Property:Bio
From Buddha-Nature
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Erich Frauwallner studied classical philology and Sanskrit philology in Vienna. He taught Indology from 1928-29 at the University of Vienna. His primary interest was Buddhist logic and epistemology, and later Indian Brahmanic philosophy, with close attention to primary source texts.
In 1938 Frauwallner joined the Department of Indian and Iranian philosophy at the Oriental Institute after its Jewish director, Bernhard Geiger, was forced out. Frauwallner became director in 1942. He was called up for military service in 1943 but did not serve, continuing to teach until 1945 when he lost his position due to his Nazi Party membership (dating to 1932). In 1951, after a review, he was reinstated. In 1955 the Institute for Indology founded, which he chaired, becoming a full professor in 1960.
Donald S. Lopez, Jr., professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies at the University of Michigan, called Frauwallner "one of the great Buddhist scholars of this [the twentieth] century." ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_Frauwallner Source Accessed Jun 11, 2019]) +
Dr. Frederick Shih-Chung Chen holds a DPhil degree in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford and two MA degrees, in Oriental and African Religions and in the History and Culture of Medicine, respectively, from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He is a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. In 2004-2005, he was a research fellow at the Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Tokyo, sponsored by the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai fellowship. After completing his DPhil degree, he was awarded Post-doctoral fellowships by the National Science Council of Taiwan R.O.C. and the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation of European Region during 2010-2012, to conduct his research project, The Early Formation of the Buddhist Otherworld Bureaucracy in Early Medieval China, at the Faculty of Oriental Studies, University of Oxford. He has published articles on related topics, which will eventually be collected in a planned book. Before arriving at IKGF, he was a researcher on the project, Buddhist Stone Inscriptions in China, at the Heidelberg Academy of Science and Humanities and a research associate at the Faculty of Archaeology, University of Oxford.<br> Dr. Chen specializes in East Asian Buddhism and Chinese religions. He is also interested in the history of Chinese medicine and the history of knowledge transmission. His current research focuses on transcultural exchange between Buddhism and Chinese religions in the border areas of China during the early medieval and medieval periods. ([http://www.ikgf.uni-erlangen.de/people/index.shtml/frederick-chen.shtml Source Accessed May 26, 2020]) +
Rosemarie Fuchs (1950-2010) studied and practiced with eminent lamas of the Karma Kagyu tradition and spent much of her life translating Tibetan texts to German and interpreting for Tibetan Lamas in Germany. She is a member of the Marpa Translation Committee and has been a devoted student of the Venerable Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche since 1978. Fuchs translated the ''Mahayana Uttaratantra Shastra'' upon Khenpo Rinpoche’s advice. ([https://www.penguinrandomhouseretail.com/author/?authorid=167711 Adapted from Source Jul 22, 2020]) +
Funayama Toru, born in 1961, is currently a professor of Buddhist studies at Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan. His research mainly covers two different areas in the history of Buddhism. One is Chinese Buddhism from the fifth–seventh centuries, a period from the late Six Dynasties period up to early Tang; his focuses are on the formation of Chinese Buddhist translation and apocrypha, spread of the notion of Mahayana precepts, the exegetical tradition on the ''Nirvana Sutra'', and so on. The other is philological and philosophical issues in Buddhist epistemology and logic in India from the fifth–tenth centuries, particularly Kamalaśīla's (the late eighth century) theory of perception. In both areas, he is interested in the concept of saintliness as firmly related with the system of practice. ([https://www.iias.asia/profile/toru-funayama Source Accessed June 16, 2020]) +
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Alexander Gardner is the Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives, an online biographical encyclopedia of Tibet and the Himalayan Region. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. From 2007 to 2016 he worked at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, serving as their Executive Director from 2013 to 2016. His research interests are in Tibetan life writing and the cultural history of Kham in the nineteenth century. He is the author of ''The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great'', published by Shambhala in 2019. Alex served as the writer-in-residence for Tsadra Foundation's Buddha-Nature Project from 2017-2019. +
Jay L. Garfield chairs the Philosophy department and directs Smith’s logic and Buddhist studies programs and the Five College Tibetan Studies in India program. He is also visiting professor of Buddhist philosophy at Harvard Divinity School, professor of philosophy at Melbourne University and adjunct professor of philosophy at the Central University of Tibetan Studies.
