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A list of all pages that have property "Bio" with value "1708. founds bkra shis 'khyil rgyal rabs lo tshigs shes bya mang 'dus mkhas pa'i spyi nor (p. 357) 1668. To Dbus and enters 'Bras-spungs Sgo-mang. 1674. Final ordination from 5th DL. 1676. Enters Rgyud Smad. 1680. Meditates at Ri-bo Dge-'phel. 1690. Becomes bla-ma [abbot] of 'Bras-spungs Sgo-mang. Attempts to make peace between the Sde-srid and Lha-bzang Khan. 1709. Founds the Bkra-shis-'khyil Monastery with the patronage of Ju-nang Dpon. 1720. Granted title PaNDi-ta-e-rti-no-min-han by the Gong-ma Khang-shis Rgyal-po. Year of death 1721 or 1722 (according to Ming mdzod); dates according to Tshad ma'i 'byung khungs: 1648-1722. Gsung-'bum in 15 volumes.". Since there have been only a few results, also nearby values are displayed.

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  • Seizan, Y.  + (Seizan Yanagida (聖山 柳田, 19.12.1922 - 08.09Seizan Yanagida (聖山 柳田, 19.12.1922 - 08.09.2006) was one the most important Japanese Buddhologists in the 20th century. He was born in a small mountain temple of the Rinzai-Zen School in the hamlet Inae near Kyōto (Japan). His major area of work was the research of Chinese Chan-Buddhism. Since the year 1960 he taught as a professor at the Institute for Buddhist Studies at Hanazono-University in Kyōto and after his retirement in 1986 he founded the IRIZ (International Research Institute for Zen Buddhism) in Kyōto, that became an important research institution for many Western Buddhologists, as well. In the course of his life Prof. Yanagida published 50 books and several hundred research papers. ([https://terebess.hu/zen/mesterek/YanagidaSeizan.html Source Accessed June 14, 2023])eizan.html Source Accessed June 14, 2023]))
  • Sengchou  + (Sengchou 僧稠 (480-560), lived in monastery Sengchou 僧稠 (480-560), lived in monastery by the name of Xianjusi (Tranquil Dwelling Monastery), which</br>had once been the private villa of Emperor Xuanwudi (r. 499-515) of the Northern Wei dynasty. Seng Chou's meditation accomplishments were legendary and he had a profound influence on Chinese Buddhist history as a whole. He was a disciple of Buddhabhadra. whole. He was a disciple of Buddhabhadra.)
  • Thrangu Rinpoche  + (Short Biography of the Ninth Khenchen ThraShort Biography of the Ninth Khenchen Thrangu Tulku, Karma Lodrö Lungrik Maway Senge: </br></br></br>The Venerable Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche was born in Kham, Tibet, in 1933. At the age of five, he was formally recognized by His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa and Tai Situpa as the ninth incarnation of the great Thrangu tulku. He entered Thrangu monastery, where, from the ages of seven to sixteen, he studied reading, writing, grammar, poetry, and astrology, memorized ritual texts, and completed two preliminary retreats. At sixteen, under the direction of Khenpo Lodro Rabsel, he began the study of the three vehicles of Buddhism while in retreat. At twenty-three he received full ordination from the Karmapa.</br>Because of the Chinese military takeover of Tibet, Thrangu Rinpoche, then twenty-seven, was forced to flee to India in 1959. He was called to Rumtek monastery in Sikkim, where the Karmapa has his seat in exile. Because of his great scholarship and unending diligence, he was given the task of preserving the teachings of the Kagyu lineage; the lineage of Marpa, Milarepa, and Gampopa, so that one thousand years of profound Buddhist teachings would not be lost.</br></br>He continued his studies in exile, and at the age of thirty-five he took the geshe examination before 1500 monks at Buxador monastic refugee camp in Bengal and was awarded the degree of Geshe Lharampa. Upon his return to Rumtek, he was awarded the highest Khenchen degree. Because many of the Buddhist texts in Tibet were destroyed, Thrangu Rinpoche helped in beginning the recovery of these texts from Tibetan monasteries outside of Tibet. He was named Abbot of Rumtek monastery and the Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies at Rumtek. Thrangu Rinpoche, along with Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, was one of the principal teachers at the Institute, training all the younger tulkus of the lineage, including The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, who was in the first class. He was also the personal tutor of the four principal Karma Kagyu tulkus: Shamar Rinpoche, Situ Rinpoche, Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche, and Gyaltsab Rinpoche. Thrangu Rinpoche established the fundamental curriculum of the Karma Kagyu lineage taught at Rumtek. In addition, he taught with Khenpo Karthar, who had been a teacher at Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery in Tibet before 1959, and who is now head of Karma Triyana Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York, the seat of His Holiness Karmapa in North America.</br></br>After twenty years at Rumtek, in 1976 Thrangu Rinpoche founded the small monastery of Thrangu Tashi Choling in Boudhanath, Kathmandu, Nepal. Since then, he has founded a retreat center and college at Namo Buddha, east of the Kathmandu Valley, and has established a school in Boudhanath for the general education of Tibetan lay children and young monks in Western subjects as well as in Buddhist studies. In Kathmandu, he built Tara Abbey, which offers a full dharma education for Tibetan nuns, training them to become khenpos or teachers. He has also established a free medical clinic in an impoverished area of Nepal.</br></br>Thrangu Rinpoche recently completed a large, beautiful monastery in Sarnath, India, overlooking the Deer Park where the Buddha gave his first teaching on the Four Noble Truths. This monastery is named Vajra Vidya after the Sixteenth Gyalwa Karmapa, and it is now the seat for the annual Kagyu conference led by His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa. In January of this year, His Holiness the Dalai Lama came to Sarnath to perform a ceremony in the Deer Park with the Karmapa, Thrangu Rinpoche, and other high lamas.</br></br>Around 1976, Thrangu Rinpoche began giving authentic Buddhist teachings in the West. He has traveled extensively throughout Europe, Asia, and the United States. In 1984 he spent several months in Tibet where he ordained over one hundred monks and nuns and visited several monasteries. In the United States, Thrangu Rinpoche has centers in Maine and California, and is currently building the Vajra Vidya Retreat Center in Crestone, Colorado. Highly qualified monks and nuns from Thrangu Rinpoche's monastery will give retreatants instruction in various intensive practices. He often visits and gives teachings in centers in New York, Connecticut, and Seattle, Washington. In Canada, he gives teachings in Vancouver and has a center in Edmonton. He is the Abbot of Gampo Abbey, a Buddhist monastery in Nova Scotia. He conducts yearly Namo Buddha seminars in the United States, Canada, and Europe, which are also part of a meditation retreat.</br></br>Rinpoche has now taught in over twenty-five countries and has seventeen centers in twelve countries. He is especially known for making complex teachings accessible to Western students. Thrangu Rinpoche is a recognized master of Mahamudra meditation.</br></br>Because of his vast knowledge of the Dharma and his skill as a teacher, he was appointed by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to be the personal tutor for His Holiness the Seventeenth Karmapa.</br></br>(Source: [http://www.rinpoche.com/bio1.htm Rinpoche.com, Official Site of the 9th Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche])</br></br>For ''The Life of Thrangu Rinpoche with Pictures'' [http://www.rinpoche.com/life_of_TR_11_11_2015.pdf Click here].com/life_of_TR_11_11_2015.pdf Click here])
  • Śrīsiṃha  + (Shri Singha was the chief disciple and sucShri Singha was the chief disciple and successor of Manjushrimitra in the lineage of the Dzogchen teachings. He was born in the Chinese city of Shokyam in Khotan and studied at first with the Chinese masters Hatibhala and Bhelakirti. In his Ocean of Wondrous Sayings, Guru Tashi Tobgyal adds that Shri Singha received a prophesy from Avalokiteshvara while traveling to Serling, telling him to go to the Sosaling charnel ground in order to be sure of the ultimate attainment. After many years Shri Singha met Manjushrimitra in the charnel ground of Sosaling, and remained with him for twenty-five years. Having transmitted all the oral instructions, the great master Manjushrimitra dissolved his bodily form into a mass of light. When Shri Singha cried out in despair and uttered songs of deep yearning, Manjushrimitra appeared again and bestowed him a tiny casket of precious substance. The casket contained his master's final words, a vital instruction named Gomnyam Drugpa, the Six Experiences of Meditation. Having received this transmission, Shri Singha reached ultimate confidence. In Bodhgaya he found the manuscripts of the tantras previously hidden by Manjushrimitra which he took to China where he classified the Instruction Section into four parts: the outer, inner, secret, and the innermost unexcelled sections. Among Shri Singha's disciples were four outstanding masters: Jnanasutra, Vimalamitra, Padmasambhava and the Tibetan translator Vairotsana. (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Shri_Singha RY wiki])tsadra.org/index.php/Shri_Singha RY wiki]))
  • Balsys, B.  + (Since the late 1960s Bodo Balsys has dedicSince the late 1960s Bodo Balsys has dedicated his life to understanding the nature of consciousness and sharing his unique insights with others. He is a writer, a poet, an artist, a meditation teacher and healer. He has studied extensively across multiple fields of life. These include Esoteric science, meditation, healing, cosmology, Christianity, Buddhism, natural science, art, politics and history.</br></br>Bodo has published multiple books. His first series, The Revelation (three volumes), was concerned with providing insights into fundamental esoteric subjects, and specifically providing an esoteric understanding of the Christian Bible. His more recent books focus on providing new insights into Buddhism and particularly their alignment with esoteric science. Bodo also holds a science degree from the University of Western Sydney. He is currently teaching at the School of Esoteric Sciences (near Sydney), which he established. ([https://www.universaldharma.com/about-us/our-teacher-bodo-balsys/ Source Accessed July 19, 2023])do-balsys/ Source Accessed July 19, 2023]))
  • Srong btsan sgam po  + (Songtsen Gampo was the first of Tibet's thSongtsen Gampo was the first of Tibet's three great religious kings and was an emanation of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. It was during his reign that the first Buddhist temples in Tibet, the Rasa Trulnang (future Jokhang) and the Ramoche, were built. He married the Nepalese princess Bhrikuti and the Chinese princess Wencheng. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Songtsen_Gampo Rigpa Wiki])ndex.php?title=Songtsen_Gampo Rigpa Wiki]))
  • Zacchetti, S.  + (Stefano Zacchetti (1968 – April 29, 2020) Stefano Zacchetti (1968 – April 29, 2020) was an Italian academic specialising in Buddhist studies. From 2012 until his death in 2020 he was Yehan Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Oxford and a professorial fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.</br></br>Born in 1968, Zacchetti studied Chinese and Sanskrit at Ca' Foscari University of Venice from 1986 to 1994, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree; this included two years of study abroad, at Sichuan University (1990–92). He then carried out doctoral studies at Venice and spent time studying at the Sinologisch Instituut and the Kern Institute at Leiden University. Ca' Foscari University of Venice awarded him a PhD in Asian Studies in 1999.</br></br>Zacchetti taught Sinology at University of Padua for the 1999–2000 academic year. In 2001, he was appointed an associate professor at the International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Sōka University in Tokyo. He returned to Ca' Foscari University of Venice in 2005 to take up a tenured lectureship in the Department of Asian and North African Studies. In the autumn of 2011 he was a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2012, he was appointed Yehan Numata Professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Oxford and a professorial fellow of Balliol College, Oxford.</br></br>Zacchetti died on 29 April 2020 from COVID-19. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stefano_Zacchetti Source Accessed Aug 11, 2023])o_Zacchetti Source Accessed Aug 11, 2023]))
  • Teiser, S.  + (Stephen F. Teiser is D. T. Suzuki ProfessoStephen F. Teiser is D. T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion at Princeton University. His work traces the interaction between cultures using textual, artistic, and material remains from the Silk Road, specializing in Buddhism and Chinese religions. His forthcoming monograph from Sanlian Publishers, based on the 2014 Guanghua Lectures in the Humanities at Fudan University, is entitled 儀禮與佛教研究 (Ritual and the Study of Buddhism). He also serves as Director of Princeton’s interdepartmental Program in East Asian Studies, and in 2014 he received the Graduate Mentoring Award in the Humanities from Princeton University’s McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning,</br></br>Teiser’s previous work appeared in three monographs: ''Reinventing the Wheel: Paintings of Rebirth in Medieval Buddhist Temples'' (2006), awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, Institut de France; ''"The Scripture on the Ten Kings" and the Making of Purgatory in Medieval Chinese Buddhism'' (1994), awarded the Joseph Levenson Book Prize (pre-twentieth century) in Chinese Studies by the AAS; and ''The Ghost Festival in Medieval China'' (1988), awarded the prize in History of Religions by the ACLS. He has also edited several books, including ''Readings of the Platform Sūtra'' (2012) and ''Readings of the Lotus Sūtra'' (2009).</br></br>He is currently Co-Principal Investigator on “Dunhuang Art and Manuscripts,” a four-year project of conferences and publications on Buddhist art and manuscripts of the Silk Road, with primary funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, and he serves on the Steering Committee of “From the Ground Up: East Asian Religions through Multi-media Sources and Interdisciplinary Perspectives,” a SSHRC/Canada partnership grant based at University of British Columbia. From 2005 to 2008 he was Director of the Tibet Site Seminar, an interdisciplinary project for teaching Ph.D. students in the fields of Art History and Buddhist Studies. Prior to that he was a member of the research project on “Merit, Opulence, and the Buddhist Network of Wealth,” sponsored by Northwestern University and the Dunhuang Research Academy in 1999-2001; and a member of the research group on Buddhist texts, Centre de Recherche sur les Manuscrits, Inscriptions, et Documents Iconographiques de Chine, sponsored by CNRS, Paris, 1996-2005.</br></br>Stephen F. Teiser studied for his A.B. at Oberlin College (Ohio) and received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Princeton University. He has held teaching appointments at Middlebury College and University of Southern California, and has been visiting professor at École pratique des Hautes Études (Paris), Heidelberger Akadamie der Wissenschaften, and Capital Normal University 首都師範大學 (Beijing). He has received fellowships and grants from American Council of Learned Societies, E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, Henry Luce Foundation, Andrew Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, Silkroad Foundation, Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and Social Science Research Council.nada, and Social Science Research Council.)
  • Gethin, S.  + (Stephen Gethin studied veterinary medicineStephen Gethin studied veterinary medicine at Cambridge University, where he was also awarded a choral exhibition. After a number of years in professional practice, he spent much of the 1980s undertaking two three-year retreats in France, where he now lives and, as a founding member of the Padmakara Translation Group, continues to translate. He became a Tsadra Foundation Translation Fellow in 2005. His published translations include Nagarjuna’s ''Letter to a Friend'', ''Zurchungpa’s Testament'', Dudjom Rinpoche’s ''A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom'', and Jamgön Mipham’s commentaries on Padmasambhava’s ''Garland of Views'' and the ''Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra''. He is currently working on a detailed preliminary practice commentary by Shechen Gyaltsap and on a volume of Jamgön Kongtrul’s ''Treasury of Precious Instructions''. ([https://www.colorado.edu/event/lotsawa/presenters/stephen-gethin Source Accessed Sept 18, 2020])hen-gethin Source Accessed Sept 18, 2020]))
  • Surendrabodhi  + (Surendrabodhi (Wyl. lha dbang byang chub) Surendrabodhi (Wyl. lha dbang byang chub) was an Indian paṇḍita who came to Samye at the time of Trisong Deutsen. The following information has been complied by Dan Martin:</br></br>* One of the Indian teachers invited to Tibet in time of Emperor ral pa can (early 9th century). See the shorter Lde'u history (p. 135), where the name is spelled su len tra bo de.</br>* In list of South Asian pundits in bu ston's History (1989), p. 280.7.</br>* In list of imperial period pundits in Tibet contained in zhu chen, bstan 'gyur dkar chag, p. 158, line 19.</br>* Stog Palace catalogue, index.</br>* su randra bodhi. Translator in time of Emperor Ral pa can. Padma dkar po, Chos 'byung, p. 331.</br>* Biographical Dictionary of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism, vol. 1, p. 565. Surendrabodhi — in Tibetan translation, Lha dbang byang chub — in time of Ral pa can. Mtshan tho, no. 18. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Surendrabodhi Source Accessed Aug 18, 2020])endrabodhi Source Accessed Aug 18, 2020]))
  • Aranya, H.  + (Swami Hariharananda Aranya (1869–1947) wasSwami Hariharananda Aranya (1869–1947) was a yogi, author, and founder of Kapil Math in Madhupur, India, which is the only monastery in the world that actively teaches and practices Samkhya philosophy. His book, ''Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali with Bhasvati'', is considered to be one of the most authentic and authoritative classical Sanskrit commentaries on the Yoga Sutras. Hariharananda is also considered by some as one of the most important thinkers of early twentieth-century Bengal.</br></br>Hariharananda came from a wealthy Bengali family and after his scholastic education renounced wealth, position, and comfort in search of truth in his early life. The first part of his monastic life was spent in the Barabar Caves in Bihar, hollowed out of single granite boulders bearing the inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka and very far removed from human habitation. He then spent some years at Tribeni, in Bengal, at a small hermitage on the bank of the Ganges and several years at Haridwar, Rishikesh, and Kurseong.</br></br>His last years were spent at Madhupur in Bihar, where according to tradition, Hariharananda entered an artificial cave at Kapil Math on 14 May 1926 and remained there in study and meditation for last twenty-one years of his life. The only means of contact between him and his disciples was through a window opening. While living as a hermit, Hariharananda wrote numerous philosophical treatises. Some of Hariharananda's interpretations of Patañjali's Yoga system had elements in common with Buddhist mindfulness meditation. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Hariharananda_Aranya Source Accessed May 1, 2023])nanda_Aranya Source Accessed May 1, 2023]))
  • Yamasaki, T.  + (Taiko Yamasaki . . . is abbot of Jokoin TeTaiko Yamasaki . . . is abbot of Jokoin Temple in Kobe, Japan, and Dean of the Department of Esoteric Instruction at Shuchi-in University in Kyoto, Japan. He is one of the worlds recognized experts in Ajikan and other forms of Meditation. ([http://www.shingon.org/sbii/books/ShingonJEB.html Adapted from Source Nov 20, 2023])EB.html Adapted from Source Nov 20, 2023]))
  • Bardor Rinpoche, 1st  + (Terchen Barway Dorje (1st Bardor Rinpoche,Terchen Barway Dorje (1st Bardor Rinpoche, 1836-1918) was a student of the 9th Tai Situ Rinpoche, the 14th Karmapa, Chokgyur Dechen Lingpa, and many other masters of his time.</br></br>Initially associated with Surmang Monastery of which he was a recognized tulku (Shartse Rinpoche of Surmang), Terchen Barway Dorje devoted a good portion of his life to reviving of the lost teachings of the Barom Kagyu. He was also known as a revealer of terma (treasures) of which he discovered nine volumes.</br></br>The treasures discovered by Terchen Barway Dorje had been concealed by two of Guru Rinpoche’s principal disciples—Nupchen Sangye Yeshe and Yeshe Tsogyal. Terchen Barway Dorje was an emanation of both of them.</br></br>Toward the end of his life, Terchen Barway Dorje founded Raktrul Monastery in eastern Tibet.</br></br>The writings of Terchen Barway Dorje consist of fourteen volumes. Of these, nine volumes are his revelations or termas, three volumes are his collective writings or compositions, one volume is his autobiography, and the one volume is his collective songs of instruction.</br></br>The autobiography of Terchen Barway Dorje has been translated into English and published by KTD Publications as ''Precious Essence: The Inner Autobiography of Terchen Barway Dorje''. His collective songs of instruction have been published as ''Treasury of Eloquence: The Songs of Barway Dorje''.of Eloquence: The Songs of Barway Dorje''.)
