Buddha Nature Initiative:About

Buddha-Nature: A Tsadra Foundation Initiative

Dear Reader,

We hope you are enjoying this multimedia resource hub for scripture, scholarship, and teachings on buddha-nature. Please feel free to provide feedback at any time: Research at tsadra dot org. We will respond quickly to your request and make changes or additions as soon as we can. If you wish to contribute to this project, please make a request for an account here.

Please see The Guide page for a detailed site map for this project.

The purpose of the buddha-nature website is to provide a resource hub for trustworthy information for learning about and teaching the concept of buddha-nature, its associated texts, teachings, lineages, and relevant Buddhist ideas. Unique content will be shared here and the site will act as a broker for other projects and authors that have already created quality materials, which we will curate for a wide range of audiences.

Writer-in-digital-residence

The writer-in-digital-residence is the recipient of a grant designed to support Tsadra Foundation’s Buddhist literacy projects that connect the larger public with academic research and advance understanding of specific aspects of Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Writers help to curate this online resource and write essays on the history, philosophy, and practices associated with buddha-nature teachings and tathāgatagarbha theory in Tibet. These essays are addressed to an audience of educated readers of Buddhist materials and Buddhist practitioners.

Current writer

Karma Phuntsho[edit]

Lopen (Dr) Karma Phuntsho is one of Bhutan’s leading intellectuals. He finished his monastic training in Bhutan and India before he pursued a M.St in Classical Indian Religions and a D.Phil in Oriental Studies at Balliol College, Oxford. He was a researcher at CNRS, Paris, a Research Associate in the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, and the Spalding Fellow for Comparative Religion at Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He was also a Research Consultant at University of Virginia.

An author of over one hundred books and articles including the authoritative History of Bhutan and Mipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness, he speaks and writes extensively on Bhutan and Buddhism. His work has received extensive media coverage by the BBC, BBS, Kuensel, The Bhutanese, Science, Radio Free Asia, Oxford Today, Times of India, India Today, and Channel News Asia. He is also the President and founder of Loden Foundation, a leading educational, entrepreneurial, and cultural initiative in Bhutan. He is currently based in Thimphu, Bhutan. Read a complete bio on Wikipedia.

Previous writers[edit]

Alex Gardner[edit]

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.

Project Staff[edit]

Director and Website Administrator: Eric Colombel, Founder and President of Tsadra Foundation
Project Director and Lead Editor: Marcus Perman, Tsadra Foundation
Designer and Web Master: Jeremi Plazas, Tsadra Foundation
Lead Writer-In-Digital-Residence 2017-2019: Alexander Gardner, Treasury of Lives
Lead Writer-In-Digital-Residence 2020-2022: Doctor Lopen Karma Phuntsho
Archivist and Contributor: Morten Ostensen, Tsadra Foundation
Editors and Contributors:
- Alex Catanese, Tsadra Foundation
- Gwen Witt Dörring, Tsadra Foundation

Advisors and Key Contributors[edit]

His Holiness the 17th Karmapa, Orgyen Trinley Dorje
Acharya Lama Tenpa Gyaltsen, Naropa University
Ringu Tulku Rinpoche, Bodhicarya.org
Karl Brunnhölzl, Nitartha Institute
Elizabeth Callahan, Tsadra Foundation
Wulstan Fletcher, Padmakara Translation Group and Tsadra Foundation
Christian Charrier, Tsadra Foundation
Patrick Carré, Padmakara Translation Group and Tsadra Foundation
Tokpa Tulku, Sangye Yeshe Institute and Rangjung Yeshe Institute
Klaus-Dieter Mathes, University of Vienna
Douglas Duckworth, Temple University

Artwork[edit]

Thank you to BDRC and Treasury of Lives, as well as Himalayan Art Resources for all their work,some of which can be found linked from people pages and text pages on this website.

Contact Us[edit]

If you have any questions or requests or would like to contribute to this project, please feel free to contact us: Research at tsadra dot org

Read our privacy policy here.