Garfield’s research addresses topics in the foundations of cognitive science and the philosophy of mind; the history of Indian philosophy during the colonial period; topics in ethics, epistemology and the philosophy of logic; methodology in cross-cultural interpretation; and topics in Buddhist philosophy, particularly Indo-Tibetan Madhyamaka and Yogācāra.
Garfield’s most recent books are ''Getting Over Ourselves: How to be a Person Without a Self'' (2022), ''Knowing Illusion: Bringing a Tibetan Debate into Contemporary Discourse'' (with the Yakherds 2021, Buddhist Ethics: A Philosophical Exploration (2021), ̛What Can’t Be Said: Paradox and Contradiction in East Asian Thought (with Yasuo Deguchi, Graham Priest, and Robert Sharf 2021), The Concealed Influence of Custom: Hume’s Treatise From the Inside Out (OUP 2019), ''Minds Without Fear: Philosophy in the Indian Renaissance'' (with Nalini Bhushan, 2017), ''Dignāga’s Investigation of the Percept: A Philosophical Legacy in India and Tibet'' (with Douglas Duckworth, David Eckel, John Powers, Yeshes Thabkhas and Sonam Thakchöe, 2016) ''Engaging Buddhism: Why it Matters to Philosophy'' (2015), ''Moonpaths: Ethics and Emptiness'' (with the Cowherds, 2015) and (edited, with Jan Westerhoff), ''Madhyamaka and Yogācāra: Allies or Rivals?'' (2015). ([https://jaygarfield.org/cv/ Source Accessed on January 19, 2024])
:Doris Silbert Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Philosophy
:Department of Philosophy Smith College Northampton, MA 01063 USA +
Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche is the founder and spiritual director of Pema Karpo Meditation Center in Memphis, Tennessee. He holds a khenpo degree after nine years of study at Namdroling Monastery in South India. In April 2006, Khenpo Gawang Rinpoche was formally enthroned as a khenpo by His Holiness Penor Rinpoche and assigned to teach in the West. He came to the United States in 2004 at the invitation of Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche and Shambhala International, and became an American citizen in 2012. He has lived in Memphis, Tennessee since 2007. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Khenpo_Gawang_Rinpoche Source Accessed Sept 9, 2020]) +
Holly Gayley is an Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Her research focuses on the revitalization of Buddhism in Tibetan areas of the PRC in the post-Maoist period. Dr. Gayley became interested in the academic study of Buddhism through her travels among Tibetan communities in India, Nepal, and China. She completed her Masters in Buddhist Studies at Naropa University in 2000 and Ph.D. at Harvard University in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies in 2009. Dr. Gayley's first book titled ''Love Letters from Golok: A Tantric Couple in Modern Tibet'' came out in November 2016 with Columbia University Press. The book charts the lives and love letters of a contemporary Buddhist tantric couple, Khandro Tāre Lhamo and Namtrul Jigme Phuntsok, who played a significant role in revitalizing Buddhism in eastern Tibet since the 1980s. Examining Buddhist conceptions of gender, agency and healing, this book recovers Tibetan voices in representing their own modern history under Chinese rule and contributes to burgeoning scholarly literature on Buddhist women, minorities in China, and studies of collective trauma.