  • Dzogchen Ponlop, The 7th  + (The 7th Dzogchen Ponlop (Karma Sungrap NgeThe 7th Dzogchen Ponlop (Karma Sungrap Ngedön Tenpa Gyaltsen, born 1965) is an abbot of Dzogchen Monastery, founder and spiritual director of Nalandabodhi, founder of Nītārtha Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies, a leading Tibetan Buddhist scholar, and a meditation master. He is one of the highest tülkus in the Nyingma lineage and an accomplished Karma Kagyu lineage holder.</br></br>Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche was born in 1965 at Rumtek Monastery (Dharma Chakra Center) in Sikkim, India. His birth was prophesied by the supreme head of the Kagyu lineage, Rangjung Rigpe Dorje, 16th Karmapa, to Ponlop Rinpoche's parents, Dhamchö Yongdu, the General Secretary of the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa, and his wife, Lekshey Drolma. Upon his birth, he was recognized by the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa as the seventh in the line of Dzogchen Ponlop incarnations and was formally enthroned as the Seventh Dzogchen Ponlop at Rumtek Monastery in 1968.[1]</br></br>After receiving Buddhist refuge and bodhisattva vows from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dzogchen Ponlop was ordained as a novice monk in 1974. He subsequently received full ordination and became a bhikṣu, although he later returned his vows and is now a lay teacher.</br></br>Rinpoche received teachings and empowerments from the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, Dilgo Khyentse, Kalu Rinpoche, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche (chief Abbot of the Kagyu lineage), Alak Zenkar Rinpoche, and Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche, his root guru.</br></br>Ponlop Rinpoche began studying Buddhist philosophy at the primary school in Rumtek at age 12. In 1979 (when Rinpoche was fourteen), the 16th Karmapa proclaimed Ponlop Rinpoche to be a heart son of the Gyalwang Karmapa and a holder of his Karma Kagyu lineage. In 1980 on his first trip to the West, he accompanied the Sixteenth Gyalwang Karmapa to Europe, United States, Canada, and Southeast Asia. While serving as the Karmapa's attendant, he also gave dharma teachings and assisted in ceremonial roles during these travels.[2]</br></br>In 1981, he entered the monastic college at Rumtek, Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies where he studied the fields of Buddhist philosophy, psychology, logic, and debate. During his time at Rumtek, Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche worked for the Students' Welfare Union, served as head librarian, and was the chief-editor of the Nalandakirti Journal, an annual publication which brings together Eastern and Western views on Buddhism. Rinpoche graduated in 1990 as Ka-rabjampa from Karma Shri Nalanda Institute for Higher Buddhist Studies in Rumtek Monastery. (Ka-rabjampa means "one with unobstructed knowledge of scriptures", the Kagyu equivalent of the Sakya and Gelug's geshe degree.) He simultaneously earned the degree of Acharya, or Master of Buddhist Philosophy, from Sampurnanant Sanskrit University. Dzogchen Ponlop has also completed studies in English and comparative religion at Columbia University in New York City. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen_Ponlop_Rinpoche Source Accessed Nov 19, 2019])</br></br>For further information about Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche, visit his [https://dpr.info/ Official Website]t his [https://dpr.info/ Official Website])
  • Adeu Rinpoche  + (The Eighth Adeu Rinpoche was born on the fThe Eighth Adeu Rinpoche was born on the fourth day of the 12th Tibetan month in the Iron Horse year of the fifteenth calendrical cycle, in the middle of a freezing winter. As the 16th Karmapa and the Eighth Choegon Rinpoche recognized the child as the authentic reincarnation of the Seventh Adeu Rinpoche, he was taken to Tsechu Gompa for enthronement at the age of seven. Immediately after this, he began his traditional education in writing, calligraphy, poetry, astrology, mandala painting, spiritual practice and text recitation. At the same time, the young Adeu Rinpoche also received many teachings and pith-instructions based on the old and new traditions, but primarily on the Drukpa lineage from the Eighth Choegon Rinpoche, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö and many other great masters. After this, Rinpoche entered into a seven-year retreat, during which he practised the sadhanas of different deities and trained in tsa-lung, following the Six Yogas of Naropa and the liberating Mahamudra mind-training practices. He also learnt philosophy. Adeu Rinpoche later wrote a precise commentary on the three sets of vows, the root of heart-essence of Nyingmapa lineage, and on the various mandala deities.</br></br>In 1958, all the sacred texts, statues and precious objects were completely destroyed, and Rinpoche was imprisoned for fifteen years. Although Adeu Rinpoche suffered a great deal, the period in prison gave him an opportunity to meet many accomplished masters, who had also been imprisoned, especially Khenpo Munsel from whom he received instructions on Dzogchen, and under whose guidance, he practised the rare and precious teachings of the aural lineage (Nyengyü) of the Nyingma school, and studied the various Nyingmapa terma teachings.</br></br>Adeu Rinpoche was an extremely important master of the Drukpa Kagyü lineage, especially following the Cultural Revolution, during which many great Drukpa lineage masters passed away. When teachings of the Drukpa lineage were faced with extinction, Adeu Rinpoche was the only remaining lineage holder of the Khampa tradition of the Drukpa lineage.</br></br>At the end of 1980, Adeu Rinpoche went to Tashi Jong in India to pass on the entire lineage of the Khampa Drukpa tradition to the present Khamtrul Rinpoche Dongyü Nyima, Choegon Rinpoche Choekyi Wangchuk and many other great tulkus of the Drukpa lineage.</br></br>In 1990, Adeu Rinpoche also gave the complete empowerments of the Drukpa lineage to the local tulkus in Nangchen. About 51 tulkus and 1600 monks and nuns were present to receive the empowerments and oral transmissions. In this way, Adeu Rinpoche became the main lineage master of the Khampa Drukpa tradition for all the Drukpa tulkus. Thereafter, Adeu Rinpoche went to Bhutan and exchanged initiations with Je Khenpo, Jigme Chodrak Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche and many other enlightened masters, thus becoming a representative of the Drukpa lineage.</br></br>Adeu Rinpoche also took responsibility for restoring Tsechu Gompa, and at the same time collecting, correcting and editing all the Drukpa teachings, tantras and practices.</br></br>Adeu Rinpoche passed away in July 2007, in Nangchen, Tibet.</br></br>His reincarnation has recently been identified, in Tibet, by Choegon Rinpoche Chökyi Senge. (Source:[https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Adeu_Rinpoche])pawiki.org/index.php?title=Adeu_Rinpoche]))
  • Dhargyey, Ngawang  + (The Most Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey The Most Venerable Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey was born on the 13th of the fifth Tibetan month in the year of the Iron-Bird (1921) in the town of Yätsak (or Ya Chak) in the Trehor district of Tibet's eastern province Kham. He was soon enrolled in the large local Dhargyey Monastery of the Gelug tradition, where he took pre-novice ordination vows. Although he was enrolled there he studied mainly in the village Sakya monastery, Lona Gonpa where he received instruction in reading, writing, grammar etc, and learned numerous texts and practices by heart. His teachers there included two of his uncles, as well as Kushu Gonpä Rinpoche, who was a master of all the five major fields of learning.</br></br>Image of Gen RinpocheAt the age of eighteen Gen Rinpoche left his home country to further his spiritual education at Sera Monastery, the great monastic university in Lhasa. There he underwent extensive training in all the five divisions of Buddhist philosophical study: Logic, Perfection of Wisdom, the Middle View, Metaphysics, and Ethical Discipline. This was interspersed with periods of intensive retreat at some of the many hermitages near Sera. By the time he was nineteen he had already mastered his studies sufficiently to become a scriptural teacher, and he began to have many students of his own. At the age of 21, he took full ordination vows of a Bhikshu from the widely renowned Purchog Jamgön Rinpoche. He also received numerous teachings, initiations and commentaries from the great Lamas of that time such as Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang (His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Tutor), Bakri Dorje Chang, Lhatsün Dorje Chang, Gönsar Dorje Chang and others. His monastic teachers were the great scholar- practitioners Gen Sherab Wangchuk, Gen Chöntse, and the now Gyume Kensur Ugyän Tseten.</br></br>He studied in Sera in Tibet for twenty years until, in 1959, Chinese oppression forced him to leave Tibet. Two years earlier he had been appointed tutor to two high incarnate lamas, Lhagön Rinpoche and Thupten Rinpoche. The three escaped from Chinese occupied Tibet together taking a long and dangerous journey of nine months under Chinese gunfire and snowstorms until they reached the Mustang region of Nepal. From Mustang it was a comparatively easy journey to India, where they joined His Holiness the Dalai Lama and some of Gen Rinpoche's other teachers.</br></br>In India, after a brief pilgrimage to the sacred Buddhist sites, he took up his studies once again, and for several continued tutoring the tulkus (incarnate lamas). In the mid 1960s, he was chosen along with fifty-five other scholars to attend an Acarya course at Mussourie (north of Delhi). During his year in Mussourie, he and the other scholars wrote textbooks for the Tibetan refugee schools being established in India at that time. He then returned to Dalhousie where, over various periods, he continued to teach another seven incarnate lamas. He also finished his Geshe studies and, in oral examinations held at the Buxador refugee camp in Assam in eastern India (the seat of Sera monastery at that time) he gained the highest grade (First Class) Lharampa Geshe.</br></br>In 1971 he was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to start a teaching program for westerners at the newly constructed Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, northern India. Two of his incarnate lama disciples, Sharpa Rinpoche and Kamlung Rinpoche, acted as translators. He stayed there, teaching very extensively to thousands of Westerners, until 1984. During this time he himself received extensive and often exclusive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and from both of the tutors, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.</br></br>In 1982 he travelled to the West for the first time to take up a one-semester visiting professorship for at the University of Washington in Seattle. This was followed by a year-long extensive tour of Buddhist teaching centres all over North America, Europe and Australasia.</br></br>He spent six weeks in New Zealand during this tour, and at the end of the visit he was requested to establish a Buddhist centre here. In 1985 His Holiness advised Gen Rinpoche to come to New Zealand, initially for one and a half years, to establish a centre. After a six month tour of Australia, he arrived in Dunedin in mid 1985. Due to the success of the Buddhist centre he remained here, occasionally travelling to other parts of New Zealand and to Australia on teaching tours.</br></br>Gen Rinpoche was a wonderful teacher who loved to teach the great treatises, as well as experiential teachings which distilled their essence. He gave his last formal teaching in February 1995 in Dunedin. Gen Rinpoche entered into the death process on the 11th August 1995 (the 16th of the 6th Tibetan month) remaining in meditation for of three days.</br></br>His body was cremated with full traditional Tibetan funerary rites at Portobello, near Dunedin on 17th August (22nd of the 6th Tibetan month). Kushu Lhagön Rinpoche, one of Gen Rinpoche's tulku disciples, presided over the Great Offering to His Holy Body Ceremony at a specially built cremation stupa. ([https://dbc.dharmakara.net/GNDBiography.html Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023])graphy.html Source Accessed Feb 24, 2023]))
  • Gung thang dkon mchog bstan pa'i sgron me  + (The Third Gungtang Lama Konchok Tenpai DroThe Third Gungtang Lama Konchok Tenpai Dronme was identified as reincarnation of the Second Guntang Ngawang Tenpai Gyeltsen. He studied in Drepung Gomang College near Lhasa and Labrang Tashikhyil in Amdo, and later he served as the twenty-first abbot of the monastery. He also served as the first abbot of Ngawa Gomang Monastery. Familiar with Chinese and Mongolian languages, he spent most of his life in teaching and composing texts on many subjects such as ethics and medicine as well as religion. ([https://treasuryoflives.org/biographies/view/Konchok-Tenpai-Dronme/4730 Source Accessed Feb 3, 2022])-Dronme/4730 Source Accessed Feb 3, 2022]))
  • Bardor Rinpoche, 2nd  + (The first rebirth of Terchen Barway Dorje The first rebirth of Terchen Barway Dorje was recognized by the 15th Karmapa, but lived only a short time and, in fact, died before he was reached by the search party seeking him. The Karmapa later explained what happened: Terchen Barway Dorje had promised a great sinner named Changkyi Mingyur that he would not be reborn in a lower state. Changkyi Mingyur died shortly before the new incarnation of Terchen Barway Dorje was discovered and was about to be reborn in a lower state. In desperation, he called on Barway Dorje and it was therefore necessary for Bardor Rinpoche to depart his new body in order to fulfill his promise.</br></br>The 15th Karmapa decided to perform another recognition of the 2nd Barway Dorje, but before the time for recognition arrived, the 15th Gyalwang Karmapa departed this realm for the benefit of beings in other places.</br></br>For this reason, the rebirth of Terchen Barway Dorje—the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche—was recognized by the 11th Tai Situ Rinpoche, Padma Wangchok Gyalpo.</br></br>The 2nd Bardor Rinpoche was born at the end of 1920 and many auspicious signs accompanied his birth. He was enthroned at Raktrul Monastery at the age of five but received his training and transmissions at Surmang and Kyodrak monasteries.</br></br>In his thirteenth year, the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche met the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa. Because the Gyalwang Karmapa had been Bardor Rinpoche’s karmically destined guru in many lives, Bardor Rinpoche felt great devotion for the Karmapa upon meeting him.</br></br>The 2nd Bardor Rinpoche spent much of his life serving the 16th Gyalwang Karmapa, although he occasionally traveled back to Raktrul Monastery to look after its needs. Toward the end of his life, he made an aspiration to be able to serve both the Karmapa and Raktrul Monastery in his future lives. As a result of that aspiration we now have two incarnations of the 3rd Bardor Rinpoche—one who has devoted most of his life to the service of both the 16th and 17th Karmapas and has founded Kunzang Palchen Ling in the US, and one who remains in Tibet and looks after Raktrul Monastery.</br></br>A detailed account of the life of the 2nd Bardor Rinpoche is available in English translation as ''The Light of Dawn'' composed by Karma Tupten. ([https://www.kunzang.org/treasure-lineage/2nd-bardor-rinpoche/ Source Accessed June 28, 2023])-rinpoche/ Source Accessed June 28, 2023]))
  • Khyentse, Dzongsar  + (The present Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse RinpThe present Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche, Thubten Chökyi Gyamtso, was born in 1961 in eastern Bhutan. He was recognized as a tulku by H.H. Sakya Trizin, and received empowerments and teachings from many of the greatest masters of Tibetan Buddhism, including H.H. the 16th Karmapa; H.H. Dudjom Rinpoche and Lama Sonam Zangpo (his paternal and maternal grandfathers); Chatral Rinpoche; Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, Khenpo Appey, and many others. His root guru was Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, who began training Rinpoche from the age of 7.</br></br>While still a teenager, Rinpoche built a small retreat center in Ghezing, Sikkim and soon began traveling and teaching around the world. In the 1980s, he began the restoration of Dzongsar Monastery in Derge, the responsibility of which he had inherited from his previous incarnation, Jamyang Khyentse Chökyi Lodrö. He established Dzongsar Institute in Bir, India, (now DKCLI in Chauntra), which has grown to be one of the most respected institutions for advanced dialectical study. He also oversees two monasteries in Bhutan and has established dharma centres in Australia, Europe, North America, and Asia. He has written several books and made award-winning films. Rinpoche continuously travels all over the world, practicing and teaching the Dharma. (Source: [https://khyentsefoundation.org/about-dzongsar-jamyang-khyentse-rinpoche/ Khyentse Foundation.org])yentse-rinpoche/ Khyentse Foundation.org]))
  • Vairocanarakṣita  + (There are at least two Indian authors knowThere are at least two Indian authors known by the name Vairocanarakṣita, as well as being the full ordination name of the famous Tibetan translator Vairocana (bai ro tsa na). Of the two Indians, the first was an 11th century scholar from Vikramaśīla, while the second, known also as Vairocanavajra, lived about a century later and spent time in Tibet in the mid-12th century. Based on the literary output of these two figures, with the former producing works on sūtra and the latter more focused on tantra and mahāmudrā, Brunnhölzl suggests the 11th century Vairocanarakṣita as the most likely candidate for the authorship of the ''Mahāyānottaratantraśāstraṭippanī''. However, BDRC seems to conflate these two figures, perhaps even all three, with attributions of their individual works and translations included in the Tibetan canon linking to a single page. Though, it is clear that some of these texts, such as the commentaries on the works of Śāntideva belong to the 11th century Vairocanarakṣita, as they were translated by Ngok Lotsāwa who predates the 12th century Vairocanarakṣita. While, others works linked to the same page should certainly be attributed to this second Vairocanarakṣita, a.k.a. Vairocanavajra, as he was well known among early Kagyu masters for his teaching activities and his translations of several crucial ''dohas'' that helped form the basis of the Kagyu mahāmudrā tradition.he basis of the Kagyu mahāmudrā tradition.)
