) capital of the exile Tibetan world—after Dharamsala, India. We saw him at demonstrations atthe Chinese consulate, art openings at Tibet House, poetrynights at Little Tibet restaurant, and sometimes at dinnerparties in the neighborhood. At every gathering, he heldcourt as the intellectual life of the party. His friends andstudents bombarded him with questions on topics rangingfrom art to politics to linguistics, for his erudition wasnot limited to history alone. Unfailingly generous andeloquent, he supplied the most intriguing, insightful andexhaustive answers to every question. Each conversationwith him was a scholarly seminar. Among the circle ofTibetan activists and artists living in New York City,Sperling quickly fell into a sort of second professorship, anunderground tenure without the trappings of university.We weren’t about to let him retire so easily.Some of Professor Sperling’s most influential early worksinclude: The 5th Karma-pa and Some Aspects of the RelationshipBetween Tibet and the Early Ming (1980); The 1413 MingEmbassy to Tsong-ka-pa and the Arrival of Byams-chen chos-rjeShakya ye-shes at the Ming Court (1982); Did the Early MingEmperors Attempt to Implement a ‘Divide and Rule’ Policy inTibet? (1983); and The Ho Clan of Ho-chou: A Tibetan Family inService to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (1990) among others.One of my personal favorites in his corpus is The 5th Karmapa and Some Aspects of the Relationship Between Tibet and theEarly Ming. In this text, Sperling argues that in the earlyyears following the collapse of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in1367, the Ming rulers of China adopted a non-expansionistforeign policy, displaying greater interest in drawing clearboundaries to keep the ‘barbarians’ out of China thanin expanding its boundaries to encroach into non-Mingterritories. Ming China was initially conceived more asan inward-looking state than an outward-looking empire,partly in critique of the ruthless expansionism of theirpredecessors, the Mongol Yuan rulers. In fact, Sperlingquotes from the very proclamation carried by the firstmission that Ming Taitsu, or the Hongwu Emperor, sent toTibet::Formerly, the hu people [i.e. the Mongols] usurped:authority in China. For over a hundred years caps:and sandals were in reversed positions. Of all:hearts, which did not give rise to anger? In recent:years, the hu rulers lost hold of the government….:Your Tibetan state is located in the western lands.:China is now united, but I am afraid that you have:still not heard about this. Therefore this proclamation [is sent].3 Sperling goes on to write that this “first mission is acknowledged by Chinese records to have met with nosuccess,” and that necessitated the dispatching of a secondmission.4In ''Did the Early Ming Emperors Attempt to Implement a “Divide and Rule” Policy in Tibet?''5Sperling defies decades of conventional wisdom with a bold argument when he writes::The Chinese court was never, in fact, able to mount:a military expedition beyond the Sino-Tibetan:frontier regions. This fact becomes strikingly:obvious as one glances through both Tibetan and:Chinese sources for the period in question…. Unable:to protect its embassies or even to retaliate against:attacks on them, China was hardly in a position to:manifest the kind of power needed to implement a:policy of “divide and rule” in Tibet.For many Tibetans who care about seemingly inconsequential details of the murky Sino-Tibetan relations from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries, a historical period that has become a domain of highly charged information battles between Dharamsala and Beijing, Sperling’s writings are like a constellation of bright lamps illuminating the tangled web of Sino-Tibetan history. He excavated critical pieces of Tibet’s deep past from the forbidding archives of antiquity, arranged them in a coherent narrative, and virtually placed in our hands several centuries of our own history.Elliot Sperling’s academic stature would have allowedhim to be an ivory tower intellectual. Instead, he choseto be a true ally of the Tibetan people and an unwaveringchampion of Tibetan freedom. While he studied withTaktser Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s elder brother, hemaintained lifelong friendships with the people he metin Dharamsala: Tashi Tsering (the preeminent Tibetanhistorian), Jamyang Norbu (the rebel intellectual andaward-winning author), Peter Brown (the ‘AmericanKhampa’ and a brother in the Tibetan struggle). Sperlingjoined many of us in the trenches of activism, alwaysencouraging us to embark on bigger and bolder advocacycampaigns for Tibet. Speaking in his Bronx-accentedTibetan, he told us that if only Tibetans studied our historymore seriously, we would be able to believe that Tibet willbe free again.A sharp and fearless critic of Beijing, Sperling neitherminced his words nor censored his writings under fear ofbeing banned from China. Even when he taught in Beijingfor