Dr. Gayley's second project explores the emergence of Buddhist modernism on the Tibetan plateau and a new ethical reform movement spawned by cleric-scholars at Larung Buddhist Academy in Serta. Her recent publications on the topic include "Controversy over Buddhist Ethical Reform: A Secular Critique of Clerical Authority in the Tibetan Blogosphere" (''Himalaya Journal'', 2016), "Non-Violence as a Shifting Signifier on the Tibetan Plateau" (''Contemporary Buddhism'', 2016 with Padma 'tsho), "Reimagining Buddhist Ethics on the Tibetan Plateau (''Journal of Buddhist Ethics'', 2013), and "The Ethics of Cultural Survival: A Buddhist Vision of Progress in Mkhan po 'Jigs phun's Advice to Tibetans of the 21st Century" in ''Mapping the Modern in Tibet'' (International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, 2011). ([https://www.colorado.edu/rlst/holly-gayley Source Accessed Jul 21, 2020])
Japanese Tendaishū monk, scholar, and artist, popularly known as Eshin Sōzu (Head Monk of Eshin) because he spent much of his life at the monastery of Eshin at Yokawa on Hieizan. Genshin was born in Yamoto province (present-day Nara prefecture), but after losing his father at a young age, he was put in the care of the Tendai center on Mt. Hiei. It is believed that during his teens he formally joined the institution and became a student of the Tendai reformer Ryōgen (912–985). Genshin first gained a name for himself in 974 due to his sterling performance in an important debate at Mt. Hiei. Eventually, Genshin retired to the secluded monastery of Shuryōgon'in in Yokawa, where he devoted the rest of his life primarily to scholarship. Genshin wrote on a wide array of Buddhist topics related to both Tendai and Pure Land practices and is also regarded as the founder of the Eshin school of Tendai, which espoused the notion that everyone in inherently awakened (J. ''hongaku''). (Source: "Genshin." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 318. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
Geoffrey Samuel’s research extends over a number of interrelated areas within religious studies, social anthropology, comparative sociology, and cognate disciplines. Theoretically, his interests centre around an understanding of cultural processes and their effects on human behaviour, in terms which recognise the embodied character of human existence and which give proper weight to both human consciousness and biology. He is particularly interested in religion (including ‘shamanism’) in relation to healing, gender and ecology, including the ways in which these issues manifest in contemporary societies.
His main ethnographic focus has been on religion in Tibetan societies. His work on Tibetan religion has also extended into the social history of Indic religions more generally. Other research topics include Tibetan medicine and health practices, the anthropology of music, research on Buddhism and other new religious movements (paganism, shamanism, esotericism) in the UK and Australia, and research into Islam in the UK and Bangladesh. He has carried out extensive field research over many years in India, Nepal, Tibet, and other Asian and Western societies.
His recent research, organised through the Research Group on the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR), focusses on the understanding of healing processes in a variety of contexts: folk healing practices in Asian societies, ‘traditional’ Asian medical and yogic practices aimed at healing, and Western adaptations and developments of such practices within the field of complementary and alternative medicine. This research has included two major externally-funded projects under his direction, an AHRC-funded project on Tibetan longevity practices (with Cathy Cantwell and Rob Mayer) and a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on Tibetan medicine in the Bon tradition (with Colin Millard). Currently he is involved in a Templeton Foundation-funded project on meditation-derived compassion training for nurses and other health staff in Sydney, NSW.
In 2008-11, he also took part in an ESRC-funded project on young Bangladeshis, marriage and the family in Bangladesh and the UK directed by Dr Santi Rozario.<br> ([https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey Source Accessed Aug 7, 2020])
George Nicolas de Roerich was a prominent 20th century Tibetologist. His name at birth was Yuri Nikolaevich Rerikh. George's work encompassed many areas of Tibetan studies, but in particular he is known for his contributions to Tibetan dialectology, his monumental translation of the ''Blue Annals'', and his 11-volume Tibetan-Russian-English dictionary (published posthumously). George was the son of the painter and explorer Nicholas Roerich and Helena Roerich. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_de_Roerich Source Accessed March 4, 2020]) +