  • Sèngué, T.  + (This is the Dharma name and pen name of FrThis is the Dharma name and pen name of François Jacquemart.</br></br>Lama Cheuky Sèngué (François Jacquemart) was born in 1949 and had his first encounter with Tibetan Buddhism in 1976. He accomplished a 3-year Buddhist retreat in France in the beginning of the eighties. He became a close student of the late Bokar Rinpoche and served him as an interpreter for a long period.</br></br>In 1985, he founded (and still directs) Claire Lumière publications dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism, translating, editing, and publishing a considerable number of books in French, mainly for the Kagyu Lineage.</br></br>He is also in charge of a few small Dharma centres (Aix-en-Provence, Avignon, and Grenoble) and teaches in France and Spain.</br></br>His Holiness the Karmapa requested him to translate into French the Kagyu Monlam Books, a task which was completed under His direction at the Gyutö Monastery. ([https://karmapafoundation.eu/the-board/francois-jacquemart/ Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023])jacquemart/ Source Accessed Feb 27, 2023]))
  • Losang, T.  + (Thubten Losang became interested in BuddhiThubten Losang became interested in Buddhism during the 1990s and sporadically read books on Buddhism and practiced sitting meditation. He first came to Sravasti Abbey in April 2013 for a Sharing the Dharma Day. After that, he began to visit the Abbey almost every month.</br></br>In the summer of 2014, he spent 10 days of every month at the Abbey to work in the forest and joined in the Exploring Monastic Life program. Receiving teachings from a qualified teacher (Ven. Chodron), being around other practitioners, being guided and inspired by the monastic community, and establishing a regular meditation schedule turned his sporadic and confused spiritual seeking into a serious and consistent practice.</br></br>Ven. Losang moved to the Abbey in December 2014 and took the anagarika precepts the following month. He received śrāmaṇera (novice) ordination on August 10, 2015. See his ordination photos. He received full ordination in Taiwan in 2017. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/sramanera-thubten-losang/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])ten-losang/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Brekke, T.  + (Torkel Brekke works part-time as a religioTorkel Brekke works part-time as a religious historian in Civita and head of the Civita Academy. Brekke is professor of cultural and religious diversity at the Institute for International Studies and Interpreter Education at OsloMet. Brekke is also associated with the Institute for Peace Research (PRIO). In 2007, Brekke became professor of religious history and South Asian area studies at the Department of Cultural Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo. He has a PhD from the University of Oxford, and has written and edited a number of books and articles on the relationship between culture and politics. He has worked as an adviser in the Ministry of Defence, and has had several types of engagements for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is a regular writer for Dagbladet, and sits on the Swedish Science Council. ([https://civita.no/person/torkel-brekke/ Source Accessed Mar 22, 2023])kel-brekke/ Source Accessed Mar 22, 2023]))
  • Tsoknyi Rinpoche  + (Tsoknyi Rinpoche (Wylie: Tshogs gnyis rin Tsoknyi Rinpoche (Wylie: Tshogs gnyis rin po che), or Ngawang Tsoknyi Gyatso (born 13 March 1966), is a Nepalese Tibetan Buddhist teacher and author and the founder of the Pundarika Foundation. He is the third Tsoknyi Rinpoche, having been recognized by the 16th Karmapa as the reincarnation of Drubwang Tsoknyi Rinpoche. He is a tulku of the Drukpa Kagyü and Nyingma traditions and the holder of the Ratna Lingpa and Tsoknyi lineages.</br></br>He began his education at Khampagar Monastery at Tashi Jong in Himachal Pradesh, India, at the age of thirteen. His main teachers are Khamtrul Rinpoche Dongyu Nyima, his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Nyoshul Khen Rinpoche, and Adeu Rinpoche.</br></br>Rinpoche has overseen the Tergar Osel Ling Monastery, founded in Kathmandu, Nepal, by his father, Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche. His brothers are Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, and Mingyur Rinpoche, and his nephews are Phakchok Rinpoche and the reincarnation of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, known popularly as Khyentse Yangsi Rinpoche. He has overseen the monastery's operations and introduced studies for non-Tibetans. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsoknyi_Rinpoche Source Accessed November 18, 2019])npoche Source Accessed November 18, 2019]))
  • Urgyen, Tulku  + (Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche (Tib. སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨོ་རTulku Urgyen Rinpoche (Tib. སྤྲུལ་སྐུ་ཨོ་རྒྱན་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་, Wyl. ''sprul sku o rgyan rin po che'') (1920–1996) was one of the greatest teachers of Dzogchen and Mahamudra in recent times, whose lineage is now continued by his sons, including Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche was born in Nangchen, in the province of Kham, eastern Tibet, in 1920. He began meditation practice at the early age of four, when he attended the teachings his father, Chime Dorje, would give to his many students. Already at four he had what is called a recognition of the nature of mind. Later he studied with his uncle Samten Gyatso, his root master, as well as with many other lamas of both Kagyü and Nyingma schools of Tibetan Buddhism. Among the lineage masters from whom he drew his inspiration were Milarepa and Longchen Rabjam—on merely hearing their names, tears would come to his eyes.</br></br>In his youth he practised intensively, and stayed in retreat for a total of twenty years. He had four sons, each of whom is now an important Buddhist master in his own right: Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, Tsikey Chokling Rinpoche, Tsoknyi Rinpoche and Mingyur Rinpoche.</br></br>When he left Tibet he went to Sikkim and then settled in Nepal at Nagi Gompa Hermitage, in the mountains above the Kathmandu valley. He was the first lama to spread the Tibetan Buddhist teachings to Malaysia. In 1980 Tulku Urgyen went on a world tour encompassing Germany, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Holland, Great Britain, the USA, Hong Kong and Singapore. In his later years, however, he did not travel much and his many students, both Eastern and Western, would go to Nepal to visit him.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen accomplished a great deal in his life. He constructed and restored many temples, and established six monasteries and retreat centres in the Kathmandu region. He had over three hundred monks and nuns under his guidance. In particular he built a monastery and three-year retreat centre at the site of the sacred cave of Asura, the site of Padmasambhava’s famous retreat. He also re-established some traditional annual prayer gatherings in exile.</br></br>In his childhood he had been recognized by the Fifteenth Karmapa Khakhyap Dorje, as the reincarnation of the master Chöwang Tulku, and he was also an emanation of Nupchen Sangye Yeshe, one of the twenty-five main disciples of Padmasambhava. He was the lineage holder of many teaching transmissions, especially that of the terma teachings of his great grandfather Chokgyur Lingpa. He transmitted the Dzogchen Desum teachings to such masters as Sixteenth Karmapa, Dudjom Rinpoche, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche as well as thousands of other disciples. Tulku Urgyen was especially close to the Karmapa—one of his root teachers—and to Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, with both of whom there was a powerful bond of mutual respect.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen is the author of several books in English, including ''Repeating the Words of the Buddha'' and ''Rainbow Painting''. He also supervised many English translations of Tibetan texts and teachings carried out by his Western students, and gave the name Rangjung Yeshe to the publishing imprint established to make these and other Dharma works available in the West.</br></br>He was famed for his profound meditative realization and for the concise, lucid and humorous style with which he imparted the essence of the teachings. Using few words, he would point out the nature of mind, revealing a natural simplicity and wakefulness that enables the student to actually touch the heart of the Buddha’s wisdom mind. In this method of instruction, he was unmatched.</br></br>Tulku Urgyen passed away peacefully on 13th February 1996 (the 24th day of the 12th month of the Wood Pig year), at Nagi Gompa. At that time the sky overhead was clear and completely cloudless for two days, which is traditionally seen as a sign that a highly realized master is passing on.</br></br>The ''yangsi'' of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche, named Urgyen Jigme Rabsel Dawa, was born in 2001. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Tulku_Urgyen_Rinpoche Rigpa Wiki])p?title=Tulku_Urgyen_Rinpoche Rigpa Wiki]))
  • Tarthang Tulku  + (Twenty-Four Years of Traditional Training Twenty-Four Years of Traditional Training in Tibet</br></br>Dharma Publishing was founded by Tarthang Rinpoche, commonly known as Tarthang Tulku. Rinpoche was born in in the mountains of Golok in the far northeast of Tibet as the son of Sogpo Tulku, Pema Gawey Dorje (b 1894), a highly respected physician and holder of the Nyingma Vidyadhara lineage. Before Rinpoche was two years old, he was recognized and given the name Kunga Gellek by the Sutrayana and Mantrayana master Tragyelung Tsultrim Dargye (b. 1866), who made predictions about Rinpoche’s future mission as a servant of the Dharma, and instructed his parents in the special treatment of young tulkus.</br></br>Rinpoche’s training began at a very early age, and his first teachers were his father and private tutors. After the age of nine, he resided at Tarthang Monastery where he was initiated into the teachings of the Palyul tradition by Tarthang Choktrul and given instruction in Mahayana view, meditation, and conduct by various expert khenpos. At the age of fifteen in the iron tiger year of 1950, Rinpoche departed from Tarthang Monastery to travel to the major monasteries of Kham in eastern Tibet. There he received blessings, teachings, and initiations from the greatest masters of the 20th century: Jamyang Khyentse Chokyi Lodro, Zhechen Kongtrul, Adzom Gyelsey, Bodpa Tulku, and others, altogether thirty-one teachers. For the next ten years, until the age of 24, Rinpoche was given intensive training in the three Inner Yogas of Maha, Anu, and Ati.</br></br>Nine Years of Retreat, Research, and Publishing in India</br></br>In 1958 Rinpoche departed from his homeland, traveling through Bhutan into Sikkim following in the footsteps of his root guru, Khyentse Chokyi Lodro. The next several years were devoted to pilgrimage and retreat at holy places in India. In 1963 he was appointed by Dudjom Rinpoche as the representative of the Nyingma tradition and given the position of research fellow at Sanskrit University in Benares. In that same year, he set up one of the first Tibetan printing presses in exile and began his life’s work of preserving sacred art and texts. After six years at Sanskrit University and some twenty publications, Rinpoche decided that this was not enough, and departed for America to bring Dharma to the West.</br></br>Forty-three Years of Dharma Work in the West</br></br>Arriving in America in late 1968, Rinpoche chose California as his headquarters, and established the Tibetan Nyingma Meditation Center in early 1969. One of the first learned Tibetan exiles to take up residence in the West, he has lived continuously in America for over forty years. With the full support and blessings of Dudjom Rinpoche and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Tarthang Tulku began in the 1970s to unfold a vision of wisdom in action that would eventually encompass over twenty different organizations and make a significant impact on the transmission of Dharma to the West and the restoration of Dharma in Asia.</br></br>([http://dharmapublishing.com/about/our-founder/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015])founder/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015]))
  • Samten, T.  + (Ven. Samten met Ven. Chodron in 1996 when Ven. Samten met Ven. Chodron in 1996 when the future Ven. Chonyi, took the future Ven. Samten to a Dharma talk at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. The talk on the kindness of others and the way it was presented is deeply etched in her mind. Four Cloud Mountain retreats with Ven. Chodron, eight months in India and Nepal studying the Dharma, one month of offering service at Sravasti Abbey, and a two month retreat at the Abbey in 2008 fueled the fire to ordain on August 26, 2010.</br></br>Ven. Samten’s full ordination took place in Taiwan in March 2012, when she became the Abbey’s sixth bhikshuni. </br></br>Right after finishing a Bachelor of Music degree, Ven. Samten moved to Edmonton, Canada to pursue training as a corporeal mime artist. Five years later, a return to university to obtain a Bachelor of Education degree opened the door to becoming a music teacher for the Edmonton Public School board. Concurrently, Ven. Samten became a founding member and performer with Kita No Taiko, Alberta’s first Japanese drum group.</br></br>Ven. Samten is responsible for thanking donors who make offerings online, assisting Ven. Tarpa with developing and facilitating the SAFE online learning courses, assisting with the forest thinning project, tracking down knapweed, maintaining the database, answering email questions, and photographing the amazing moments that are constantly happening at the Abbey. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/ven-thubten-samten/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])ten-samten/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Chonyi, T.  + (Ven. Thubten Chonyi began attending classeVen. Thubten Chonyi began attending classes with Venerable Thubten Chodron at Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle in 1996 and has practiced steadily under Venerable’s guidance ever since.</br></br>She was a founder of Friends of Sravasti Abbey, which formed in 2003 to support Ven. Chodron’s dream to start a monastery. She moved to the Abbey in 2007 and took śrāmaṇerikā and śikṣamāṇā precepts in May 2008. See photos of her ordination.</br></br>Along with Ven. Jigme, Ven. Chonyi received bhikshuni (full) ordination at Fo Guang Shan temple in Taiwan in 2011. See the photos.</br></br>At the Abbey, Ven. Chonyi is involved with publicity and inviting generosity. She also shares Buddha’s teachings at the Abbey, online, and, occasionally, at Buddhist centers in the US and abroad. She has co-taught meditation and Buddhist ideas at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane for 13 years, and especially enjoys interfaith exchange and bringing Buddhist values into social justice issues.</br></br>Ven. Chonyi’s formal education was in theatre at Wesleyan College in Macon, GA. She worked for many years as a performer, publicist, fundraiser, and producer in the performing arts. As a Reiki teacher and practitioner for 19 years, she co-founded two Reiki centers and the Reiki AIDS Project, and led classes and workshops in Europe and North America. She was communications director for the international The Reiki Alliance and served eight years as Managing Editor for ''Reiki Magazine International''. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/thubten-chonyi/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023])ten-chonyi/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023]))
  • Lamsel, T.  + (Ven. Thubten Lamsel began studying the DhaVen. Thubten Lamsel began studying the Dharma in 2011 at The Dhargyey Buddhist Centre in Dunedin, New Zealand. When she began exploring the possibility of ordination in 2014, a friend referred her to the Preparing for Ordination booklet by Venerable Thubten Chodron.</br></br>Soon after, Ven. Lamsel made contact with the Abbey, tuning in weekly for the livestreamed teachings and offering service from afar. In 2016 she visited for the month-long Winter Retreat. Feeling like she had found the supportive monastic environment she had been looking for, under the close guidance of her spiritual mentor, she requested to come back for training.</br></br>Returning in January 2017, Ven. Lamsel took anagarika precepts on March 31st. In the most fantastic circumstances, she was able to take her sramaneri and shikshamana vows during the Living Vinaya in the West course on February 4, 2018.</br></br>Ven. Lamsel previously worked as a university-based public health researcher and health promoter at a small non-governmental organization.</br></br>At the Abbey she is part of the video recording/editing team, helps with inmate outreach, and enjoys making creations in the kitchen. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/venerable-thubten-lamsel/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023])ten-lamsel/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023]))
  • Chodrak, Tenzin  + (Venerable Geshe Tenzin Chodrak (Dadul NamgVenerable Geshe Tenzin Chodrak (Dadul Namgyal) is a prominent scholar in Tibetan Buddhism. He has a doctorate (Geshe Lharampa) in Buddhism and Philosophy from the Drepung Monastic University earned in 1992. He also holds a Master’s degree in English Literature from Panjab University in Chandigarh, India.</br></br>Author of several articles on Buddhism, Geshe-la was also a professor of Philosophy at Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies at Sarnath, Varanasi, India for seven years. In addition, he has been the Spiritual Director of LSLK Tibetan Buddhist Center, Knoxville, USA.</br></br>Due to his facility in both Tibetan and English, he has served as interpreter and speaker for numerous conferences exploring the interface of Buddhism with modern science, Western philosophy and psychology, and other religious traditions on both a national and international level. His language ability has also enabled him to serve as an English language translator for His Holiness the Dalai Lama throughout the world.</br></br>As a published author and translator, Geshe-la’s credits include a Tibetan translation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s ''Power of Compassion'', a language manual, ''Learn English through Tibetan'', and a critical work on Tsongkhapa’s ''Speech of Gold''. He also serves as a Board Member for Tibet House, New York.</br></br>From 2010 until recently, he had served as Senior Resident Teacher at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Atlanta. Around the same time, he began full-time position as Senior Translator/Interpreter with the Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-based Ethics at Emory University, Atlanta. There he was working in producing a six-year bilingual (English and Tibetan) science curriculum and preparing additional research & pedagogy materials in Modern Science for use in Tibetan monasteries and nunneries.</br></br>Geshe-la visited several times, inspiring us with his passion for Madhyamaka philosophy and his sheer joy in sharing Buddha’s teachings. See photos of Geshe-la teaching at Sravasti Abbey in 2016.</br></br>The Sravasti Abbey community is delighted that Geshe-la is now a resident teacher at the Abbey. He brings his abundant knowledge, compassion, and humility and acts as an excellent role model for new monastics at the Abbey. Since joining our community, he has decided to go by his ordination name, Venerable Tenzin Chodrak. (Source: [https://sravastiabbey.org/advisory-member/geshe-dadul-namgyal/ sravastiabbey.org])mber/geshe-dadul-namgyal/ sravastiabbey.org]))
  • Jigme, T.  + (Venerable Jigme met Venerable Chodron in 1Venerable Jigme met Venerable Chodron in 1998 at Cloud Mountain Retreat Center. She took refuge in 1999 and attended Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle, where Ven. Chodron was the resident teacher. She moved to the Abbey in 2008 and took śrāmaṇerikā and śikṣamāṇā vows with Venerable Chodron as her preceptor in March 2009. In 2011, along with Ven. Chonyi, she received bhikshuni ordination at Fo Guang Shan in Taiwan.</br></br>Before moving to Sravasti Abbey, Venerable Jigme worked as a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner in private practice in Seattle. In her career as a nurse, she worked in hospitals, clinics and educational settings.</br></br>At the Abbey, Ven. Jigme manages the prison outreach program and support the health of the community. In addition, she is a photographer, technical consultant, thanks donors, and creates flyers and other graphics. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/ven-thubten-jigme/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])bten-jigme/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Tsepal, T.  + (Venerable Tenzin Tsepal was a student of VVenerable Tenzin Tsepal was a student of Venerable Chodron’s in Seattle from 1995 to 1999 and attended the Life as a Western Buddhist Nun conference in Bodhgaya as a lay supporter. Her interest in ordination surfaced after she completed a three-month Vajrasattva retreat in 1998.</br></br>She then lived in India for two years while continuing to explore monastic life. In 2001, Ven. Tsepal received sramanerika ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. She received bhikshuni ordination at Fu En Si Temple in Taiwan in 2019.</br></br>While Venerable Tsepal was in India, some Australian friends introduced her to the five-year Buddhist Studies Program at Chenrezig Institute (CI), an FPMT center north of Brisbane, Queensland where she subsequently lived and engaged in intensive residential study from 2002-2015. As the Western Teacher at CI, she tutored weekend teachings and retreats, and taught the Discovering Buddhism courses, but always had her eye on what was happening at the Abbey.</br></br>In January 2016, Venerable Tsepal returned to the U.S. to participate in Sravasti Abbey’s winter retreat, and subsequently joined the community the following September.</br></br>Prior to ordaining, Ven. Tsepal completed a degree in Dental Hygiene, and then pursued graduate school in hospital administration at the University of Washington. Not finding happiness in 60 hour work weeks, she was self-employed for 10 years as a Reiki teacher and practitioner.</br></br>At the Abbey, Venerable Tsepal leads the Guest Care team. She is also compiling and editing the many years of Venerable Chodron’s teachings on monastic training, and leads reviews of philosophical tenets for the community. She helps out with painting and forest work too. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/venerable-tenzin-tsepal/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023])zin-tsepal/ Source Accessed May 16, 2023]))
  • Kunga, T.  + (Venerable Thubten Kunga grew up bi-culturaVenerable Thubten Kunga grew up bi-culturally as the daughter of a Filipino immigrant in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, DC.</br></br>She received a BA in Sociology from the University of Virginia and an MA from George Mason University in Public Administration before working for the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Refugees, Population, and Migration for seven years. She also worked in a psychologist’s office and a community-building non-profit organization.</br></br>Venerable Kunga met Buddhism in college during an anthropology course and knew it was the path she had been looking for, but did not begin seriously practicing until 2014. She was affiliated with the Insight Meditation Community of Washington and the Guyhasamaja FPMT center in Fairfax, VA.</br></br>Realizing that the peace of mind experienced in meditation was the true happiness she was looking for, she traveled to Nepal in 2016 to teach English and took refuge at Kopan Monastery.</br></br>Shortly thereafter she attended the Exploring Monastic Life retreat at the Abbey and felt she had found a new home, returning a few months later to stay as a long-term guest, followed by anagarika (trainee) ordination in July 2017 and novice ordination in May 2019. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/venerable-thubten-kunga/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023])bten-kunga/ Source Accessed May 17, 2023]))
  • Scott, V.  + (Victoria R. M. Scott has an M.A. in BuddhiVictoria R. M. Scott has an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from Yale University. She has freelance edited since 1984, with an emphasis on the history, religion, art, and literature of Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea; she also edits for scholars whose work delves into the history of Europe, Africa, and other parts of the world.</br></br>A longtime student of Her Eminence Jetsun Kusho and His Holiness the 41st Sakya Trizin, Victoria has edited all the Sapan Fund’s books to date (see Publications). She has also edited volumes published by the Library of Tibetan Classics, Dechen Ling Press, and Awakening Vajra Publications, as well as by Brill, Harvard, Stanford, and other academic presses. She edited ''Hermit of Go Cliffs'' (Wisdom, 2000), by Cyrus Stearns, and assisted with the publication of ''A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhung Rinpoche'' (Wisdom, 2003), by David P. Jackson. ([https://www.sapanfund.org/pages/about.php Source Accessed Aug 8, 2023])es/about.php Source Accessed Aug 8, 2023]))
  • Schubring, W.  + (Walter Schubring (10 December 1881 – 13 ApWalter Schubring (10 December 1881 – 13 April 1969) was a German Indologist who studied Jain canons written in Prakrit and wrote several major translations. Earlier western works on Jainism had mostly examined later texts in Sanskrit.</br></br>Schubring was born in Lübeck where his father Julius was headmaster of the Katharineum. He matriculated from the Katharineum in 1900. He discovered a dictionary of Sanskrit in the library of his father which imbued an early interest in oriental languages. He then went to Munich and Strassburg Universities, receiving a doctorate in 1904 under the supervision of Ernst Leumann with a dissertation on the Kalpasutra (rules for Jain monks). He then worked as a librarian at Berlin and habilitated in 1918 with a monograph on the Mahānisīha-Sutta. In 1920 he succeed Sten Konow as professor at the University of Hamburg. He cataloged Jain texts in European libraries, studied Śvetāmbara Jainism and wrote another work on the teaching of the Jainas in 1935 which was translated into English in 1962. Frank-Richard Hamm was one of his students. During World War II, he taught Sanskrit to Louis Dumont who was then a prisoner of war in Hamburg. Schubring edited the ''Journal of the German Oriental Society'' from 1922 and visited India in 1927-28 along with Heinrich Lüders spending time in the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, Poona. He retired in 1951 but continued research until his death from an accident at Hamburg.</br></br>In 1933 he was one of the signatories to the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State.</br></br>Writings<br></br>Schubring's works include:</br></br>*Mahaviras. Kritische Übersetzung aus dem Kanon der Jaina. Verlag Vandenhoeck & Rubrecht, Göttingen 1926.</br>*Die Jainas. Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr 1927</br>*Die Lehre der Jainas: Nach den alten Quellen. Berlin, Leipzig: de Gruyter 1935</br>*The Doctrine of the Jainas: Described After the Old Sources. Translated from the revised German edition by Wolfgang Beurlen. Reprint. First published in 1962. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass 1995. ISBN 81-208-0933-5.</br>*Die Jaina-Handschriften der Preussischen Staatsbibliothek: Neuerwerbungen seit 1891. Leipzig: Harrassowitz 1944</br>*Der Jainismus. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer 1964</br>*The Religion of the Jainas. Transl. from the German by Amulyachandra Sen; T. C. Burke. Calcutta: Sanskrit College 1966. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walther_Schubring Source Accessed Dec 7, 2023])wiki/Walther_Schubring Source Accessed Dec 7, 2023]))
  • Wayman, A.  + (Wayman joined Columbia in 1966 as a visitiWayman joined Columbia in 1966 as a visiting associate professor of religion. In 1967, he was appointed professor of Sanskrit in the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. During his tenure, Wayman taught classes in classical Sanskrit, Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit, Indian and Tibetan Religions and the history of astrology.</br></br>While at Columbia, he was a member of the administrative committee of the Southern Asian Institute. He also served as senior editor of The Buddhist Traditions Series (with 30 volumes to date) published by Motilal Banarsidass in Delhi, India.</br></br>Wayman authored 12 books, including ''Buddhist Tantric Systems'', ''Untying the Knots in Buddhism'', ''Enlightenment of Vairocana'', and ''A Millennium of Buddhist Logic''. He co-authored a translation of the 3rd-century Buddhist scripture ''Lion's Roar of Queen Shrimala'' with his wife, Hideko. Her knowledge of Chinese and Japanese sources complemented his research and translation of Sanskrit and Tibetan sources.</br></br>An honorary volume, titled ''Researches in Indian and Buddhist Philosophy (essays in honor of Prof. Alex Wayman)'', edited by Ram Karan Sharma, was published in 1993 to commemorate the many years that Wayman devoted to scholarly research on Indian topics. ([https://lists.h-net.org/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-asia&month=0411&week=b&msg=Mjh17lJ%2B2gHmOKM2On16yg&user=&pw= Source Accessed Aug 10, 2020])]2B2gHmOKM2On16yg&user=&pw= Source Accessed Aug 10, 2020])])
  • Magee, W.  + (William Magee received a Ph.D. in History William Magee received a Ph.D. in History of Religions from the University of Virginia in 1998.</br></br>Magee was the author of several books and articles including ''The Nature of Things: Emptiness and Essence in the Geluk World'', and is co-author of ''Fluent Tibetan: A Proficiency-Oriented Learning System''. He was an Associate Professor at Dharma Drum Buddhist College in Jinshan, Taiwan. He is currently teaching at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon.</br></br>Magee served as Vice-President of the UMA Institute for Tibetan Studies. ([https://uma-tibet.org/author-magee.html Source Accessed April 1, 2020])</br></br>'''OBITUARY FROM 22 FEBRUARY, 2023''' (by Paul Hackett on H-Buddhism):</br></br>It is with great sadness that I must inform you that William Magee passed away at his home in Portland (OR) last night, peacefully, and in the company of his friends and family.</br></br>Known as “Bill” to his friends and colleagues alike, Bill Magee began his studies of the Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy in the mid-1980s with the ven. Geshe Jampel Thardo, for whom he subsequently served as translator. Shortly afterward, Bill entered the Ph.D. program of studies in Tibetan Buddhism at the University of Virginia under Jeffrey Hopkins, where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1998, writing his dissertation on the subject of “nature” (svabhāva / prakṛti) in the thought of Nāgārjuna, Candrakīrti, and Tsong-kha-pa. </br></br>Over the years, Bill taught at the Namgyal Institute in Ithaca, New York, at Dharma Drum Buddhist College in Jinshan, Taiwan, and at Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon. He is perhaps most well-known, however, for teaching the Summer Tibetan Language Intensive courses at the University of Virginia from 1988 to 2000, during which time he taught the fundamentals of the Tibetan language to hundreds of students, many of whom would go on to pursue advanced studies in the field.</br></br>Bill was renown for jovial disposition and his kindness and generosity toward others, routinely opening his home to students and monks alike, and with his wife, Rabia, generously cared for, fed, and housed any and all who appeared at their door.</br></br>Even after retiring from teaching the summer language intensives at UVa, throughout the years that followed, Bill’s passion for the Tibetan language remained, and during the COVID pandemic, Bill used his personal funds to revive the Dharma Farm institute (thedharmafarm.net) and began offering free classes online in Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy.</br></br>Bill continued to translate and publish research on Buddhist philosophy, authoring several works on the thought of Jamyang Shepa (1648-1721), and publishing them freely online under the auspices of Jeffrey Hopkins’s UMA Institute (uma-tibet.org).</br></br>Bill is survived by his wife (Rabia), his son (Tristan), and his daughter (Meri). He was 72 years old. his daughter (Meri). He was 72 years old.)