a semester, where he developed a close friendship withthe Tibetan poet Woeser, he successfully avoided the trapof self-censorship that has neutered so many scholars in our time.6While railing against Beijing’s atrocities in Tibet, he managed to be critical of Dharamsala’s excessively conciliatory stance toward Beijing.7His provocative critiques of the Tibetan leadership sometimes made us uncomfortable, but that was exactly the impact he was seeking as a teacher who cared deeply about Tibet: to awaken and educate us by pushing us into our discomfort zone. “Having a teacher like Sperling was a bit like having access to a genius, a father, and some sort of bodhi all in one,” says Sara Conrad, a doctoral student at Indiana University who studied with Sperling for many years. “A walking encyclopedia, I felt I could learn a lot just being near him—and he took every opportunity to teach me. I benefited learning from him about Tibet and Tibetan of course, but also about parenthood and morality, music and comedy. In terms of academia he told me I must be able to live with myself after I write, and therefore it is always best to be honest.”In recent years, Sperling took up the case of Ilham Tohti,the Uyghur intellectual sentenced to life imprisonmentby Beijing. He played a key role in raising Tohti’s profileas a prisoner of conscience, nominating him for humanrights awards. He took Tohti’s daughter, Jewher, underhis wing and oversaw her wellbeing and education. InJewher’s own words, Elliot Sperling became “like a secondfather” to her. His friendship with Ilahm Tohti and Jewherexemplified the compassion and generosity with which hetreated everyone. Sure, he made his mark in this world as ascholar, but his monumental intellect was matched by hisunbounded kindness, altruism, and humanity.“Professor Sperling was the moral compass of Tibetan studies,” said fellow historian Carole McGranahan at Sperling’s March 11 memorial in New York. His untimely deathhas left an abyss in our hearts and a chasm in the world of Tibetology. Christophe Besuchet, a fellow activist, remarked that it is “as if a whole library had burned down.”Even so, it is worth remembering that Sperling has already done far more than his fair share of good in the world, and he deserves a rest (or a break, if you consider it from a Buddhist perspective). In the course of 66 years, he lived multiple lifetimes—as a taxi driver, hippie, scholar, mentor, activist, father—each one more productive and meaningful than the last. He has engraved his spirit so deeply in the lives of so many of us that, in a way, he is still alive. And while one library has burned down, there are thousands of libraries where his words still live and breathe.''Endnotes'' 1. MacArthur Foundation, <https://www.macfound.org/fellows/236/> (accessed 6 March 2017).2. Roberto Vitali, “For Elliot from a Friend,” InternationalAssociation for Tibetan Studies. Also see Trails of the TibetanTradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, edited by Roberto Vitali(Amnye Machen Institute: 2014).3. Elliot Sperling, “5th Karmapa and Some Aspects ofthe Relationship Between Tibet and the Early Ming,” inMichael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds., Tibetans Studiesin Honour of Hugh Richardson, Warminster, 1980 (publishedin translation as Shiboling, “Wushi Gamaba yiji Xizanghe Mingchu de guanxi yaolue,” in Guowai Zangxue yanjiuyiwenji, vol. 2, Lhasa, 1987), pp.279-289.4. Ibid.5. Elliot Sperling, “Divide and Rule Policy in Tibet,” inErnst Steinkellner, ed., Contributions on Tibetan Language,History and Culture. Proceedings of the Csoma de KorosSymposium Held at Velm-Vienna, Austria, 13-19 September1981, Vienna, 1983, pp.339-356.6. See Tsering Woeser, “A Chronicle of Elliot Sperling,”in Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling,Roberto Vitali eds., (published by Amnye Machen Institute,2014).7. He has criticized the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle WayApproach’ to dealing with China as too conciliatory. Seehis article Self-Delusion, <http://info-buddhism.com/SelfDelusion_Middle-Way-Approach_Dalai-Lama_Exile_CTA_Sperling.html#f1>.'''Tenzin Dorjee''' is a writer, activist, and a researcher at TibetAction Institute. His monograph The Tibetan NonviolentStruggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis was publishedin 2015 by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.His writings have been published in various forums includingGlobal Post, Courier International, Tibetan Review, TibetTimes, and the CNN blog. He is a regular commentatoron Tibet-related issues for Radio Free Asia, Voice ofAmerica, and Voice of Tibet. He served as the ExecutiveDirector of Students for a Free Tibet from 2009 to 2013.An earlier version of this obituary was published in theHuffington Post <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/remembering-elliot-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.t-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.)