David Germano is the Executive Director of the Contemplative Sciences Center. He has taught and researched Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia since 1992. In this context, he works extensively with each of the eleven schools at UVA to explore learning, research, and engagement initiatives regarding contemplation in their own disciplinary and professional areas. He is currently focused on the exploration of contemplative ideas, values, and practices involving humanistic and scientific methodologies, as well as new applications in diverse fields; he also holds a faculty appointment in the School of Nursing. He is one of the co-leaders of the Student Flourishing Initiative, a three-way partnership with UVA, the University of Wisconsin, and Penn State University, as well as the lead organizer of an international research community of scholars and translators specializing in the Great Perfection (Dzokchen) tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. ([http://uvacontemplation.org/content/david-germano Source Accessed June 11, 2019]) +
Born in 1977 in Ngayul in the Amdo region, he became a monk at Jonang Se Monastery when he was young and learned reading, writing, and rituals under Khar Lama Sherab Chophel. Having finished the training, he followed the tradition of the monastery and entered into three year retreat under Lama Kunga Thukje Pal in order to take up the practice of the six yogas of Kālacakra. In 1998, he arrived in India and joined Gomang College in Drepung Monastery and completed the full study of the five treatises. He sat for Grand Geluk Examination and also successfully passed the defense for the Lharam Geshe degree. Following this, he attended the Gyuto College for Tantric Studies and passed the exams. He is currently lecturer at Jonang Monastery in Parping, Nepal. +
Born in 1980 in Tibet, he moved to India in 1995 and joined Gomang College in Drepung Monastery. He studied Buddhist texts, including the five great treatises, under many qualified teachers. Having completed his higher education in 2008, he sat in the Grand Geluk Examinations from 2009 and successfully finished the Karam, Lopen, and Lharam Geshe Examinations in six years. In 2015, he joined Gyume Tantric College to undertake tantric studies and successfully completed the program after three years in 2018. He currently serves as lecturer/teacher at Gomang College. +
Born in the Tsang region of Tibet in 1923, Geshe Lhundub Sopa was both a spiritual master and a respected academic. He rose from a humble background to complete his geshe studies at Sera Je Monastic University in Lhasa with highest honors and was privileged to serve as a debate opponent for the Dalai Lama’s own geshe examination in 1959. He moved to New Jersey in the United States in 1963 and in 1967 began teaching in the Buddhist Studies Program at University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he professor emeritus. In 1975, he founded the Deer Park Buddhist Center in Oregon, Wisconsin, site of the Dalai Lama’s first Kalachakra initiation granted in the West. He is the author of several books in English, including the five-volume comprehensive teaching, ''Steps on the Path to Enlightenment''. ([https://wisdomexperience.org/content-author/geshe-lhundub-sopa/ Source Accessed April 10, 2020]) +
Born in 1979 in Sogshod in Kham, as a young boy he went to a local school and learned reading, writing, and arithmetic. After joining Sog Tsenden Monastery and learning prayers and rituals, he moved to India in 1997 and joined Sera Je Monastery to undertake the program of Buddhist Studies, including the five great treatises, for 18 years. Throughout his education, he ranked at the top in his cohort during the examinations, including those for the certificates of the Middle Way and Perfection Studies. He also learned grammar and poetry and published various writings in magazines and newspapers and taught grammar to many students. In the course of his study, he was also selected for the special occasion of prestigious debates called Rigchung Tshoklang, Tshenphud Damcha, Rigchen Tsoklang, and Kartro Tsoglang. In 2009, he sat for his examinations on the Middle Way in the presence of H.H. the Dalai Lama, and between 2015 and 2020, he sat for the Grand Geluk Examinations and attained first position among the Lharam Geshes during the exams. In 2021, he undertook tantric studies at Gyume Tantric College and passed his exams in first position. He received numerous teachings from various lamas, including H.H. the Dalai Lama, and participated in many learned conferences and seminars. Since 2009, he has been serving as a lecturer at Sera Je Monastery. +