  • De Bary, W.  + (William Theodore de Bary (Chinese: 狄培理; piWilliam Theodore de Bary (Chinese: 狄培理; pinyin: Dí Péilǐ; August 9, 1919 – July 14, 2017) was an American Sinologist and scholar of East Asian philosophy who was a professor and administrator at Columbia University for nearly 70 years.</br></br>De Bary graduated from Columbia College in 1941, where he was a student in the first year of Columbia's famed Literature Humanities course. He then briefly took up graduate studies at Harvard University before leaving to serve in American military intelligence in the Pacific Theatre of World War Two. Upon his return, he resumed his studies at Columbia, where he completed his Ph.D. in 1953.</br></br>In order to create text books for the non-Western version of the Columbia humanities course, he drew together teams of scholars to translate original source material, ''Sources of Chinese Tradition'' (1960), ''Sources of Japanese Tradition'', and ''Sources of Indian Tradition''. His extensive publications made the case for the universality of Asian values and a tradition of democratic values in Confucianism. He is recognized as training the graduate students and mentoring the scholars who created the field of Neo-Confucian studies. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wm._Theodore_de_Bary Source Accessed July 18, 2023])re_de_Bary Source Accessed July 18, 2023]))
  • Chos brdzu mkhan  + (Wrote an interlinear commentary on the ''BWrote an interlinear commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra'' titled ''Byang chub sems dpa'i spyod pa la 'jug pa'i rnam par bshad pa dam pa'i zhal lung rmongs pa'i mun sel''. His commentary on chapter 9 has a separate title called ''Shes rab le'u'i brjed byang dam pa'i zhal lung rmongs pa'i mun sel''. dam pa'i zhal lung rmongs pa'i mun sel''.)
  • Huikai  + (Wumen Huikai. (J. Mumon Ekai; K. Mumun HyeWumen Huikai. (J. Mumon Ekai; K. Mumun Hyegae 無門慧開) (1183-1260). In Chinese, "Gateless, Opening of Wisdom"; Chan master in the Linji zong; author of the eponymous ''Wumen guan'' ("Gateless Checkpoint"), one of the two most important collections of Chan gong'an (J. kōan; K. kongan). A native of Hangzhou prefecture in present-day Zhejiang province, Huikai was ordained by the monk "One Finger" Tianlong (d.u.), who also hailed from Hangzhou (see also Yizhi Chan). Wumen later went to the monastery of Wanshousi in Jiangsu province to study with Yuelin Shiguan (1143-1217), from whom Huikai received the ''wu gong'an'' of Zhao zhou Congshen; Huikai is said to have struggled with this gong’an for six years. In 1218, Huikai traveled to Baoyinsi on Mt. Anji, where he succeeded Yuelin as abbot. He subsequently served as abbot at such monasteries as Tianningsi, Pujisi, Kaiyuansi, and Baoningsi. In 1246, Huikai was appointed as abbot of Huguo Renwangsi in Hangzhou prefecture, and it is here that the Japanese Zen monk Shinichi Kakushin studied under him. Emperor Lizong (r. 1224–1264) invited Huikai to provide a</br>sermon at the Pavilion of Mysterious Virtue in the imperial palace and also to pray for rain. In honor of his achievements, the emperor bestowed upon him a golden robe and the title Chan master Foyan (Dharma Eye). (Source: "Wumen Huikai." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1002. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • Wenhui, Y.  + (Yang Wenhui. (J. Yō Bunkai; K. Yang MunhoeYang Wenhui. (J. Yō Bunkai; K. Yang Munhoe 楊文會) (1837-1911). Chinese Buddhist layman at the end of the Qing dynasty, renowned for his efforts to revitalize modern Chinese Buddhism. A native of Anhui province, Yang fled from the Taiping Rebellion to Hangzhou prefecture. In 1862, he serendipitously acquired a copy of the ''Dasheng qixin lun'' ("Awakening of Faith According to the Mahāyāna") and became interested in Buddhism. In 1878, he traveled to England, where he served at the Chinese Embassy in London, befriending the Japanese Buddhist scholar Nanjō Bun’yū (1849-1927), who helped him to acquire Chinese Buddhist texts that had been preserved in Japan. After his return to China, Yang established a publishing press called the Jingling Kejing Chu and published more than three thousand Buddhist scriptures. In 1893, Anagārika Dharmapāla visited Yang in Shanghai. In 1894, Yang and the British missionary Timothy Richard translated the ''Dasheng qixin lun'' into English. In 1907, the Jingling Kejing Chu began to publish primers of Buddhism in various languages. In 1910, Yang also founded the Fojiao Yanjiu Hui (Buddhist Research Society), where he regularly lectured until his death in 1911. (Source: "Yang Wenhui." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1022. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • O'Hearn, P.  + (Yeshe Gyamtso completed two three-year retYeshe Gyamtso completed two three-year retreats in the 1980s at Kagyu Thubten Chöling in Wappingers Falls, NY. Since then he has taught, interpreted for several Tibetan Buddhist teachers, translated a number of biographies of Buddhist historical figures, and written two books on Buddhist practice. Recent translations include Luminous Clarity (2016), Shower of Blessings (2015), and Siddhas of Ga (2013). (Source: 2017 Translation & Transmission Conference)017 Translation & Transmission Conference))
  • Ye shes mtsho rgyal  + (Yeshe Tsogyal was the principal consort ofYeshe Tsogyal was the principal consort of Guru Padmasambhava. She was Vajravarahi in human form and also an emanation of Tara and Buddhalochana.</br>She was born as a princess in the clan of Kharchen. According to some accounts her father was called Namkha Yeshe and her mother was Gewa Bum. In other histories, such as the Zanglingma and the biography revealed by Taksham Nüden Dorje, her father is named as Kharchen Palgyi Wangchuk, who is otherwise said to have been her brother. Yet another version names her father as Tökar Lek and her mother as Gyalmo Tso.</br></br>She became the consort of King Trisong Detsen before being offered to Guru Rinpoche as a mandala offering during an empowerment. She specialized in the practice of Vajrakilaya and experienced visions of the deity and gained accomplishment. In Nepal, she paid a ransom for Acharya Salé and took him as her spiritual consort. Through the power of her unfailing memory, she collected all the teachings given by Guru Rinpoche in Tibet and concealed them as terma. At the end of her life, it is said, she flew through the air and went directly to Zangdokpalri. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Yeshe_Tsogyal Rigpa Wiki])index.php?title=Yeshe_Tsogyal Rigpa Wiki]))
  • Yijing  + (Yijing. (J. Gijō; K. Ǔijǒng 義淨) (635-713).Yijing. (J. Gijō; K. Ǔijǒng 義淨) (635-713). Chinese Buddhist monk and pilgrim. Ordained at the age of twenty, Yijing dreamed of following in the footsteps of the renowned pilgrims Faxian and Xuanzang. He eventually set out for India in 671 via the Southern maritime route. After visiting the major Indian pilgrimage sites (see mahāsthāna), Yijing traveled to the monastic university at Nālandā, where he remained for the next ten years. On his return trip to China, Yijing stopped at Śrīvijaya (Palembang in Sumatra) to continue his studies. He praised the monks there for their high level of learning, describing them as primarily Hīnayāna in affiliation. It was in Śrīvijaya that he began to compose his record of his travels, the ''Nanhai jigui neifa zhuan'', which remains an important source on the practice of Buddhism in the many regions where he traveled and for understanding the various nikāya affiliations of the period. It was also during his time in Śrīvijaya that Yijing began his translation of the massive ''Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya''. When he ran out of paper and ink, he made a brief trip back to China in 689 to retrieve more writing supplies and then returned to Śrīvijaya. After a thirty=year sojourn overseas, Yijing finally returned to China in 695 with some four hundred Sanskrit texts and three hundred grains of the Buddha's relics (''śarīra''). Yijing was warmly welcomed in the capital of Luoyang by Empress Wu Zetian, who appointed him to the monastery of Foshoujisi. Later, from 695 to 699, Yijing participated in Śikṣānanda's new translation of the ''Avataṃsakasūtra'' and devoted the next decade or so to the translation of the scriptures that he had brought back with him from India. In addition to the ''Mūlasarvāstivāda vinaya'', his translations also include several important Yogācāra treatises and tantras. His writings also include a collection of the biographies of renowned East Asian Buddhist pilgrims to India, the Da Tang xiyu qiufa gaoseng zhuan. (Source: "Yijing." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 1028. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • Larson, Z.  + (Zach Larson is a practitioner in the LongcZach 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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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]))
  • Zaya Pandita  + (Zaya Pandita or Namkhaijamts (1599–1662) wZaya 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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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])</br></br>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.))
  • Goddard, V.  + (Zuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher basZuisei is a writer and lay Zen teacher based in Playa del Carmen in the south of Mexico. Zuisei lived and trained full time at Zen Mountain Monastery from 1995 to 2018, and was a monk for fourteen of those years. In 2018 she received ''shiho'' or dharma transmission (empowerment to teach) from Geoffrey Shugen Arnold Roshi, and after a short stint in New York City, moved back to Mexico, where she is originally from, and began teaching virtually.</br></br>She has served as the Teachings Editor at the Buddhist journal ''Tricycle'', and her dharma writing has been featured there as well as in ''Lion's Roar'', ''Buddhadharma'', and ''Parabola''. Her books include ''Still Running: The Art of Meditation in Motion'' and the children's book ''Weather Any Storm''. </br></br>As Ocean Mind Sangha's Guiding Teacher, Zuisei continues to welcome students for group and private teaching. ([https://www.oceanmindsangha.org/zuisei-goddard Source Accessed April 25, 2024])i-goddard Source Accessed April 25, 2024]))
  • Patel, P.  + ([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 and</br>thence he was sent with his nephew Sri Govindaji Bhulabhai Patel, now a Homeopathic Physician at</br>Navasari, to the Central Boarding School of Supa. It was a village middle school. </br></br>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].</br></br>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, and</br>Prof. Dharmananda Kausambi. The last-named teacher impressed upon him the glory of the ancient lore of</br>India.</br></br>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.</br></br>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.</br></br>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))
  • Mkhan chen zla zer  + (he was from Rahor, a branch of Dzogchen mohe was from Rahor, a branch of Dzogchen monastery founded by the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche in Gyalrong near Dergé. He was a student of Pöpa Tulku. He escaped from Tibet together with his former classmate Rahor Khenpo Tupten and went together with him to Sikkim via Bhutan.</br></br>He taught at Namdroling in South India, where he also compiled a collection of prayers and liturgies used in Nyingma rituals, and eventually returned to Tibet, where he taught at the Shri Singha Shedra at Dzogchen Monastery. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Daw%C3%A9_%C3%96zer Source Accessed on January 24, 2024])</br></br>'''Read more: '''</br>:Marilyn Silverstone, 'Five Nyingmapa Lamas in Sikkim', Kailash: A Journal of Himalayan Studies, 1973, vol. 1.1</br>:Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems, Padma Publishing, 2005, p. 480</br></br>'''Writings:'''</br>*དོན་རྣམ་འགྲེལ་པ་ལུང་རིགས་དོ་ཤལ་, don rnam 'grel pa lung rigs do shal (Necklace of Scripture and Reasoning: A Commentary on Mipham Rinpoche's Sword of Wisdom for Thoroughly Ascertaining Reality, ཤེས་རབ་རལ་གྲི་དོན་རྣམ་ངེས) (composed in 1982): https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:MW1KG4451</br>*ཆོས་སྤྱོད་བསྡུས་པ་ཕན་བདེའི་དགའ་སྟོན་, chos spyod bsdus pa phan bde'i dga' ston (editor)yod bsdus pa phan bde'i dga' ston (editor))
  • Ǔich'ǒn  + (Ǔich'ǒn. (C. Yitian) (1055-1101). Korean pǓich'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 studied</br>the 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 only</br>through 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 a</br>thousand 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.))
  • 'jam dbyangs bzhad pa'i rdo rje  + (1708. founds bkra shis 'khyil rgyal rabs l1708. founds bkra shis 'khyil</br>rgyal rabs lo tshigs shes bya mang 'dus mkhas pa'i spyi nor (p. 357)</br>1668. To Dbus and enters 'Bras-spungs Sgo-mang.</br>1674. Final ordination from 5th DL.</br>1676. Enters Rgyud Smad.</br>1680. Meditates at Ri-bo Dge-'phel.</br>1690. Becomes bla-ma [abbot] of 'Bras-spungs Sgo-mang.</br>Attempts to make peace between the Sde-srid and Lha-bzang Khan.</br>1709. Founds the Bkra-shis-'khyil Monastery with the patronage of Ju-nang Dpon.</br>1720. Granted title PaNDi-ta-e-rti-no-min-han by the Gong-ma Khang-shis Rgyal-po.</br>Year of death 1721 or 1722 (according to Ming mdzod); dates according to Tshad ma'i 'byung khungs: 1648-1722.</br>Gsung-'bum in 15 volumes.ungs: 1648-1722. Gsung-'bum in 15 volumes.)
