People/Schaeffer, K.

Kurtis Schaeffer

Kurtis R. Schaeffer received an M.A. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Washington in 1995, a Ph.D. in Tibetan and South Asian Religions from Harvard in 2000 and is now is the Frances Myers Ball Professor of Religion and the Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He is a student of Buddhist history and culture, with a special interest in the spiritual literature of Tibet and the Himalayas. He is the author or editor of nine books, including the largest anthology of Tibetan literature in English and, most recently, a translation of the life of the Buddha. Schaeffer co-directs the half-century old Tibetan Buddhist studies graduate program at the University of Virginia and, with Martien Halvorson-Taylor, directs the Global Religion Lab at UVA. His books include The Life of the Buddha (2015), Sources of Tibetan Tradition (2013), The Tibetan History Reader (2013), The Culture of the Book in Tibet (2009), An Early Tibetan Catalogue of Buddhist Literature (2009), Dreaming the Great Brahmin, and Himalayan Hermitess (2004). (Source Accessed April 12, 2023)

You can watch Kurtis talk about Jigmé Lingpa's notes from a cave here and learn more about Kavya literature and translation here.

He is also an editor and contributor to The Lives of the Masters Series at Shambhala Publications and you can watch him speak more about Jigme Lingpa here.

Kurtis also contributed to the amazing Life of the Buddha project online with Andrew Quintman.

• Schaeffer on Academia.edu
• Learn more about The UVA Tibet Center

Affiliations & relations

• University of Virginia · workplace affiliation
• Kuijp, L. · teacher
• https://religiousstudies.as.virginia.edu/kurtis-r-schaeffer · websites