Akester, M. + ('''SIT BIO: Matthew Akester, Lecturer and … '''SIT BIO: Matthew Akester, Lecturer and Faculty Advisor''' Matthew is a translator of classical and modern literary Tibetan with 25 years of fieldwork experience as an independent researcher throughout the Tibetan world. His discipline is history, both religious and political history, which corresponds with the program’s double specialization. Matthew's special interests include the history of Lhasa, the life and times of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo, historical geography of central Tibet, and history and memoir in occupied Tibet. His published book-length translations include [[The Life of Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo]] by Jamgon Kongtrul ([[Shechen Publications]] 2012); [[Memories of Life in Lhasa Under Chinese Rule]] by Tubten Khetsun ([[Columbia University Press]] 2008, Penguin India 2009); and [[The Temples of Lhasa]] (with [[Andre Alexander]], [[Serindia Publications]] 2005). In addition, he has worked as active consultant and contributor for the Tibet Information Network, Human Rights Watch, Tibet Heritage Fund, and [[Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center]]; as translator, editor, and advisor for countless publications on Tibet in English, French, and Tibetan; and as lecturer on contemporary Tibet for student programs including SIT in Nepal and India. ([http://www.sit.edu/studyabroad/faculty_npt.cfm SOURCE])www.sit.edu/studyabroad/faculty_npt.cfm SOURCE]))
Dewar, T. + ('''Short Biography:''' Mitra Tyl … '''Short Biography:''' Mitra Tyler Dewar met [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]] in 1997, just one year after beginning his journey of practicing the dharma. Through an auspicious coincidence, he learned the Tibetan alphabet that summer and soon after formed the conviction to serve the dharma through translating Tibetan into English. He became a formal student of Rinpoche's in 1998 and began translating for Rinpoche's organizations, Nalandabodhi and Nitartha Institute, in 2000. In 2001 he became the regular translator for Acharya Sherab Gyaltsen Negi at Nalandabodhi Seattle. From that point onward, Tyler has traveled extensively with The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche on Rinpoche's teaching tours, translating for the Tibetan segments of Rinpoche's teachings and occasionally presenting aspects of Rinpoche's teachings himself. In 2003 Nalandabodhi welcomed Acharya Tashi Wangchuk as a resident teacher; Tyler served as Acharya's oral interpreter and also worked closely with Acharya on the translation of several texts from the philosophical and intuitive traditions of Indian and Tibetan Buddhadharma. Tyler has served as a secretary in the Office of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche for the past seven years, and has thus felt enriched by the opportunity to support Rinpoche's teaching activity from many perspectives.In terms of his formative dharma training, Tyler completed two dathuns (month-long intensive meditation retreats) in the late 90s and resided for one year, 1997-1998, at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia, Canada, practicing intensively, participating in several study curricula, and attending lengthy seminars by Ani Pema Chödrön on Mind Training. He has attended Nitartha Institute's summer program since 1999 and has been a faculty member since 2000, translating for such courses as Collected Topics, Abhidharma, Mind Only, and Madhyamaka. He attended his first Nalandabodhi Sangha Retreat in 2001 and has been in attendance ever since.Two books of Tyler's translations have been published by [[Snow Lion Publications]]: [[Trainings in Compassion]]: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara (2004) and [[The Karmapa's Middle Way]]: Feast for the Fortunate (2008), a translation of a major philosophical work by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje.hical work by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje.)