  • A paM gter ston chos dbyings rdo rje  + ('''Apang Terchen Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa (189'''Apang Terchen Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa (1895-1945)'''</br></br>Choktrul Lozang Tendzin of Trehor studied with the lord Kunga Palden and the Chö</br>master Dharma Seng-gé, and Apang Terchen in turn studied with Lozang Tendzin.</br>Apang Terchen, also known as Orgyen Trinlé Lingpa, was renowned as the rebirth of</br>Rigdzin Gödem. He was reputed to have been conceived in the following way: Traktung</br>Dudjom Lingpa focused his enlightened intent while resting in the basic space</br>of timeless awareness, whereupon Apang Terchen's mother experienced an intense</br>surge of delight. This caused all ordinary concepts based on confusion to be arrested</br>in her mind for a short time, and it was then that Apang Terchen was conceived in her</br>womb.2 From that moment on, his mother constantly had dreams that were amazing</br>omens. For example, she found herself among groups of dakinis enjoying the splendor</br>of ganachakras, or being bathed by many dakas and dakinis, or dwelling in pavilions</br>of light, illuminating the entire world with her radiance.</br></br>The child was born one morning at dawn, in the area of Serta in eastern Tibet, his</br>mother having experienced no discomfort. Her dwelling was filled with [2.188a] and</br>surrounded by light, as though the sun were shining brightly. There were also pavilions</br>of light, and a fragrance pervaded the entire area, although no one could tell</br>where it came from. Everyone saw numerous amazing signs on the child's body, such</br>as a tuft of vulture feathers adorning the crown of his head.3 The mother's brother,</br>Sönam Dorjé, asked, "What will become of this boy who has no father? How shameful</br>it would be if people saw these feathers!"4 But although he cut the feather tuft</br>off the child's head several times, it grew back on its own, just as before. This upset</br>Sönam Dorjé even more, and he berated his sister angrily, saying on numerous occasions,</br>"How could your child have no father? You must tell me who he is!" His</br>sister retorted, "With the truth of karma as my witness, I swear I have never lain with</br>a flesh-and-blood man of this world. This pregnancy might be a result of my own</br>karma." She became so extremely depressed that her fellow villagers couldn't bear it</br>and used various means to bring a halt to her brother's inappropriate behavior.</br></br>From an early age, this great master, Apang Terchen, felt an innate and unshakable</br>faith in Guru Rinpoché and had a clear and natural knowledge [2.188b] of the ''vajra guru'' </br>mantra and the Seven-Line Supplication. He learned how to read and write</br>simply upon being shown the letters and exhibited incredible signs of his spiritual potential</br>awakening. For example, his intelligence, which had been developed through</br>training in former lifetimes, was such that no one could compete with him. As he</br>grew up, he turned his attention toward seeking the quintessential meaning of life.</br>He studied at the feet of many teachers and mentors, including the Nyingtik master</br>Gyatsok Lama Damlo and Terchen Sogyal, studying many of the mainstream traditions</br>of the sutras and tantras, especially those of the kama and terma.</br></br>The most extraordinary lord of his spiritual family was Trehor Drakar Tulku,5</br>with whom he studied for a long time, receiving the complete range of empowerments,</br>oral transmissions, and pith instructions of the secret Nyingtik cycles of utter lucidity.</br>He went to solitary ravines throughout the region, making caves and overhangs</br>on cliffs his dwelling places, taking birds and wild animals as his companions, and</br>relying on the most ragged clothing and meager diet. He planted the victory banner</br>of spiritual practice, meditating for a long period of time. He was graced by visions of</br>an enormous array of his personal meditation deities, [2.189a] including Tara, Avalokiteshvara,</br>Mañjushri, Sarasvati, and Amitayus. He was not content to leave the</br>true nature of phenomena an object of intellectual speculation, and his realization</br>progressed in leaps and bounds.</br></br>Apang Terchen bound the eight classes of gods and demons — including such spirits</br>as Nyenchen Tanglha, Ma Pomra, and Sergyi Drong-ri Mukpo6 — to his service.</br>He communicated directly with Tsiu Marpo, the white form of Mahakala, Ganapati,</br>and other protective deities, like one person conversing with another, and enjoined</br>them to carry out his enlightened activities. So great was his might that he also bound</br>these protective deities to his service, causing lightning to strike and so forth, so that</br>those who had become his enemies were checked by very direct means, before years,</br>months, or even days had passed.</br></br>Notably, he beheld the great master of Orgyen in a vision and was blessed as the</br>regent of Guru Padmakara's three secret aspects. On the basis of a prophecy he received</br>at that time, Apang Terchen journeyed to amazing holy sites, such as Draklha</br>Gönpo in Gyalrong, Khandro Bumdzong in the lowlands of eastern Tibet, and Dorjé</br>Treldzong in Drakar, where he revealed countless terma caches consisting of teachings,</br>objects of wealth, and sacred substances. He revealed some of them in secret,</br>others in the presence of large crowds. In these ways, he revealed a huge trove of profound</br>termas. [2.189b] Those revealed publicly were brought forth in the presence of</br>many fortunate people and in conjunction with truly incredible omens, which freed</br>all present from the bonds of doubt and inspired unshakable faith in them. Apang</br>Terchen's fame as an undisputed siddha and tertön resounded throughout the land, as</br>though powerful enough to cause the earth to quake. His terma teachings are found</br>in the numerous volumes of his collected works and include ''The Hidden Treasure of Enlightened Mind: The Thirteen Red Deities'', </br>practices focusing on the Three Roots, cycles concerning guardian deities and the </br>principle of enlightened activity, and his large instruction manual on Dzogchen teachings.</br></br>Apang Terchen's students, from Dartsedo in the east, to Repkong in Amdo to the</br>north, to the three regions of Golok and other areas, included mentors who nurtured</br>the teachings and beings, masters such as those known as the "four great illuminators</br>of the teachings," the "four vajra ridgepoles,11 the "four named Gyatso," the "great</br>masters, the paired sun and moon," and Jangchub Dorjé (the custodian of Apang</br>Terchen's termas).7 He also taught important political figures who exerted great</br>influence over the people of their areas, including the "four great chieftains of the</br>region of Dza in the north," [2.190a] that is, Getsé Tsering Dorjé of Dza in the northern</br>reaches of eastern Tibet, Gönlha of Akyong in Golok, Mewa Namlo of the Mé</br>region of Golok, and the chieftain of Serta in Washul. Apang Terchen's students also</br>included countless monks, nuns, villagers, and lay tantric practitioners. He transmitted</br>his own termas and the great Nyingtik cycles of the Dzogchen teachings, and so</br>numerous were those he guided that he truly embodied the enlightened activity of</br>one who held sway over the three realms. In these times of spiritual degeneration, he</br>alleviated problems caused by disease, famine, border wars, and civil unrest. In such</br>ways, Apang Terchen rendered great service to the land of Tibet. His kindness to the</br>Tibetan people as a whole was truly extraordinary, for he worked to ensure a glorious</br>state of peace and well-being.</br></br>During a pilgrimage to Jowo Yizhin Norbu, the statue of the lord Shakyamuni in</br>Lhasa, Apang Terchen paid respect to many tens of thousands of ordained members</br>of the sangha, sponsoring ganachakras, making offerings, and offering meals, tea,</br>and donations at such monastic centers as Sera, Drepung, and Ganden. He sponsored</br>the gilding of statues in these centers and in such ways strove to reinforce his positive</br>qualities. Everyone could see that no matter how many avenues he found to extend</br>generosity, his resources of gold, silver, and other valuables [2.190b] continued to</br>increase, as though he had access to a treasure mine.</br></br>Among his heart children and intimate students were his sons, Gyurmé Dorjé,</br>Wangchen Nyima, and Dotrul Rinpoché; his daughter, Tare Lhamo; and the custodian</br>of his termas, Jangchub Dorjé. Until recently, Tare Lhamo lived in eastern Tibet,</br>maintaining the teachings.8</br></br>Thus did Apang Terchen benefit beings with his incredible compassion and activities.</br>As his life was nearing an end, he remarked, "For the sake of the teachings and</br>of beings, I must enter the bloodline of the glorious Sakya school." This fearless lion's</br>roar proved to be his last testament, spoken with an unobscured awareness of past,</br>present, and future. He then manifested incredible miracles and departed for the</br>great palace of Pema Ö.</br></br></br>Source: Richard Barron translation of Nyoshul Khenpo, A Marvelous Garland of Rare Gems: Biographies of Masters of Awareness in the Dzogchen Lineage, Padma Publications, 2005, pages 488-491., Padma Publications, 2005, pages 488-491.)
  • Decleer, H.  + ('''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)'''In Memoriam: Hubert Decleer (1940–2021)'''</br>:by Andrew Quintman</br></br>With great sadness, we share news that our incomparable teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend Hubert Decleer passed away peacefully on Wednesday, August 25. He was at his home with his wife, the poet Nazneen Zafar, in Kathmandu, Nepal, near the Swayambhū Mahācaitya that had been his constant inspiration for nearly five decades. His health declined rapidly following a diagnosis of advanced-stage lung cancer in May, but he remained lucid and in high spirits and over the past weeks he was surrounded by family members and close friends. Through his final hours, he maintained his love of Himalayan scholarship and black coffee, and his deep and quiet commitment to Buddhist practice.</br></br>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.</br></br>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. </br></br>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. </br></br>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. </br></br>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.</br></br>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. </br></br>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.</br></br>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. </br></br>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. </br></br>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. </br></br>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.</br></br>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. </br></br>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. </br></br>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.”</br></br>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. </br></br>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.</br></br>Benjamin Bogin, Andrew Quintman, and Dominique Townsend</br></br>Portions of this biographical sketch draw on the introduction to [[Himalayan Passages]]: Newar and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer (Wisdom Publications, 2014))
  • Sperling, E.  + ('''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)'''''Obituary: Elliot Sperling (1951-2017)''' by Tenzin Dorjee. (''HIMALAYA''. Volume 37, Number 1, pp 149-150)</br></br>Professor Elliot Sperling’s death was a colossal tragedy by</br>every measure. He was only 66 years old, and he exuded</br>life, health, and purpose—the antithesis of death. After</br>retiring from a long professorship at Indiana University</br>in 2015, where he was director of the Tibetan Studies</br>program at the department of Central Eurasian Studies,</br>Sperling moved back to his native New York. He bought an</br>apartment in Jackson Heights, where he converted every</br>wall into meticulously arranged bookshelves—only the</br>windows were spared. He was clearly looking forward to</br>a busy retirement, living in what was basically a library</br>pretending to be an apartment.</br>Sperling was the world’s foremost authority on historical</br>Sino-Tibetan relations. For his landmark work “on the political, religious, cultural, and economic relations between</br>Tibet and China from the fourteenth through seventeenth</br>centuries,” he was awarded a MacArthur genius grant at</br>the age of 33.1</br></br>He accumulated a compact but enduring body of work that defined and shaped Tibetan studies</br>over the last three decades. No less important, he was also</br>a phenomenal teacher, storyteller, entertainer, whiskey connoisseur (he delighted in teaching us how to enjoy</br>the peaty Scotch whiskies), and a passionate advocate for</br>Tibetan and Uyghur causes.</br>Through his seminal writings on Tibet’s relations with</br>China during the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties, he</br>became arguably the first historian to use both Chinese</br>language archives and Tibetan language sources extensively, bringing to light the separation and independence that</br>characterized the relationship between the two nations.</br>Until he came along, most Western academics viewed</br>Tibet through Chinese eyes, largely because they could</br>not access Tibetan sources. Sperling, fluent in Tibetan as</br>well as Chinese, upended the old Sino-centric narrative</br>and transformed the field. Roberto Vitali, who organized a</br>festschrift for Sperling in 2014, writes that Sperling’s work</br>“will stay as milestones” in Tibetan studies.2 His writings</br>have become so central to the field that any scholar who</br>writes a paper about historical Sino-Tibetan relations cannot do so without paying homage to Sperling’s work. He is,</br>so to speak, the Hegel of Sino-Tibetan history.</br></br>One can imagine the joy many of us felt when Professor</br>Sperling chose to make his home in Jackson Heights, the</br>second (if unofficial) capital of the exile Tibetan world—</br>after Dharamsala, India. We saw him at demonstrations at</br>the Chinese consulate, art openings at Tibet House, poetry</br>nights at Little Tibet restaurant, and sometimes at dinner</br>parties in the neighborhood. At every gathering, he held</br>court as the intellectual life of the party. His friends and</br>students bombarded him with questions on topics ranging</br>from art to politics to linguistics, for his erudition was</br>not limited to history alone. Unfailingly generous and</br>eloquent, he supplied the most intriguing, insightful and</br>exhaustive answers to every question. Each conversation</br>with him was a scholarly seminar. Among the circle of</br>Tibetan activists and artists living in New York City,</br>Sperling quickly fell into a sort of second professorship, an</br>underground tenure without the trappings of university.</br>We weren’t about to let him retire so easily.</br>Some of Professor Sperling’s most influential early works</br>include: The 5th Karma-pa and Some Aspects of the Relationship</br>Between Tibet and the Early Ming (1980); The 1413 Ming</br>Embassy to Tsong-ka-pa and the Arrival of Byams-chen chos-rje</br>Shakya ye-shes at the Ming Court (1982); Did the Early Ming</br>Emperors Attempt to Implement a ‘Divide and Rule’ Policy in</br>Tibet? (1983); and The Ho Clan of Ho-chou: A Tibetan Family in</br>Service to the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (1990) among others.</br>One of my personal favorites in his corpus is The 5th Karmapa and Some Aspects of the Relationship Between Tibet and the</br>Early Ming. In this text, Sperling argues that in the early</br>years following the collapse of the Mongol Yuan dynasty in</br>1367, the Ming rulers of China adopted a non-expansionist</br>foreign policy, displaying greater interest in drawing clear</br>boundaries to keep the ‘barbarians’ out of China than</br>in expanding its boundaries to encroach into non-Ming</br>territories. Ming China was initially conceived more as</br>an inward-looking state than an outward-looking empire,</br>partly in critique of the ruthless expansionism of their</br>predecessors, the Mongol Yuan rulers. In fact, Sperling</br>quotes from the very proclamation carried by the first</br>mission that Ming Taitsu, or the Hongwu Emperor, sent to</br>Tibet:</br></br>:Formerly, the hu people [i.e. the Mongols] usurped</br>:authority in China. For over a hundred years caps</br>:and sandals were in reversed positions. Of all</br>:hearts, which did not give rise to anger? In recent</br>:years, the hu rulers lost hold of the government….</br>:Your Tibetan state is located in the western lands.</br>:China is now united, but I am afraid that you have</br>:still not heard about this. Therefore this proclamation [is sent].3</br> </br>Sperling goes on to write that this “first mission is acknowledged by Chinese records to have met with no</br>success,” and that necessitated the dispatching of a second</br>mission.4</br></br>In ''Did the Early Ming Emperors Attempt to Implement a “Divide and Rule” Policy in Tibet?''5</br>Sperling defies decades of conventional wisdom with a bold argument when he writes:</br>:The Chinese court was never, in fact, able to mount</br>:a military expedition beyond the Sino-Tibetan</br>:frontier regions. This fact becomes strikingly</br>:obvious as one glances through both Tibetan and</br>:Chinese sources for the period in question…. Unable</br>:to protect its embassies or even to retaliate against</br>:attacks on them, China was hardly in a position to</br>:manifest the kind of power needed to implement a</br>:policy of “divide and rule” in Tibet.</br></br>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.</br></br>Elliot Sperling’s academic stature would have allowed</br>him to be an ivory tower intellectual. Instead, he chose</br>to be a true ally of the Tibetan people and an unwavering</br>champion of Tibetan freedom. While he studied with</br>Taktser Rinpoche, the Dalai Lama’s elder brother, he</br>maintained lifelong friendships with the people he met</br>in Dharamsala: Tashi Tsering (the preeminent Tibetan</br>historian), Jamyang Norbu (the rebel intellectual and</br>award-winning author), Peter Brown (the ‘American</br>Khampa’ and a brother in the Tibetan struggle). Sperling</br>joined many of us in the trenches of activism, always</br>encouraging us to embark on bigger and bolder advocacy</br>campaigns for Tibet. Speaking in his Bronx-accented</br>Tibetan, he told us that if only Tibetans studied our history</br>more seriously, we would be able to believe that Tibet will</br>be free again.</br></br>A sharp and fearless critic of Beijing, Sperling neither</br>minced his words nor censored his writings under fear of</br>being banned from China. Even when he taught in Beijing</br>for a semester, where he developed a close friendship with</br>the Tibetan poet Woeser, he successfully avoided the trap</br>of self-censorship that has neutered so many scholars in </br>our time.6</br></br>While railing against Beijing’s atrocities in Tibet, he managed to be critical of Dharamsala’s excessively conciliatory stance toward Beijing.7</br></br>His 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.”</br></br>In recent years, Sperling took up the case of Ilham Tohti,</br>the Uyghur intellectual sentenced to life imprisonment</br>by Beijing. He played a key role in raising Tohti’s profile</br>as a prisoner of conscience, nominating him for human</br>rights awards. He took Tohti’s daughter, Jewher, under</br>his wing and oversaw her wellbeing and education. In</br>Jewher’s own words, Elliot Sperling became “like a second</br>father” to her. His friendship with Ilahm Tohti and Jewher</br>exemplified the compassion and generosity with which he</br>treated everyone. Sure, he made his mark in this world as a</br>scholar, but his monumental intellect was matched by his</br>unbounded kindness, altruism, and humanity.</br></br>“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 death</br>has 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.”</br></br>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.</br></br>''Endnotes''<br> </br>1. MacArthur Foundation, <https://www.macfound.org/</br>fellows/236/> (accessed 6 March 2017).</br></br>2. Roberto Vitali, “For Elliot from a Friend,” International</br>Association for Tibetan Studies. Also see Trails of the Tibetan</br>Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling, edited by Roberto Vitali</br>(Amnye Machen Institute: 2014).</br></br>3. Elliot Sperling, “5th Karmapa and Some Aspects of</br>the Relationship Between Tibet and the Early Ming,” in</br>Michael Aris and Aung San Suu Kyi, eds., Tibetans Studies</br>in Honour of Hugh Richardson, Warminster, 1980 (published</br>in translation as Shiboling, “Wushi Gamaba yiji Xizang</br>he Mingchu de guanxi yaolue,” in Guowai Zangxue yanjiu</br>yiwenji, vol. 2, Lhasa, 1987), pp.279-289.</br></br>4. Ibid.</br></br>5. Elliot Sperling, “Divide and Rule Policy in Tibet,” in</br>Ernst Steinkellner, ed., Contributions on Tibetan Language,</br>History and Culture. Proceedings of the Csoma de Koros</br>Symposium Held at Velm-Vienna, Austria, 13-19 September</br>1981, Vienna, 1983, pp.339-356.</br></br>6. See Tsering Woeser, “A Chronicle of Elliot Sperling,”</br>in Trails of the Tibetan Tradition: Papers for Elliot Sperling,</br>Roberto Vitali eds., (published by Amnye Machen Institute,</br>2014).</br></br>7. He has criticized the Dalai Lama’s ‘Middle Way</br>Approach’ to dealing with China as too conciliatory. See</br>his article Self-Delusion, <http://info-buddhism.com/SelfDelusion_Middle-Way-Approach_Dalai-Lama_Exile_CTA_</br>Sperling.html#f1>.</br></br>'''Tenzin Dorjee''' is a writer, activist, and a researcher at Tibet</br>Action Institute. His monograph The Tibetan Nonviolent</br>Struggle: A Strategic and Historical Analysis was published</br>in 2015 by the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.</br>His writings have been published in various forums including</br>Global Post, Courier International, Tibetan Review, Tibet</br>Times, and the CNN blog. He is a regular commentator</br>on Tibet-related issues for Radio Free Asia, Voice of</br>America, and Voice of Tibet. He served as the Executive</br>Director of Students for a Free Tibet from 2009 to 2013.</br>An earlier version of this obituary was published in the</br>Huffington Post <https://www.huffpost.com/entry/remembering-elliot-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.t-sperling-personal-reflections-on_b_5899c990e4b0985224db59cb>.)