Born in Gayul in Kham in 1974, he joined Labda Ganden Monastery in 1988 and learned prayers and rituals. In 1994, he arrived in India and joined Sera Je Monastery and started his study of Buddhist literature, including the five great treatises. In 1998, he received full monastic ordination from H.H. the Dalai Lama and finished training in the Middle Way and Perfection Studies in 2002 and 2006 respectively. In 2012, 2014, and 2016, he sat for the Grand Geluk Examinations and received the certificates of Karam, Lopen, and Lharam Geshe respectively. Following this, in 2017, he undertook tantric studies at Gyume College and was awarded first place. He presented a paper at the conference on Abhidharma among Buddhist and Bön and organized the conference on the Middle Way view at Sera Monastery and the conference on reality in Pramāṇa literature at Ganden Monastery. Since 2006, he has also been teaching Buddhism and Tibetan language to youth and regularly writes and speaks in newspapers, radio, online forums on Tibetan religion and culture, and gives classes and lectures. Currently, he is about to complete his research on the Middle Way views of the Tibetan Buddhist traditions and is undertaking an in-depth study of Middle Way literature while also teaching at Sera Je. +
Born in 1979 in Khyungpo Tengchen, he became a monk at the age of eight under Lamrim Lama Pema Dorje and joined Dilgo Samtenling Monastery, where he studied reading, writing, prayers, and rituals. In 1996, he arrived in India and joined Ganden Shartse College. He finished his study of the five great treatises and in 2012 sat for the series of Grand Geluk Examinations. In 2018, he finished the course with the final defense for Lharam Geshe at the Grand Prayer Festival. After this, he undertook tantric studies at Gyuto Monastery and in 2019 he served on the Academic Council of Ganden Shartse. He currently teaches at Ganden Shartse and is also undertaking research on the Middle Way under the International Geluk Commission. +
Geshe Tenzin Zopa holds a doctorate in Buddhist Philosophy from Sera Jey Monastic University in South India and is a master in Tibetan Buddhist rituals. He is currently the Resident Teacher at Losang Dragpa Buddhist Society, Malaysia and was for a long time the Director of the Tsum Valley Project (in the Himalayan region), which provides Buddhist study and practice facilities and accommodation for the community in the Valley. Geshe Tenzin
Zopa is the principal and focal point of the award winning film titled "Unmistaken Child" which chronicles the search for the reincarnation of his great master. Geshe Tenzin Zopa has a contemporary style of teaching which he combines with the ancient wisdom derived from his years of philosophical studies and debate, thereby benefitting everyone who has met or heard him teach. Geshe Tenzin Zopa is the face of a dynamic and socially engaged Buddhism in the 21st century. ([http://www.tenzinzopa.com/Ebooks/Cttb_Book_Final_Complete.pdf Source Accessed Jan 14, 2021]) +
Stephen 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 was a Tsadra Foundation Translation Fellow from 2005 to 2024. His published translations include:
#[https://www.shambhala.com/nagarjuna-s-letter-to-a-friend-2951.html Nagarjuna’s Letter to a Friend], Shambhala 2005.
#''[https://www.shambhala.com/zurchungpa-s-testament-9781559394925.html Zurchungpa’s Testament]'', by Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. Shambhala, 2006.
#[https://www.shambhala.com/a-garland-of-views-3420.html A Garland of Views: A Guide to View, Meditation, and Result in the Nine Vehicles]. Jamgön Mipham’s commentary on Padmasambhava’s ''Garland of Views'', Shambhala, 2015.
#Dudjom Rinpoche’s ''[https://www.shambhala.com/a-torch-lighting-the-way-to-freedom-3665.html A Torch Lighting the Way to Freedom: Complete Instructions on the Preliminary Practices].'' Shambhala, 2016.
#[https://www.shambhala.com/a-feast-of-the-nectar-of-the-supreme-vehicle.html A Feast of the Nectar of the Supreme Vehicle] (The ''Mahāyāna-sūtrālaṃkāra'' with commentary by Mipham), Shambhala, 2018.
#[https://www.shambhala.com/a-chariot-to-freedom-15692.html A Chariot to Freedom: Guidance From the Great Masters on the Vajrayāna Preliminary Practices]. A detailed preliminary practice commentary by Shechen Gyaltsap. Shambhala, 2021.
#[https://www.shambhala.com/mahasiddha-practice-9781611808933.html Mahasiddha Practice: From Mitrayogin and Other Masters]. Volume 15 of Jamgön Kongtrul’s ''Treasury of Precious Instructions''. Shambhala, 2021.
#[https://www.shambhala.com/awakening-wisdom-9781645471639.html Awakening Wisdom: Heart Advice on the Fundamental Practices of Vajrayana Buddhism] by Pema Wangyal. Shambhala, 2023.
#[https://www.shambhala.com/the-natural-openness-and-freedom-of-the-mind.html The Natural Openness and Freedom of the Mind]. Khangsar Tenpai'i Wangchuk's Collected Works. Shambhala, 2024.
#The Cloudless Sky. Khangsar Tenpai'i Wangchuk's Collected Works.
#The Aspiration to the Excellent Way. Khangsar Tenpai'i Wangchuk's Collected Works.
He is currently working on finishing several translations in the series of Khangsar Tenpai'i Wangchuk's Collected Works, which is forthcoming from Shambhala Publications. (Source: Tsadra Foundation)