Sarvajñamitra + (''Sarvajñamitra'' was a famous Buddhist mo … ''Sarvajñamitra'' was a famous Buddhist monk of Kashmir, described by ''Kalhaṇa'' as one 'who set himself as another ''Jina'' (''Buddha'')'. He lived in a monastery, called ''Kayyavihāra'', founded by ''Kayya'', the king of ''Lāta'' owing allegiance to king ''Lalitāditya'' of Kashmir (701–738 A.D.)[31]. Thus, ''Sarvajñamitra'' would appear to have lived in the later half of the 8th century. He was a worshipper of ''Tārā'' and was known for his generousness. ''Tārānātha'' gives the following biographical account of ''Sarvajñamitra'':He was an extra-(marital) son of a king of Kashmir (probably the contemporary of king ''Lalitāditya'' or his predecessor). When still a baby he was carried away by a vulture when his mother had left him on the terrace, herself having gone to pluck flowers. The baby was taken to a peek of Mount ''Gandhola'' in Nalanda. There he was received by some ''Pandits'' under whose protection he grew-up and became a monk well-versed in the ''Piṭakas''. He propitiated the goddess ''Tārā'' by whose favour he received enormous wealth which he distributed among the needy. At last when he had nothing left to donate he left towards the South fearing that he would have to send the suppliants back without giving alms to them which would be against his wishes. On his journey to the South he met an old blind ''brāhmaṇa'' led by his son. He was going to Nalanda to implore aid from ''Sarvajñāmitra'', about whose generosity he had heard a lot.''Sarvajñāmitra'' told him that he was the same person but had exhausted all his wealth. Hearing this the ''brāhmaṇa'' heaved an afflictive sigh with which ''Sarvajñāmitra'' felt boundless compassion for him and decided to get money for him anyhow. While searching for money he found a king named ''Saraṇa'' who was passionately attached to false views. This king wanted to purchase 108 men for offering them to sacrificial fire. He had already procured 107 men and was in search of one more. ''Sarvajñāmitra'' sold himself for the gold equal to the weight of his body. He gave this gold to the ''brāhmaṇa'' who returned happy.''Sarvajñāmitra'' was put in the royal prison. The other prisoners were overpowered by grief seeing that the number was complete and their death was quire [quite?] near. When fire was kindled, they started wailing. Again. the great ''Ācārya'' felt boundless compassion and he earnestly prayed to the goddess ''Tārā''. The goddess flowed a stream of nectar over the fire and people could see rains coming down only on the fire. When the fire was extinguished the place turned to be a lake. Seeing this wonderful event, the king was filled with admiration for the ''Ācārya''. The prisoners were released with rewards.The ''Ācārya'' after the lapse of a long time, wished to be at his birth place. So he prayed to the goddess. He was asked to catch hold of the corner of her clothes and shut the eyes. When he re-opened his eyes he found himself in a beautiful land in front of a magnificent palace. He could not recognise this place and asked the goddess why she had not taken him to Nalanda. She told him that this was his real birth place. He stayed in Kahemir [Kashmir?] and founded a big temple