  • 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'':</br></br>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.</br></br>''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.</br></br>''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.</br></br>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].</br></br>''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.</br></br>Besides '' 'Sragdharāstotra' '' other texts attributed to ''Sarvajñamitra'' are all in praise of goddess ''Tārā'', viz.,<br></br>1. ''Devītarākuvākyādhyesana nāma stotra''<br></br>2. ''Āryatārāsādhanā'', and<br></br>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''.</br></br>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''.</br></br>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:<br></br></br>1. The ''Vāgiśvarastotra,<br></br>2. The ''Āryamañjuśrīstotra'',<br></br>3. The Āryavāgiśvarastotra'',<br></br>4. The ''Lokeśvarasiṃhanāda nāma stora [stotra?]'',<br></br>5. ''Prajñāpāramitastotra''<br></br>6. ''Acintyastava'', <br></br>7. ''Stutyatītastava'',<br></br>8. ''Niruttarastava'',<br></br>9. ''Āryabhattārakamañjuśrīparmārhastuti'',<br></br>10. ''Āryamañjuśrībhattārakakarunāstotra'',<br></br>11. ''Aṣṭamahāsthanacaityastotra'',<br></br>12. ''Aṣṭamahāsthanacaityastotra'' [Listed 2x in source as nos. 11 and 12]<br></br>13. ''Dvādaśakāranayastotra'',<br></br>14. ''Vandanāstotra'', and<br></br>15. ''Narakoddhāra''.<br></br></br>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))
  • Rong zom chos kyi bzang po  + ( *https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Rongzom_Ch%C3%B6kyi_Zangpo *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rongzom_Chokyi_Zangpo )
  • Gzhon nu rgyal mchog  + (1. (from kong sprul gsan yig @ v. 1, f. 161. (from kong sprul gsan yig @ v. 1, f. 16v)</br>important master in the bka' ma transmission lineage of the rgyud bzhi.</br></br>2. important bka' gdams/sa skya master in lineage of the blo sbyong teachings; he was involved with his student sems dpa' chen po dkon mchog rgyal mtshan in the compilation of the blo sbyong brgya rtsa. ([https://library.bdrc.io/show/bdr:P1943 Source Accessed June 12, 2022])/bdr:P1943 Source Accessed June 12, 2022]))
  • Fynn, C.  + (===Active Projects=== *Working as a consul===Active Projects===</br>*Working as a consultant for the [http://www.dzongkha.gov.bt/ Dzongkha Development Commission]</br>*[http://www.thlib.org/ Tibetan & Himalayan Library - Sections on Tibetan Script]</br>*[http://sites.google.com/site/chrisfynn2/tibetanscriptfonts/jomolhari Jomolhari Font]</br>*[https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/free-tibetan/ Free Tibetan Fonts Project]</br>===Some Previous Projects===</br>*Worked as a consultant for the National Library of Bhutan</br>*Bhutan National Digital Library</br>*Oversaw the text input for a new edition of Padma Lingpa's zab gter chos mdzod for HE Gangteng Tulku's Padmasambhava Project.</br>:([https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Christopher_Fynn Source: Chris Fynn, RyWiki Entry])</br>===Other Links===</br>*[http://sites.google.com/site/chrisfynn2/home/tibetanscriptfonts Tibetan script info]</br>*[http://sites.google.com/site/chrisfynn2/ Web site]</br>*[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Cfynn Chris Fynn] at Wikimedia Commonski/User:Cfynn Chris Fynn] at Wikimedia Commons)
  • Vajrācārya, D.  + (A Newar Pandit, Divyavajra was born in theA Newar Pandit, Divyavajra was born in the family of a very well known Vajrāchārya family of Nila Vajra and Bal Kumari in Māhābaudha, Kathmandu, Nepal on ''Jestha 24th Astami'', 1976 Vikram Sambat (1919AD).</br></br>He tied up his married life with Miss Keshari, the daughter of Meer Subba Heera Man Vajrachrāya at the age of nine. They had four sons and five daughters.</br></br>Pandit Divyavajra's life consists of two phases: the first half dedicated to the traditional, herbal and naturalopathic (Ayurvedic) medicine and the second half to the preservation of Nepalese Buddhist philosophy and literature. Towards the end of first half period of his life (around the year 2013 VS/ 1956AD) he suffered from diabetes and tuberculosis. That forced him to stay away from his traditional profession of naturopathic treatment which he had started by establishing the Piyusvarshi Aushadhālaya (Medical Center) in Māhābaudha Tole, Kathmandu, Nepal in the year 2001 VS(1944AD). This change in his life had inspired him to study the Buddha's philosophy and to take a teaching job. In addition, he also taught the Pāli language to several Newar Buddhist monks.</br></br>Until the year 2010 (1953), he was very active in teaching naturalopathy by visiting villages such as Thaiba, Baregāũ etc in the valley, and opened the health related Ayurvedic traditional schools. Besides this, in 2017 VS(1960), he also coordinated the opening of the first National Museum in Kathmandu and in the same year, organized a health and vocational exhibition.</br></br>From the very beginning of his adulthood, his eyesight was very weak, however he was bold and possessed a sharp memory. He never gave up studying Buddhist texts. By the year 2036 (1979) he had recited the whole text of ''Avidharma'', and collected, translated and explained the Sanskrit Buddhist texts such as ''Bodhi Charyāvatār'', ''Langkāvatār'', and so on to the public. He became an advisory member to several Buddhist organizations and became the president of the Dharmodaya Sabha, the National Buddhist Association in Kathmandu, Nepal.([http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/jns/pdf/JNS_03.pdf Source Accessed Mar 15, 2021])/JNS_03.pdf Source Accessed Mar 15, 2021]))
  • Dharmaruci  + (A fifth-century monk from Central Asia. InA fifth-century monk from Central Asia. In 405 he went to Ch'ang-an in China. He completed the Chinese translation of The Ten Divisions of Monastic Rules with Kumārajīva. Kumārajīva and Punyatāra earlier had begun to translate this work from Sanskrit into Chinese, but due to Punyatāra's death the translation had been suspended. Upon the request of the priest Hui-yüan and the ruler Yao Hsing of the Later Ch'in dynasty, Dharmaruchi, who was well versed in rules of monastic discipline, completed the translation with Kumārajīva. Later aspiring to disseminate the rules of monastic discipline to areas where they were still unknown, he embarked on a journey. His life after that is not known. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/59 Source Accessed Aug 27, 2021])ontent/D/59 Source Accessed Aug 27, 2021]))
  • Amtzis, J.  + (A long term student of the Dharma, Judith A long term student of the Dharma, Judith met both Holiness Pema Norbu Rinpoche and Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in 1976, and has lived in Asia since then, primarily in Kathmandu, Nepal. On the request of Holiness Penor Rinpoche, she collaborated with Khenpo Sonam Tsewang of Namdroling Monastery in Mysore to translate the Liberation Story of Namcho Migyur Dorje, the terton who discovered the treasures that make up the core of the Palyul tradition. This biography is entitled ''The All-Pervading Melodious Sound of Thunder'', and was written by the first Karma Chagme Rinpoche. ([http://levekunst.com/team_member/judith-amtzis/ Adapted from Source July 20, 2022])mtzis/ Adapted from Source July 20, 2022]))
  • Helm, A.  + (A long–term student of Chogyam Trungpa RinA long–term student of Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, Ann joined the Nalanda Translation Committee in 1986. She studied Tibetan at Naropa University, mainly with Dzigar Kongtrul, and she taught Tibetan and Foundations of Buddhism at Naropa from 1991-2004. After 30 years in Boulder, Ann lived as a retreatant for eight years at Padma Samye Ling, the monastery in upstate New York of Khenchen Palden Sherab and Khenpo Tsewang Dongyal. From 1997 to 2014, she translated primarily with Ringu Tulku and for Dharma Samudra, the Khenpo Brothers’ publication group. In 2014 Ann moved to Portland, Oregon, where she continues her Buddhist practice and study under the guidance of Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. ([http://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Ann_Helm Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020])hp/Ann_Helm Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020]))
  • LaFleur, W.  + (A native of Patterson, New Jersey, LaFleurA native of Patterson, New Jersey, LaFleur received his BA from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He earned two master’s degrees, one in comparative literature from the University of Michigan and another in the history of religions from the University of Chicago. He also completed his doctoral work at the University of Chicago, where he studied with Joseph Kitagawa and Mircea Eliade. After completing his PhD in 1973, LaFleur taught at Princeton University; University of California, Los Angeles; Sophia University, Tokyo; and University of Pennsylvania, where he was the E. Dale Saunders Professor of Japanese Studies. </br></br>LaFleur was a groundbreaking figure in the interdisciplinary study of Buddhism and culture in Japan and trained two generations of graduate students in these fields. His seminal work ''The Karma of Words: Buddhism and the Literary Arts in Medieval Japan'' (University of California Press, 1986) broke away from a traditional focus on specific Buddhist figures and lineages and instead approached Buddhism as the “cognitive map” by which medieval Japanese of all Buddhist schools and social levels made sense of their world. He also uncovered an intimate relation between the Japanese Buddhist episteme and medieval literary arts. The innovative studies now emerging from a generation of younger scholars working at the intersections of Buddhism and literature owe much to LaFleur’s influence.</br></br>A scholar of far-reaching interests and expertise, LaFleur refused to be confined by any single research area, historical period, or method of approach. In addition to his work on Buddhist cosmology and the “mind” of medieval Japan, he was a gifted translator and interpreter of poetry and published two volumes on the medieval monk-poet Saigyō. He was deeply interested in Zen, especially as a resource for contemporary thought. He wrote and edited several books and essays, introducing to Western readers the work of the thirteenth century Zen master Dōgen, the Kyoto-school figure Masao Abé, and the twentieth century philosopher and cultural historian Watsuji Tetsurō. In 1989, he became the first non-Japanese to win the Watsuji Tetsurō Cultural Prize.</br></br>LaFleur’s ''Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan'' (Princeton University Press, 1994) expanded his earlier attention to Buddhist notions of the body and catalyzed his growing interest in comparative public philosophy and social ethics. In his later career, while continuing to study medieval Japanese religion and literature, he produced pioneering studies of Japanese bioethics, highlighting contrasts with Western approaches to such issues as abortion, organ transplants, and medical definitions of death. Altogether, he wrote or edited nine books. He left several other projects still in progress; some of which will be published posthumously. ([http://rsnonline.org/index7696.html?option=com_content Source Accessed Jan 16, 2020])com_content Source Accessed Jan 16, 2020]))
  • Chodron, T.  + (A native of the U.S., Ven. Chodron, whose A native of the U.S., Ven. Chodron, whose Chinese Dharma name is De Lin, is particularly qualified to teach Western monastics. She trained in Asia for many years, receiving novice ordination from Kyabje Ling Rinpoche in 1977 and full ordination in Taiwan in 1986. Her teachers include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, and Lama Thubten Yeshe and many others.</br></br>In addition to founding Sravasti Abbey, Ven. Chodron is a well-known author and teacher. She has published many books on Buddhist philosophy and meditation, including four volumes (so far) in The Library of Wisdom and Compassion, co-authored with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, with whom she has studied for nearly forty years. Find info on the first four volumes in the series here: Volume 1, ''Approaching the Buddhist Path''; Volume 2, ''The Foundation of Buddhist Practice''; Volume 3, ''Samsara, Nirvana, & Buddha Nature'', and Volume 4, ''Following in the Buddha’s Footsteps''.</br></br>Ven. Chodron teaches worldwide and is known for her practical (and humorous!) explanations of how to apply Buddhist teachings in daily life. She was resident teacher at Amitabha Buddhist Centre in Singapore and Dharma Friendship Foundation in Seattle. Ven. Chodron is also actively involved in prison outreach and interfaith dialogue. ([https://sravastiabbey.org/community-member/thubten-chodron/ Source Accessed Nov 1, 2021])thubten-chodron/ Source Accessed Nov 1, 2021]))
  • Bodhiruci  + (A renowned Indian translator and monk (to A renowned Indian translator and monk (to be distinguished from a subsequent Bodhiruci [s.v.] who was active in China two centuries later during the Tang dynasty). Bodhiruci left north India for Luoyang, the Northern Wei capital, in 508. He is said to have been well versed in the Tripiṭaka and talented at incantations. Bodhiruci stayed at the monastery of Yongningsi in Luoyang from 508 to 512 and with the help of Buddhaśānta (d.u.) and others translated over thirty Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises, most of which reflect the latest developments in Indian Mahāyāna, and especially Yogācāra. His translations include the ''Dharmasaṃgīti'', ''Shidijing lun'', ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'', ''Vajracchedikāprajñāpāramitāsūtra'', and the ''Wuliangshou jing youpotishe yuansheng ji'', attributed to Vasubandhu. Bodhiruci’s translation of the ''Shidijing lun'', otherwise known more simply as the ''Di lun'', fostered the formation of a group of Yogācāra specialists in China that later historians retroactively call the Di lun zong. According to a story in the ''Lidai fabao ji'', a jealous Bodhiruci, assisted by a monk from Shaolinsi on Songshan named Guangtong (also known as Huiguang, 468–537), is said to have attempted on numerous occasions to poison the founder of the Chan school, Bodhidharma, and eventually succeeded. Bodhiruci is also said to have played an instrumental role in converting the Chinese monk Tanluan from Daoist longevity practices to the pure land teachings of the ''Guan Wuliangshou jing''. (Source: "Bodhiruci." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 133. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • Ware, J.  + (A specialist in the study of pre-Tang BuddA specialist in the study of pre-Tang Buddhism and Daoism, James Ware was the first student to receive a Ph.D. at Harvard in the field of Chinese studies. He completed his dissertation in 1932, on the representation of Buddhism in the historical chronicle of the Wei dynasty known as the Weishu. He then taught courses in the Chinese language and Chinese history at Harvard, and was, together with Serge Elisséeff, one of the founding faculty members of the Department of Far Eastern Languages. In this capacity, he supervised the Chinese language program for much of the 1930s and 40s.</br></br>Much of the material for Ware’s early studies was drawn from the Weishu. He wrote on problems relating to the Toba rulers of the Wei, the history of Buddhism and Daoism in the Northern Dynasties, and the textual history of the ''Fanwang jing'' and other scriptures from the Buddhist canon. In the same years, he also published selected translations from several Buddhist sutras. He worked together with Serge Eliseeff to establish the ''Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies'' in 1936, and contributed numerous articles and book reviews to the journal over the course of the next decade. He also developed a series of Chinese language textbooks and wrote on aspects of modern Chinese linguistics.</br></br>In the latter years of his career, Ware turned his attention his attention to translating, primarily for a non-specialist audience. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he published selections from the Analects, Zhuangzi, and Mencius. His final significant work was a complete translation of Ge Hong’s fourth century ''Baopuzi'' (1967). ([https://ealc.fas.harvard.edu/james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021])james-ware Source Accessed July 28, 2021]))
  • Muller, C.  + (A. Charles Muller (born September 19, 1953A. Charles Muller (born September 19, 1953) is an academic specializing in Korean Buddhism and East Asian Yogacara, having published numerous books and articles on these topics. He is a resident of Japan, currently teaching at Musashino University. He is one of the earliest and most prolific developers of online research resources for the field of Buddhist Studies, being the founder and managing editor of the online Digital Dictionary of Buddhism, the CJKV-English Dictionary, and the H-Buddhism Scholars Information Network, along with having digitized and published numerous reference works.</br></br>Muller's academic study of Buddhism began as an undergraduate at Stony Brook University, where he majored in Religious Studies under the guidance of Sung Bae Park, a specialist in Seon and Korean Buddhism. After graduating, he spent two years studying in Japan, after which he spent one year in the graduate program in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. In 1988, he left UVa to return to Stony Brook, where he completed a PhD in Comparative literature, once again with Sung Bae Park as his principal advisor. He also studied Christian Theology with Peter Manchester, Islam with William Chittick, and Postmodern literary criticism with Michael Sprinker and Hugh Silverman. His dissertation, "Hamhŏ Kihwa: A Study of His Major Works," was accepted in 1993, after which he spent six months in Korea as a research associate at the Academy of Korean Studies, before taking up an academic position in Japan, at Toyo Gakuen University.</br></br>From 1994 to 2008, Muller taught courses in philosophy and religion at Toyo Gakuen University, during which time he published numerous books and articles on Korean Buddhism, Zen, East Asian Yogacara, and Confucianism. While active in numerous academic organizations such as the American Academy of Religion and the Japanese Association for Indian and Buddhist Studies, he also became known as one of leading figures in the creation of online research resources. In 1995, he set up his web site called Resources for East Asian Language and Thought (still in active service today), featuring online lexicons, indexes, bibliographies, and translations of classical texts. In 1996, he started the Budschol listserv for the academic study of Buddhism, which would, in 2000, become part of H-Net, under the name of H-Buddhism, the central internet organ for communication among scholars of Buddhism. He also initiated two major dictionary projects, the Digital Dictionary of Buddhism and the CJKV-E Dictionary, which have become basic reference works for the field of Buddhist and East Asian studies, subscribed to by universities around the world. His work in the area of online reference works and digitization led him into the field of Digital Humanities, with his principal area of expertise lying in the handling of literary documents using XML and XSLT. In 2008, Muller was invited to join the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Tokyo, where he taught courses in Digital Humanities, Chinese Philosophy, and Korean Philosophy and Religion. He retired from UTokyo in March 2019 and moved to Musashino University, where he is director of the Institute of Buddhist culture and teaches courses in Buddhist Studies. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Charles_Muller Source Accessed July 21, 2021])les_Muller Source Accessed July 21, 2021]))
  • Sumatikīrti  + (According to Akasoy, Burnett, and Yoeli-TlAccording to Akasoy, Burnett, and Yoeli-Tlalim (eds.) in their book ''Islam and Tibet'' (2011, 125), Sumatikīrti "is well known as a pundit who worked on translations, belonging to the 'later spreading' (''phyi-dar'') period, which begins in the last decades of the tenth century. He stayed in the Nepal Valley, and it is not certain if he ever set foot in Tibet, perhaps not. Given the dates of the Tibetan translators with whom he worked, he must have been active in the last part of the eleventh century. It is known that Mar-pa Do-pa Chos-kyi-dbang-phyug (dates not certain, but perhaps 1042–1136) studied with Sumatikīrti, among others, in Nepal. Rngog Lo-tsā-ba Blo-ldan-shes-rab (1059–1109) also is known to have worked with Sumatikīrti." </br></br>Sumatikīrti is responsible, along with Rngog blo ldan shes rab, for a second revision of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''.cond revision of the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''.)
  • Pāramiti  + (According to the account in the Chinese caAccording to the account in the Chinese cataloguer Zhisheng's ''Xu gujin yijing tuji'', the ''Śūraṃgamasūtra'' was brought to China by a śramaṇa named Pāramiti. Because the ''Śūraṃgamasūtra'' had been proclaimed a national treasure, the Indian king had forbidden anyone to take the sūtra out of the country. In order to transmit this scripture to China, Pāramiti wrote the sūtra out in minute letters on extremely fine silk, then he cut open his arm and hid the small scroll inside his flesh. With the sūtra safely hidden away, Pāramiti set out for China and eventually arrived in Guangdong province. There, he happened to meet the exiled Prime Minister Fangrong, who invited him to reside at the monastery of Zhizhisi, where he translated the sūtra in 705 CE. Apart from Pāramiti's putative connection to the ''Śūraṃgamasūtra'', however, nothing more is known about him and he has no biography in the ''Gaoseng zhuan'' ("Biographies of Eminent Monks"). (Source: "*Śūraṃgamasūtra." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 873–74. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)tp://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.))
  • Bower, E.  + (Acharya Emily Bower started meditating andAcharya Emily Bower started meditating and studying with the Shambhala community in 1987 in Berkeley, California. She went on to live on staff at Karme Chöling for three years, and then moved to Boston, Massachusetts to work as a book editor specializing in Buddhism, yoga, and other spiritual traditions.</br></br>She worked for Shambhala Publications for a total of ten years. She is fortunate to have been able to work on books with many spiritual teachers, including Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche.</br></br>She lives and works now in Los Angeles as a book editor and publishing consultant, and is a co-founder of Dharma Spring, a curated online Buddhist bookshop, launching in 2017. She is an editor for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, an international non-profit initiative to translate all of the Buddha’s words into modern languages and to make them available to everyone, free of charge.</br></br>In her service as a senior teacher in the Shambhala community, she leads both extended retreats and weekend programs. She especially enjoys presenting on themes that bring practical application to our wisdom traditions. ([https://shambhalaonline.org/acharya-emily-bower/ Source Accessed Mar 18, 2022])mily-bower/ Source Accessed Mar 18, 2022]))
  • Gyaltsen, Tenpa  + (Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen is core facultAcharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen is core faculty at Nitartha Institute and recently retired from [https://www.naropa.edu/faculty/acharya-gyaltsen.php Naropa University].</br></br>Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen was born in Trakar, Nepal, near the Tibetan border. He completed 10 years of traditional scholastic training at [http://www.rumtek.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=400&Itemid=612&lang=en Karma Shri Nalanda Institute] at Rumtek Monastery, Sikkim, India, graduating as acharya with honours (graduated in the same class as [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]]). This was followed by traditional yogic training in the first three-year retreat to be conducted at Jamgon Kongtrul Rinpoche's monastery in Pullahari, Nepal. </br></br>Following the advice of [[Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche]], Lama Tenpa taught at various Kagyu centers in Europe (Teksum Tashi Choling in Hamburg, Germany), at Nitartha, and centers in Canada. In 2004 he moved to Boulder, CO and began teaching at Naropa University. He retired from Naropa in 2020. </br></br>Learn more about Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen on the [https://nitarthainstitute.org/about/nitartha-faculty/ Nitartha faculty page] and at [https://nalandabodhi.org/teacher/acharya-lama-tenpa-gyaltsen/ Nalandabodhi].hi.org/teacher/acharya-lama-tenpa-gyaltsen/ Nalandabodhi].)