of goddess ''Tārā''. ''Tārānātha'' further states that he was a disciple of ''Süryagupta'' or ''Ravigupta''[32]. The same tradition is found with minor variations in the commentary on the ''Sragdharāstotra'' by ''Jinarakṣita''[33].''Sragdharāstotra'' is a hymn containing 37 verses which ''Sarvajñamitra'' wrote in praise of goddess ''Tārā''. '' 'Sragdharā' '' is an epithet of ''Tārā'' which means 'wearer of the wreath' or 'the garland bringer' and it is also the name of the metre in which the hymn was written. ''Bstan—'gyur'' contains three translations of the text. The hymn, with its commentary and two Tibetan versions, is edited by S. C. Vidyabhusana in ''Bibliotheca'' series, 1908.Besides '' 'Sragdharāstotra' '' other texts attributed to ''Sarvajñamitra'' are all in praise of goddess ''Tārā'', viz., 1. ''Devītarākuvākyādhyesana nāma stotra'' 2. ''Āryatārāsādhanā'', and 3. ''Aṣṭabhayatrānatārosādhanā''[34]. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 19–21)ādhanā''[34]. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 19–21))
Tilakakalaśa + (''Tilakakalaśa'': ''Tilakakalśa'' or ''Til … ''Tilakakalaśa'': ''Tilakakalśa'' or ''Tilakalaśa'' is known in Tibetan as ''Thig-le bum-pā''. The name is sometimes rendered as ''Bindukalaśa''. He occupied himself mostly in the Mādhyamika philosophy, and composed four hymns. He collaborated with ''Ñi-ma grags'' and ''Blo-ldan śes-rab''.Before going to Tibet, he translated in Kashmir, with ''Ñi-ma grags'' the ''Mādhyamakāvatāra'' of ''Candrakīrti'' and the self-commentary in 3550 [?] ''ślokas''. Together, both re-arranged the translation of the ''Mādhyamakāvatārakārikā'' done by ''Kṛṣṇapāda'' and ''Chul-kḥrims rgyal-pa''. They also translated ''Śrīguḥyasāmājamaṇḍalopāyikāviṃśavidhi'' of ''Nāgabodhi''. The work is attached to the school of the ''Guhyasamāja'' of ''Nāgārjuna''.In collaboration with ''Blo-ldan śes-rab'', ''Tilakakalaśa'' reviewed the interpretation of the ''Śikṣāsamuccaya'' of ''Śāntideva'' done by ''Dānaśīla'', ''Jinamitra'' and ''Ye-śes sde'' during the 9th century. Together they also translated two texts dealing with the ''Prajñāpāramitā'' ('Perfection of Wisdom') in 8000 stanzas. The texts include: ''Āryaprajñāpāramitāsaṃgrahakārikā'' of ''Dignāga'', also known as ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāpinḍārtha'', and its commentary in 540 ''ṣlokas'' by ''Triratnadāsa''. He also translated the following fifteen hymns: 1. The ''Vāgiśvarastotra, 2. The ''Āryamañjuśrīstotra'', 3. The Āryavāgiśvarastotra'', 4. The ''Lokeśvarasiṃhanāda nāma stora [stotra?]'', 5. ''Prajñāpāramitastotra'' 6. ''Acintyastava'', 7. ''Stutyatītastava'', 8. ''Niruttarastava'', 9. ''Āryabhattārakamañjuśrīparmārhastuti'', 10. ''Āryamañjuśrībhattārakakarunāstotra'', 11. ''Aṣṭamahāsthanacaityastotra'', 12. ''Aṣṭamahāsthanacaityastotra'' [Listed 2x in source as nos. 11 and 12] 13. ''Dvādaśakāranayastotra'', 14. ''Vandanāstotra'', and 15. ''Narakoddhāra''. Of these, the first four are attributed to ''Tilakakalaśa'' himself and the rest to ''Nāgārjuna''. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 47–48)e, the first four are attributed to ''Tilakakalaśa'' himself and the rest to ''Nāgārjuna''. (Kaul, ''Buddhist Savants of Kashmir'', 47–48))