  • Ary, E.  + (Adjunct Professor chez ESSEC Business SchoAdjunct Professor chez ESSEC Business School. Geshe Khunawa, recognized by the 14th Dalai Lama; Discovered by Geshe Pema Gyaltsen. </br>Elijah Sacvan Ary was born in Vancouver, Canada. In 1979, at age seven, he was recognized as the reincarnation, or tulku, of a Tibetan scholar and spent his teenage years as a monk at Sera Monastery in South India. He went on to study at the University of Quebec in Montreal and the National Institute for Eastern Languages and Civilizations (Inalco) in Paris, and he earned his PhD in the Study of Religion from Harvard University. His writings have appeared in the books Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions, Oxford Bibliographies Online: Buddhism, Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies, and Blue Jean Buddha: Voices of Young Buddhists. He lives in Paris with his wife and teaches Buddhism and Tibetan religious history at several institutions. [http://www.wisdompubs.org/author/elijah-s-ary Source Accessed Jun 12, 2015]elijah-s-ary Source Accessed Jun 12, 2015])
  • Finnegan, D.  + (After a career as a journalist based in NeAfter a career as a journalist based in New York and Hong Kong, Damchö Diana Finnegan ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1999. In 2009, she received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a thesis on gender and ethics in Sanskrit and Tibetan narratives about Buddha’s direct female disciples in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. </br> </br>After completing her dissertation she worked closely with the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, serving as co-editor on various publications, including ''Interconnected: Embracing Life in a Global Society'' and ''The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out''. </br></br>In 2007, she co-founded Dharmadatta Nuns’ Community (Comunidad Dharmadatta), a community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns, based first in India and later in Mexico. Together with the other Dharmadatta nuns, she leads a large Latin American community with a commitment to gender and environmental justice as part of its spiritual practice. </br></br>At the same time, Damchö continues to participate in academic circles, presenting at conferences, editing books, and engaging in various research projects. The most recent publication on which she collaborated, a translation from Sanskrit and Tibetan of the manual for conferring full ordination to women, is forthcoming from Hamburg University’s Numata Center for Buddhist Studies. </br> </br>Damchö has served as a board member of Maitripa College since its founding in 2005. ([https://maitripa.org/damcho-diana-finnegan/ Source Accessed Sep 23, 2021])a-finnegan/ Source Accessed Sep 23, 2021]))
  • Sattizahn, E.  + (After meeting Suzuki Roshi in 1970, Rinso After meeting Suzuki Roshi in 1970, Rinso Ed Sattizahn lived at Tassajara from 1973 to 1977. He spent the next five years at City Center, serving as Zen Center's Vice President and President. From 1983 to 2000 Ed held various executive positions in the microcomputer software industry and developed familiarity with how the world works. In 2003, he served as Shuso (Head Student) at Green Gulch Farm, and in the same year co-founded Vimala Sangha in Mill Valley with Lew Richmond. Vimala Sangha is named after Vimalakirti, the famous householder disciple of the Buddha, and is dedicated to the practice of householder Zen in the tradition of Suzuki Roshi. Ed received Lay Entrustment in 2005, was ordained as a Zen priest in 2010, and received Dharma Transmission in 2012, all from Lew Richmond. Ed previously served on the Zen Center Board for six years (2006-2011) and as board chair for three years (2009-2011). In March 2014, Ed became Abiding Abbot at City Center, and in March 2019 stepped into the role of Central Abbot. He remains the guiding teacher at Vimala Sangha Mill Valley. ([https://www.sfzc.org/teachers/rinso-ed-sattizahn Source Accessed August 13, 2020])attizahn Source Accessed August 13, 2020]))
  • Fox, A.  + (Alan Fox is an Professor of Asian and CompAlan Fox is an Professor of Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religion in the Philosophy Department at the University of Delaware. He earned his Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University in 1988, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan in 1986-87. He came to the University in 1990. He received the University of Delaware’s Excellence in Teaching Award in 1995 and 2006, and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Outstanding Teacher Award in 1999. In 2006 he was named Delaware Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for Advancement of Teaching and the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. In 2008 he was named a finalist for the National Inspiring Integrity Award, and in 2012 he was named a Teaching Fellow by the American Association of Philosophy Teachers. He is a former director of both the University Honors Program and the Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Program, as well as advisor to the undergraduate Religious Studies Minor. He has also served as President of the Faculty Senate at both the College and University levels. He has published on Buddhism and Chinese Philosophy. His research is currently focused on Philosophical Daoism. ([https://udel.edu/~afox/ Source Accessed May 18, 2021]).edu/~afox/ Source Accessed May 18, 2021]))
  • Berzin, A.  + (Alexander Berzin (born 1944) grew up in NeAlexander Berzin (born 1944) grew up in New Jersey, USA. He began his study of Buddhism in 1962 at Rutgers and then Princeton Universities, and received his PhD in 1972 from Harvard University jointly between the Departments of Sanskrit and Indian Studies and Far Eastern Languages (Chinese). Inspired by the process through which Buddhism was transmitted from one Asian civilization to another and how it was translated and adopted, his focus has been, ever since, on bridging traditional Buddhist and modern Western cultures.</br></br>Dr. Berzin was resident in India for 29 years, first as a Fulbright Scholar and then with the Translation Bureau, which he helped to found, at the Library of Tibetan Works & Archives in Dharamsala. While in India, he furthered his studies with masters from all four Tibetan Buddhist traditions; however, his main teachers have been His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, and Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey. Practicing under their supervision, he completed the major meditation retreats of the Gelug tradition.</br></br>For nine years, he was the principal interpreter for Tsenzhab Serkong Rinpoche, accompanying him on his foreign tours and training under him to be a Buddhist teacher in his own right. He has served as occasional interpreter for H.H. the Dalai Lama and has organized several international projects for him. These have included Tibetan medical aid for victims of the Chernobyl radiation disaster; preparation of basic Buddhist texts in colloquial Mongolian to help with the revival of Buddhism in Mongolia; and initiation of a Buddhist-Muslim dialogue in universities in the Islamic world.</br></br>Since 1980, Dr. Berzin has traveled the world, lecturing on Buddhism in universities and Buddhist centers in over 70 countries. He was one of the first to teach Buddhism in most of the communist world, throughout Latin America and large parts of Africa. Throughout his travels, he has consistently tried to demystify Buddhism and show the practical application of its teachings in daily life.</br></br>A prolific author and translator, Dr. Berzin has published 17 books, including Relating to a Spiritual Teacher, Taking the Kalachakra Initiation, Developing Balanced Sensitivity, and with H.H. the Dalai Lama, The Gelug-Kagyu Tradition of Mahamudra.</br></br>At the end of 1998, Dr. Berzin returned to the West with about 30,000 pages of unpublished manuscripts of books, articles, and translations he had prepared, transcriptions of teachings of the great masters that he had translated, and notes from all the teachings he had received from these masters. Convinced of the benefit of this material for others and determined that it not be lost, he named it the “Berzin Archives” and settled in Berlin, Germany. There, with the encouragement of H. H. the Dalai Lama, he set out to make this vast material freely available to the world on the Internet, in as many languages as possible.</br></br>Thus, the Berzin Archives website went online in December 2001. It has expanded to include Dr. Berzin’s ongoing lectures and is now available in 21 languages. For many of them, especially the six Islamic world languages, it is the pioneering work in the field. The present version of the [https://studybuddhism.com/ website] is the next step in Dr. Berzin’s lifelong commitment to building a bridge between the traditional Buddhist and modern worlds. By guiding the teachings across the bridge and showing their relevance to modern life, his vision has been that they would help to bring emotional balance to the world.</br>([https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin Source Accessed Dec 4, 2019])</br></br>Click here for a list of Alexander Berzin's [https://studybuddhism.com/en/dr-alexander-berzin/published-works-of-dr-berzin publications]zin/published-works-of-dr-berzin publications])
  • Lokos, A.  + (Allan Lokos is the founder and guiding teaAllan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the Community Meditation Center located on New York City's upper west side. He is the author of ''Pocket Peace: Effective Practices for Enlightened Living'', ''Patience: The Art of Peaceful Living'', and ''Through the Flames: Overcoming Disaster Through Compassion, Patience, and Determination''. His writing has appeared in The Huffington Post, Tricycle magazine, Beliefnet, and several anthologies.</br></br>Among the places he has taught are Columbia University Teachers College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, The Barre Center for Buddhist Studies, Marymount Manhattan College, The Rubin Museum of Art Brainwave Series, BuddhaFest, NY Insight Meditation Center, The NY Open Center, Tibet House US, and Insight Meditation Community of Washington. Lokos has practiced meditation since the mid-nineties and studied with such renowned teachers as Sharon Salzberg, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Joseph Goldstein, Andrew Olendzki, and Stephen Batchelor.</br></br>Earlier in this life Lokos enjoyed a successful career as a professional singer. He was in the original Broadway companies of Oliver!, Pickwick (musical), and the Stratford Festival/Broadway production of The Pirates of Penzance. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allan_Lokos Source Accessed May 25, 2021])Allan_Lokos Source Accessed May 25, 2021]))
  • Graboski, A.  + (Allison Choying Zangmo is Anyen Rinpoche'sAllison Choying Zangmo is Anyen Rinpoche's personal translator and a longtime student of both Rinpoche and his root lama, Kyabje Tsara Dharmakirti. She has either translated or collaborated with Rinpoche on all of his books. She lives in Denver, Colorado.</br></br>She has received empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instructions in the Longchen Nyingthig tradition from Khenchen Tsara Dharmakirti Rinpoche, as well as others of his main students, such as Khenpo Tashi from Do Kham Shedrup Ling. She also received an unusually direct lineage of Do Khyentse Yeshe Dorje’s chod from the realized chodpa Lama Damphel.</br></br>After moving to the US with Anyen Rinpoche, she received many other empowerments, transmissions and upadesha instructions in the Secret Mantryana tradition from eminent masters such as Taklong Tsetrul Rinpoche, Padma Dunbo, Yangtang Rinpoche, Khenpo Namdrol, Denpai Wangchuk, and Tulku Rolpai Dorje.</br></br>Allison Choying Zangmo works diligently for both Orgyen Khamdroling and the Phowa Foundation, as well as composing books and translations of traditional texts & sadhanas with Anyen Rinpoche, and spending a portion of each year in retreat. Although she never had any wish to teach Dharma in the west, based on encouragement by Anyen Rinpoche, Tulku Rolpai Dorje and Khenpo Tashi, she began teaching the dharma under Anyen Rinpoche's guidance in 2017. ([https://orgyenkhamdroling.org/rinpoche/allison Source: Orgyen Khamdroling])/rinpoche/allison Source: Orgyen Khamdroling]))
  • Lobsang Tharchin, Sermey Khensur  + (Also known as Geshe Lobsang Tharchin (1921Also known as Geshe Lobsang Tharchin (1921 - 2004). Full Obituary: http://www.acidharma.org/directors/kr_passing.html</br></br>(Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin) Khensur Rinpoche first came to the United States in April 1972; he continued to live and teach here for more than 30 years. He was one of the most senior Tibetan Buddhist masters to bring the holy teachings of Tibetan Buddhism to the west.</br></br>Sermey Khensur Rinpoche Lobsang Tharchin was born in Lhasa, Tibet in 1921. He entered the Mey College of Sera Monastery at an early age and proceeded through the rigorous 25 year program of Buddhist monastic and philosophical studies. Upon successful completion of the public examination by the best scholars of the day, Rinpoche was awarded the highest degree of Hlarampa Geshe with honors. In 1954, he entered the Gyumed Tantric College, completed its course of study under strict monastic discipline, and shortly afterwards attained a high-ranking administrative position.In 1959, Rinpoche escaped to India along with His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, and tens of thousands of other Tibetans. Actively involved in Tibetan resettlement, he compiled a series of textbooks for a Tibetan curriculum to be used in refugee schools and also taught in Darjeeling, Simla, and Mussoorie.</br></br>In 1972, Khen Rinpoche was chosen by H.H. the Dalai Lama to come to the United States to participate in a project involving the translation of Buddhist scriptures. Upon its completion, he was invited to serve as the Abbot of Rashi Gempil Ling Temple in New Jersey, a position that he held until his passing, on December 1, 2004. In 1975 Rinpoche founded the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center in Washington D.C., with a branch in New Jersey, as well as, the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Press. Over the years he has offered a vast range of Buddhist teachings.</br></br>In 1991, Khen Rinpoche was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to serve as Abbot of Sera Mey monastery in south India. After a brief appointment there, he returned to the United States, where he continued to teach and direct a number of projects dedicated to the restoration of Sera Mey Monastery in India and to the flourishing of the Mahayana Buddhist Dharma in the West unitl his passing in December of 2004. [http://mstcdharma.org/teachers-history-of-center/ Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center of Washington, DC]Sutra and Tantra Center of Washington, DC])
  • Bo Fazu  + (Also known as Po-yüan or Po Fa-tsu. A prieAlso known as Po-yüan or Po Fa-tsu. A priest and a translator of Buddhist texts during the late Western Chin dynasty (265–316) in China. He built a Buddhist monastery at Ch'ang-an, where he translated and lectured on Buddhist scriptures. In 305 he set out for Lung-yu, where he intended to live in retirement. He was killed along the way, however, because of his refusal to work for Chang Fu, the local governor of Ch'in-chou, and also because of accusations lodged by someone he had defeated in debate. The Buddha's Parinirvāna Sutra, one of the Hinayana versions of the Nirvana Sutra, was translated by Fa-tsu. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/F/14 Source Accessed Sep 3, 2021])Content/F/14 Source Accessed Sep 3, 2021]))
  • Vanaratna  + (Also known by his Tibetan name of nags kyiAlso known by his Tibetan name of nags kyi rin chen (1384-1468), a Bengali Paṇḍita and Māhasiddha, reportedly the "last great Indian Paṇdita to visit Tibet". He was born in Sadnagara, near present-day Chittagong. At age eight he received novice ordination from Buddhaghoṣa and Sujataratna. He took up his studies and perfected them very quickly. At age 20 he received full ordination from the same two masters, and went to Shri Lanka for six years, where he spent most of his time meditating in seclusion. Upon his return to India, he was greatly praised by the famous scholar Narāditya.</br></br>At Śrī Dhānya-kaṭaka mahā-caitya he met, in a vision, with Māhasiddha Shavaripa and received from him his unique transmission of the Sadaṅga-yoga, the Six-limbed Yoga of the Kālacakra tradition. Vanaratna eventually beheld a vision of Avalokiteśvara, who advised him to go to Tibet.</br></br>Vanaratna visited Tibet in 1426, 1433 and 1453 and spread the Kālacakra lineage and instructions of Paṇḍita Vibhūti-candra there, especially the Sadaṅga-yoga according to Anupamarakṣita, and many other teachings. He also assisted in the translation of many texts and treatises. Such famous Tibetan masters as Gö Lotsawa Shönnu Pal (1392-1481) and Thrimkang Lotsawa Sönam Gyatso (1424-1482) were his close students. He also spent time in Bhutan, where even nowadays there is a temple, near Paro, with a sacred statue of his and a rock that bears his name in old Bengali script. Vanaratna spent his final years in the Gopicandra Vihara in Patan/Kathmandu, now known as Pinthu Bahal, and passed away there. (Source: [https://rywiki.tsadra.org/index.php/Vanaratna RY wiki])i.tsadra.org/index.php/Vanaratna RY wiki]))
  • Heller, A.  + (Amy Heller is affiliated with CNRS, Paris Amy Heller is affiliated with CNRS, Paris (Tibetan studies unit 7133). She has traveled many times to Tibet, Nepal and along the Silk Road. Her trip to Tibet in 1995 as a part of team for evaluating restoration of monasteries of Gra thang and Zha lu and its subsequent research resulted in her book Tibetan Art (1999) published in English, French, Italian and Spanish. She has been curator for two exhibitions of Tibetan art (Yale University Art Gallery, and Beinecke Library, Yale). Her forthcoming book Hidden Treasures of the Himalaya: Tibetan manuscripts, paintings and sculptures of Dolpo is a study of the cultural history of Dolpo, Nepal, presenting a collection of 650 volumes of 12th-16th century illuminated Tibetan manuscripts conserved in an ancient Dolpo temple.ipts conserved in an ancient Dolpo temple.)
  • Carus, P.  + (An early supporter of Buddhism in America An early supporter of Buddhism in America and the proponent of the "religion of science": a faith that claimed to be purified of all superstition and irrationality and that, in harmony with science, would bring about solutions to the world's problems. Carus was born in Ilsenberg in Harz, Germany. He immigrated to America in 1884, settling in LaSalle, Illinois, where he assumed the editorship of the Open Court Publishing Company. He attended the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and became friends with several of the Buddhist delegates, including Dharmapāla and Shaku Sōen, who were among the first to promote his writing.Later, Shaku Sōen's student, Daisetz Teitaro Susuki, woudld spend eleven years working with and for Carus in LaSalle. In 1894, Carus published ''The Gospel of Buddha according to Old Records'', an anthology of passages from Buddhist texts drawn from contemporary translations in English, French, and German, making particular use of translations from the Pāli by Thomas W. Rhys Davids, as well as translations of the life of the Buddha from Chinese and Tibetan sources. Second only to Edwin Arnold's ''Light of Asia'' in intellectual influence at the time, ''The Gospel'' was arranged like the Bible, with numbered chapters and verses and a table at the end that listed parallel passages from the New Testament. ''The Gospel'' was intended to highlight the many agreements between Buddhism and Christianity, thereby bringing out "that nobler Christianity which aspires to the cosmic religion of universal truth." Carus was free in his manipulation of his sources, writing in the preface that he had rearranged, retranslated, and added emendations and elaborations in order to make them more accessible to a Western audience; for this reason, the translated sources are not always easy to trace back to the original literature. He also makes it clear in the preface that his ultimate goal is to lead his readers to the Religion of Science. He believed that both Buddhism and Christianity, when understood correctly, would point the way to the Religion of Science. Although remembered today for his ''Gospel'', Carus wrote some seventy books and more than a thousand articles. His books include studies of Goethe, Schiller, Kant, and Chinese thought. (Source: The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, 2014, 168)inceton Dictionary of Buddhism, 2014, 168))
  • Śāntākaragupta  + (An eleventh-century Buddhist scholar, one An eleventh-century Buddhist scholar, one of the revisors of the ''Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna'', together with Abhayākaragupta, Śākyarakṣita, and Vidyākaraśānti. Śāntākaragupta translated several texts (''Avalokiteśvarasādhana'', ''Ālambanaparīkṣā'', ''Ālambanaparīkṣāvṛtti'', ''Trikālaparīkṣā'') into Tibetan together with Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan, who also collaborated with Abhayākaragupta, who was active during the reign of Rāmapāla (c. 1075–1128). (Adapted from Dezső, "Inspired Poetry:</br>Śāntākaragupta's Play on the Legend of Prince Sudhana and the ''Kinnarī''," ''Indo-Iranian Journal'' 57 (2014): 92)," ''Indo-Iranian Journal'' 57 (2014): 92))
  • Bjonback, A.  + (Anders holds a Bachelors degree from NaropAnders holds a Bachelors degree from Naropa University and joined the Centre for Buddhist Studies in 2006. At CBS Anders graduated with a BA in Buddhist Studies in 2010 and afterwards joined the MA program.</br></br>His thesis supervisor was Dr. Karin Meyers and the external reader was Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes from the University of Vienna, Austria.</br></br>Anders also secured a Tsadra foundation scholarship for his MA studies and recently took ordination. ([http://ryi-student-blog.blogspot.com/2012/12/congratulations-anders-bjonback.html Source Accessed Aug 12, 2020])onback.html Source Accessed Aug 12, 2020]))
  • Doctor, A.  + (Andreas Doctor (PhD 2004, University of CaAndreas Doctor (PhD 2004, University of Calgary) is the director of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee and the editorial co-director of 84000.</br></br>For a number of years, Andreas has studied Buddhist history and philosophy under the guidance of Tibetan monks and lamas, mostly in Nepal at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery. As a founding member of Rangjung Yeshe Institute, he spent fifteen years teaching at the Institute and for most of this period he served as director of studies at Kathmandu University’s Centre for Buddhist Studies, located at Rangjung Yeshe Institute.</br></br>As director of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Andreas has participated in numerous translation projects, most recently in translating sūtras and tantras from the Tibetan canon. He is also a founding member of Rangjung Yeshe Gomde, Denmark. ([https://www.khyentsevision.org/team/dr-andreas-doctor/ Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022])-doctor/ Adapted from Source Oct 1, 2022]))
  • Quintman, A.  + (Andrew Quintman is a scholar of Buddhist tAndrew Quintman is a scholar of Buddhist traditions in Tibet and the Himalayan world focusing on Buddhist literature and history, sacred geography and pilgrimage, and visual cultures of the wider Himalaya. His work addresses the intersections of Buddhist literary production, circulation, and reception; the reciprocal influences of textual and visual narratives; and the formation of religious subjectivities and institutional identities. He is also engaged in developing new digital tools for the study and teaching of religion. His book, The Yogin and the Madman: Reading the Biographical Corpus of Tibet’s Great Saint Milarepa (Columbia University Press 2014), won the American Academy of Religion’s 2014 Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion, the 2015 Heyman Prize for outstanding scholarship from Yale University, and received honorable mention for the 2016 E. Gene Smith Book Prize at the Association of Asian Studies. In 2010 his new English translation of the Life of Milarepa was published by Penguin Classics. He is currently working on two new projects, one exploring Buddhist religious and literary culture in the borderlands of Tibet and Nepal, and the other examining the Life of the Buddha through visual and literary materials associated with the seventeenth-century Jonang Monastery in western Tibet. ([https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/aquintman/profile.html Source: Wesleyan Website])</br></br>Quintman currently serves as the President of the Board of Directors of the [https://www.tbrc.org/#!footer/about/newhome Buddhist Digital Resource Center] (BDRC). He is former Co-Chair of the [http://campuspress.yale.edu/thrg/ Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Group of the American Academy of Religion] and co-leads an ongoing collaborative workshop on [http://tibetanlit.org/ Religion and the Literary in Tibet].</br></br>You can see an amazing example of Quintman's [http://lotb.iath.virginia.edu/ contributions to digital scholarship on the Life of the Buddha project website].n the Life of the Buddha project website].)
  • Warder, A.  + (Anthony Kennedy Warder (8 September 1924 –Anthony Kennedy Warder (8 September 1924 – 8 January 2013) was a British Indologist. His best-known works are Introduction to Pali (1963), ''Indian Buddhism'' (1970), and the eight-volume ''Indian Kāvya Literature'' (1972–2011).</br></br>He studied Sanskrit and Pali at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and received his doctorate from there in 1954. His thesis, supervised by John Brough, was entitled ''Pali Metre: A Study of the Evolution of Early Middle Indian Metre Based on the Verse Preserved in the Pali Canon''. (When it was published in 1967, the title was changed to ''Pali Metre: A Contribution to the History of Indian Literature''.)</br></br>For a number of years, he was an active member of the Pali Text Society, which published his first book, ''Introduction to Pali'', in 1963. He based his popular primer on extracts from the Dīgha Nikāya, and took the then revolutionary step of treating Pali as an independent language, not just a derivative of Sanskrit.</br></br>His began his academic career at the University of Edinburgh in 1955, but in 1963 moved to the University of Toronto. There, as Chairman of the Department of East Asian Studies, he built up a strong programme in Sanskrit and South Asian studies. He retired in 1990.</br></br>''Studies on Buddhism in Honour of Professor A. K. Warder'' was published in 1993, edited by Narendra K. Wagle and Fumimaro Watanabe.</br></br>He and his wife, Nargez, died of natural causes almost simultaneously on 8 January 2013. He was eighty-eight, and she was ninety. They had no children. They were buried together following a Buddhist service. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._K._Warder Source Accessed Feb 10, 2021])._K._Warder Source Accessed Feb 10, 2021]))
  • Waley, A.  + (Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David SchlArthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 1889 – 27 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry. Among his honours were the CBE in 1952, the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1953, and he was invested as a Companion of Honour in 1956.</br></br>Although highly learned, Waley avoided academic posts and most often wrote for a general audience. He chose not to be a specialist but to translate a wide and personal range of classical literature. Starting in the 1910s and continuing steadily almost until his death in 1966, these translations started with poetry, such as ''A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems'' (1918) and ''Japanese Poetry: The Uta'' (1919), then an equally wide range of novels, such as ''The Tale of Genji'' (1925–26), an 11th-century Japanese work, and ''Monkey'', from 16th-century China. Waley also presented and translated Chinese philosophy, wrote biographies of literary figures, and maintained a lifelong interest in both Asian and Western paintings.</br></br>A recent evaluation called Waley "the great transmitter of the high literary cultures of China and Japan to the English-reading general public; the ambassador from East to West in the first half of the 20th century", and went on to say that he was "self-taught, but reached remarkable levels of fluency, even erudition, in both languages. It was a unique achievement, possible (as he himself later noted) only in that time, and unlikely to be repeated. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Waley Source Accessed Apr 22, 2020])rthur_Waley Source Accessed Apr 22, 2020]))
  • Wangyal, B.  + (BERI JIGME WANGYAL received his Geshe degree in Buddhist philosophy from Drepung Monastery in India in 2004. He is the author of several books on various subjects ranging from poetry to biography and history.)
  • Baizhang Huaihai  + (Baizhang Huaihai (Chinese: 百丈懷海; pinyin: BBaizhang Huaihai (Chinese: 百丈懷海; pinyin: Bǎizhàng Huáihái; Wade-Giles: Pai-chang Huai-hai; Japanese: Hyakujō Ekai) (720–814) was a Zen master during the Tang Dynasty. A native of Fuzhou, he was a dharma heir of Mazu Daoyi (Wade-Giles: Ma-tsu Tao-i).[1] Baizhang's students included Huangbo, Linji and Puhua.</br></br>Hagiographic depictions of Baizhang depict him as a radical and iconoclastic figure, but these narratives derive from at least a century and a half after his death and were developed and elaborated during the Song dynasty.[2] As Mario Poceski writes, the earliest strata of sources (such as the ''Baizhang guanglu'' 百丈廣錄 ) about this figure provide a "divergent image of Baizhang as a sophisticated teacher of doctrine, who is at ease with both the philosophical and contemplative aspects of Buddhism."[3] Poceski summarizes this figure thus:</br></br>:The image of Baizhang conveyed by the Tang-era sources is that of a learned and sagacious monk who is well versed in both the theoretical and contemplative aspects of medieval Chinese Buddhism. Here we encounter Baizhang as a teacher of a particular Chan brand of Buddhist doctrine, formulated in a manner and idiom that are unique to him and to the Hongzhou school as a whole. Nonetheless, he also comes across as someone who is cognizant of major intellectual trends in Tang Buddhism, as well as deeply steeped in canonical texts and traditions. His discourses are filled with scriptural quotations and allusions. He also often resorts to technical Buddhist vocabulary, of the kind one usually finds in the texts of philosophically oriented schools of Chinese Buddhism such as Huayan, Faxiang, and Tiantai. Here the primary mode in which Baizhang communicates his teachings is the public Chan sermon, presented in the ritual framework of “ascending the [Dharma] hall [to preach]” (''shangtang'').[4]</br></br>Regarding his teachings, Poceski notes:</br></br>:A central idea that infuses most of Baizhang’s sermons is the ineffability or indescribability of reality. Ultimate reality cannot be predicated in terms of conventional conceptual categories, as it transcends the familiar realm of words and ideas. Nonetheless, it can be approached or realized—as it truly is, without any accretions or distortions—as it manifests at all times and in all places. That is done by means of intuitive knowledge, whose cultivation is one of the cornerstones of Chan soteriology. Since the essence of reality cannot be captured or conveyed via the mediums of words and letters, according to Baizhang it is pointless to get stuck in dogmatic assertions, or to attach to a particular doctrine or practice. Like everything else, the various Chan (or more broadly Buddhist) teachings are empty of self-nature. They simply constitute expedient tools in an ongoing process of cultivating detachment and transcendence that supposedly free the mind of mistaken views and distorted ways of perceiving reality; to put it differently, they belong to the well-known Buddhist category of “skillful means” (''fangbian'', or upāya in Sanskrit). Holding on rigidly or fetishizing a particular text, viewpoint, or method of practice—even the most profound and potent ones—can turn out to be counterproductive, as it becomes a source of attachment that impedes spiritual progress. The perfection of the Chan path of practice and realization, therefore, does not involve the attainment of some particular ability or knowledge. Rather, in Baizhang’s text it is depicted as a process of letting go of all views and attachment that interfere with the innate human ability to know reality and experience spiritual freedom.[5]</br></br>One of his doctrinal innovations is what are called the “three propositions” (sanju), which are three distinct stages of spiritual realization or progressive ways of knowing:[6]</br></br>*Thoroughgoing detachment from all things and affairs</br>*Nonabiding in the state of detachment</br>*Letting go of even the subtlest vestiges of self-referential awareness or knowledge of having transcended detachment.</br></br>Baizhang's teachings and sayings have been translated by Thomas Cleary in ''Sayings and Doings of Pai-Chang''.[7] The Wild fox koan is attributed to Baizhang. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baizhang_Huaihai Source Accessed July 15, 2021])ng_Huaihai Source Accessed July 15, 2021]))
  • Ba ri lo tsA ba  + (Bari Lotsawa, also known as Rinchen Drak,Bari Lotsawa, also known as Rinchen Drak, was the second throne holder of Sakya school (Tib. Sakya Trizin). At the age of 63, he retained the seat of Sakya for a period of eight years (1102-1110). He is one of the main lineage figures in the transmission and translation of the White Tara practice and tantras that originate from the Indian master Vagishvarakirti. (Source: [https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Bari_Lotsawa Rigpa Wiki])/index.php?title=Bari_Lotsawa Rigpa Wiki]))
  • Pa tshab Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan  + (Belonging to the Pa tshab clan of 'Phan po, Pa tshab Lo tsā ba Tshul khrims rgyal mtshan (d. after 1130), was a translator of the ''Āryasaddharmasmṛtyupasthānasūtra''.)
  • Faure, B.  + (Bernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese RBernard Faure, Kao Professor in Japanese Religion, received his Ph.D. (Doctorat d’Etat) from Paris University (1984). He is interested in various aspects of East Asian Buddhism, with an emphasis on Chan/Zen and Tantric or esoteric Buddhism. His work, influenced by anthropological history and cultural theory, has focused on topics such as the construction of orthodoxy and heterodoxy, the Buddhist cult of relics, iconography, sexuality and gender. His current research deals with the mythico-ritual system of esoteric Buddhism and its relationships with medieval Japanese religion. He has published a number of books in French and English. His English publications include: ''The Rhetoric of Immediacy: A Cultural Critique of Chan/Zen Buddhism'' (Princeton 1991), ''Chan Insights and Oversights: An Epistemological Critique of the Chan Tradition'' (Princeton 1993), ''Visions of Power: Imagining Medieval Japanese Buddhism'' (Princeton 1996), ''The Red Thread: Buddhist Approaches to Sexuality'' (Princeton 1998), ''The Power of Denial: Buddhism, Purity, and Gender'' (Princeton 2003), and ''Double Exposure'' (Stanford 2004). ([https://religion.columbia.edu/content/bernard-r-faure Source Accessed Jun 10, 2019]).</br></br>He recently completed a two-volume work on Japanese Gods and Demons: ''The Fluid Pantheon: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume I'' and ''Protectors and Predators: Medieval Japanese Gods, Volume 2'' (Both volumes by University of Hawai'i Press, 2015).mes by University of Hawai'i Press, 2015).)
  • Kakas, B.  + (Beáta is both an indologist and orientalisBeáta is both an indologist and orientalist. Her research area is Tibetan Buddhism. Her writings are for both popular and professional audiences. Recently she has done interpreting and teaching in Tibetan and Sanskrit languages. She is also keen on translating Tibetan texts, interested in all things related to Tibetan and Indian culture, lifestyle and Himalayan people. Beáta lived in India for a year, and she returns there from time to time, visiting places such as cedar woods and wonderful mountain villages . . . ([http://viewriter.hu/whohelped.html Adapted from Source Mar 23, 2022])ed.html Adapted from Source Mar 23, 2022]))
  • Anālayo  + (Bhikkhu Anālayo was born in Germany in 196Bhikkhu Anālayo was born in Germany in 1962 and ordained in Sri Lanka in 1995. In the year 2000 he completed a Ph.D. thesis on the ''Satipatthana-sutta'' at the University of Peradeniya (published by Windhorse in the UK). In the year 2007 he completed a habilitation research at the University of Marburg, in which he compared the ''Majjhima-nikaya'' discourses with their Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan counterparts. At present, he is a member of the Numata Center for Buddhist Studies, University of Hamburg, as a professor, and works as a researcher at Dharma Drum Institue of Liberal Arts, Taiwan. Besides his academic activities, he regularly teaches meditation. ([https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html Source Accessed Nov 22, 2019])</br></br>* For a substantial list of Bhikkhu Anālayo's publications, visit his faculty page at the [https://www.buddhismuskunde.uni-hamburg.de/en/personen/analayo.html University of Hamburg]rsonen/analayo.html University of Hamburg])
  • Dharmamitra, Bhikshu  + (Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "HengBhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "Heng Shou" - 釋恆授) is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch'an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present). Dharmamitra's principal educational foundations as a translator of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968-1972), undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work at the University of Washington's Department of Asian Languages and Literature (1988-90), and an additional three years of auditing graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by rya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the "Flower Adornment Sutra"), Nāgārjuna's 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāṣā ("Treatise on the Ten Grounds"), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the "Ten Grounds Sutra") . . . ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Bhikshu-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021])u-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021]))
  • Little, H.  + (Binks devoted much of his life to the studBinks devoted much of his life to the study and teaching of religion. Before coming to Williams, he taught religion at Wilson College in Chambersburg, Pa., and served as a teaching assistant at Harvard, where he earned his Ph.D.</br></br>At Williams, he contributed greatly to the life of the college, both inside and outside the classroom. In the 20 years during which he chaired the Department of Religion, starting in 1967, rapid growth of departmental enrollments, followed by new faculty appointments, set the stage for the development of an exciting and rigorous introductory religion course that was both highly popular at Williams and emulated nationally.</br></br>An intellectual who cared deeply about his students, Binks was intensely curious about developments in the full range of liberal arts disciplines. “Almost immediately following his faculty appointment in the Department of Religion, it became apparent that Binks Little had the potential to become a significant leader in his department and in the college generally,” says John Chandler, Williams president, emeritus, who served as dean of the faculty and religion department chair when Binks joined Williams.</br></br>Binks was also the first-ever chair of the Committee of Undergraduate Life when it was conceived in the late 1960s. Under his leadership, the committee recommended and the college implemented major revisions of protocols governing residential life. He also paved the way for student membership on standing committees that, up until then, were strictly composed of faculty. “Binks had a great memory for students and a complete devotion to them,” says Mark C. Taylor, Cluett Professor of Humanities, emeritus.</br></br>Binks became a full professor in 1974. That year he was appointed the managing editor of the American Academy of Religion Dissertation Series, a publishing venture organized to make outstanding doctoral research in the study of religion readily available to the wider scholarly community.</br></br>Shortly before he retired from Williams, Binks participated for two years in an experimental faculty development program, mentoring second-year faculty across the academic divisions and coordinating and directing periodic seminars and conferences that addressed the myriad challenges faced by new faculty members.</br></br>Born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1932, Binks grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and Pasadena, Calif., and attended Deerfield Academy. He graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and earned a B.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1957, having spent the 1954-55 academic year at the University of Edinburgh. He earned a Ph.D. from Harvard in 1965. ([https://president.williams.edu/writings-and-remarks/articles-2/the-passing-of-professor-h-ganse-binks-little/ Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022])nks-little/ Source Accessed Apr 21, 2022]))
  • Phuntsok, Tulku Orgyen  + (Birth and Recognition: Tulku Orgyen PhunBirth and Recognition: </br></br>Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok was born in Pemakö, in northeastern India, as the son of Lama Rigdzin Phuntsok. He was recognized at a young age by Dudjom Rinpoche as the reincarnation of Togden Kunzang Longrol, his father’s root guru. Togden Kunzang Longrol was a great Dzogchen yogi from the Powo region who had been a main disciple of Dudjom Rinpoche, and who had been influential in spreading the dharma and the Dudjom Tersar lineage both in Tibet and in upper and lower Pemakö.</br></br>Training: </br></br>Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok spent his early years in retreat in Pemakö, at his own monastery, under the blessings of his first root teacher, the great master Tulku Dawa Rinpoche. Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok underwent vigorous training in multiple fields of study, including various ritual sadhana performances from different terma lineages, with an emphasis on the Dudjom Tersar lineage, all under the care of his previous incarnation’s disciples, including his father Lama Rigzin Phuntsok.</br></br>At the age of 15, Tulku Orgyen commenced advanced studies in southern India at Namdroling Monastery, the largest Nyingma monastery in India, established by Penor Rinpoche. There, Tulku Orgyen completed a nine-year-long program of study, obtaining the degree of Khenpo. While appointed to a teaching position for the duration of his final three years at the monastery, he taught various Buddhist philosophies to monks. Over the course of his nine years of study, he also received empowerments and transmissions from many masters of the Nyingma lineage such as Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche, Lama Rigdzin Phuntsok, Penor Rinpoche, and Tulku Dawa Rinpoche.</br>Upon completion of his studies at Namdroling monastery, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok returned to his retreat land in Pemakö, where he engaged in solitary retreat and completed the requisite practices to become a qualified Vajra master in this lineage.</br></br>Activity:</br></br>Since late 1999, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok has assisted his uncle and teacher, Bhakha Tulku Rinpoche, by giving teachings, leading practices and retreats, and undertaking various other Dharma activities at Vairotsana Foundation Centers in California and New Mexico and in various cities in North America and Asia. In order to gain a western education and perspective, Tulku Orgyen studied and guest lectured at the University of California, Santa Barbara.</br></br>Currently, Tulku Orgyen Phuntsok splits his time between North America and Asia, spending winters in Pemakö where he oversees reconstruction of the temple. he oversees reconstruction of the temple.)
  • Bokar Rinpoche  + (Bokar Tulku Rinpoche (1940 – 17 August 200Bokar Tulku Rinpoche (1940 – 17 August 2004) was heart-son of the Second Kalu Rinpoche and a holder of the Karma Kagyü and Shangpa Kagyü lineages.</br></br>Bokar Rinpoche was born in western Tíbet not far from Mount Kailash, in 1940 (Iron Dragon year) to a family of nomadic herders. When Rinpoche was four years old, His Holiness the 16th Karmapa recognized him as the reincarnation of the previous Bokar Tulku, Karma Sherab Ösel.</br></br>Bokar Rinpoche was trained at the monastery founded by the previous Bokar incarnation. He continued his studies at Tsurphu Monastery in central Tibet, main seat of the Karmapas. While still a teenager, he assumed full responsibilities for the Bokar monastic community. Then, due to the Communist oppression in Tibet, Bokar Rinpoche fled into exile at the age of 20. In India, he became a close disciple of Dorje Chang Kalu Rinpoche.</br></br>Under Kalu Rinpoche's guidance in Sonada, Bokar Rinpoche twice completed the traditional three-year retreat. During the first one, he followed the practices of the Shangpa Kagyu; the second was based on the practices of the Karma Kagyu.</br></br>In Mirik, India, Bokar Rinpoche founded a retreat center that is an important centre for Kalachakra practice, now called Bokar Ngedhon Choekhor Ling. </br></br>Brief bio available at [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1iaW9ncmFwaHktQm9rYXI= bokarmonastery.org]</br></br>Also see [http://www.bokarmonastery.org/mod/data/index.php?REQUEST_ID=cGFnZT1wdWJsaWNhdGlvbnM= Bokar Publications]FnZT1wdWJsaWNhdGlvbnM= Bokar Publications])