Tibetan Graduate Studies Seminar

A presentation looking at how early Mahayana sutras explain where they came from. This presentation argues that the authors of these texts shared a general understanding that the Buddha revealed them to advanced bodhisattvas during his lifetime and appointed them with the task of returning to the world five hundred years later to reveal and spread them. It also considers the ideas that these texts...

David Gray talks about revelatory or "treasure" texts from Indian and Tibetan perspectives in a comparative framework. This presentation will attempt to shed some light on the process by which tantras are believed to have been revealed in the world in Indian Buddhist tantric traditions. Unfortunately, we have very little information about the actual revelation process, unlike in the Nyingma “Treas...

John Nemec's talk on the origin of siddha and its polysemic application in Sanskrit textual sources. It is well known that the term “siddha” comes to be used to refer to Śaiva, and other, masters who enter the earth in bodily form, as perfected beings thus authorized to teach. Often, they are described as having “crossed down” to this world, bringing teachings with them to share with humanity—thus...

This talk by Natalie Gummer explores the role of Dharmabhāṇaka – those who recite the Dharma – in Mahāyāna Sutras In this presentation, Natalie Gummer looks at the “Chapter on the Benefits to the Performer of the Dharma” (dharmabhāṇakānuśaṃsāparivartaḥ) in the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka (Lotus Sūtra), in which the Buddha proclaims the many remarkable transformations that will take place in the six sense f...

The Greater Himalayas extend through many different kinds of community. This lecture considers several ‘medicine mountains’, particular mountains that fold society and ecology together, and explores them as a comparative category

This presentation considers the association between pilgrimage and healing in Tibet through an exploration of the process whereby natural sites are imbued with meaning This presentation considers the association between pilgrimage and healing in Tibet through an exploration of the process whereby natural sites are imbued with meaning. The qualities with which they are endowed are seen to have bene...

Daniel introduces us to the term khrims and looks at the “rise of legality” in 13th century Central Tibet. What were Tibetan ideas concerning the relationship between law and power? In the search for answers to whether “law” (khrims) existed in pre-modern Tibet, previous scholarship has uncovered new aspects of khrims’ semantic and functional spectrum, which ranges from administration to morality,...

Westin Harris opens the dialogue between Tibetan, Nāth and Yoga studies centred around the figure of Virūpa As the supposed originator of haṭhayoga’s Buddhist “source text,” the legendary siddha called Virūpa has arisen as a key figure of interest in Yoga and Nāth Studies. Nonetheless, such discourses continue to underappreciate the value of Tibetan and Buddhist sources. In this lecture, I will ex...

The talk explores the historical and contemporary influence of women in Sikkim from a Buddhist perspective Sikkim is a former Buddhist kingdom in the Himalayas that was once blessed by Padmasambhava and prophesied as a so-called sbas yul, a sacred hidden land. So far, the lives and deeds of Tibetan masters who visited and helped shape Sikkim have been collected and analysed. But what role did wome...

Pu Lan discusses her PhD project, which explores the 17th-century Monastery of Tango and how it illustrates the development of wall painting technology in Bhutan The Kingdom of Bhutan retains an exceptional heritage of Buddhist wall paintings dating from the early 16 th century to the present. As one of the most significant sites the Utse (central tower) of Tango Monastery, established in 1688 pre...

Brenton Sullivan presents his new book "Building a Religious Empire: Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa" and discuss the third chapter, "Institutionalizing Tantra", in more detail In his new book, "Building a Religious Empire Tibetan Buddhism, Bureaucracy, and the Rise of the Gelukpa (UPenn Press, 2020)" Sullivan utilizes constitutions written for Buddhist monasteries as we...

Kirill Alekseev presents his latest research on the Mongolian Kanjur and its ramifications in Tibetan Studies The Mongolian Kanjur is a voluminous collection of sacred Buddhist texts structured in a specific way. It owes its name, origin, and to a great extent, its arrangement and contents to a similar Tibetan set of Buddhist scriptures. At times in academic literature, it is characterised as a me...

In her talk, Inger Vasstveit discusses “empowered objects” - small Buddhist objects that people wear on their person - in relation to the broader socio-political and cosmological environment in India In this talk, I will focus on vital aspects connected to the ways Tibetans use and understand empowered objects. The term "empowered objects" refers to a wide range of small objects – infused with Bud...

Kikee Bhutia talks about the contemporary discourses around ‘othering’ in Sikkim and analyse the region’s inter-ethnic challenges This presentation explores the vernacular discourse surrounding the ambiguous nature of Dhuk lha (Poison deity) in Sikkim. Before its merger with India in 1975, Sikkim was a Himalayan Buddhist kingdom ruled by the Chogyal Dynasty formed in 1642 under the influence of Ti...

Renée Ford's introduction to the devotional literature in the collected works of the 3rd Dodrupchen composed in admiration of his late teacher Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo. Devotion is a primary category in Tibetan Nyingma Buddhism The Third Dodrupchen Jigme Tenpa’i Nyima (1865-1926) writes in his The Excellent Way How Guru Yoga Bestows Highest Wisdom how unwavering devotion is a student’s portal to re...

In this talk, Michael Ium explores the role of prophecies in the legitimation and construction of the Geluk tradition. The focus of this presentation is the role of prophecies in the early history of Ganden Monastery and the construction of the Geluk tradition. Beginning with those articulated during Tsongkhapa’s own life, more and more prophecies would be cited over the years, attributed by Geluk...

Ziyi Shao takes us to the reign of the Qianlong Emperor and will show us around the Fan hua lou (Hall of Buddhist Efflorescence), one of the most complex and prominent Buddhist monuments in the Forbidden city Fan hua lou (Hall of Buddhist Efflorescence) is one of the most complex and prominent Buddhist monuments in the Forbidden city Constructed during the Qianlong period, the two story building c...

Chloé Lukasiewicz talk on the significance of music in the Tibetan refugee community in Dharamsala, India Little work on emotions in migration exists in anthropology, and ethnomusicology has not yet invested much in this field of research. Nor has such an approach been developed in Tibetan studies either, particularly in the related music-ethnological approaches. Studies of religion and politics h...

Apropos 'the Tibetans': Reinier Langelaar's talk focuses on the mythical origins and the promotion of ethnicity in historical Tibet There are ongoing interdisciplinary debates concerning the age and origins of inter-regional collective identities. Although recent work on “ethnicity” and “nationalism” has repeatedly highlighted the role of religion and myth in nurturing large-scale communal identit...

Ayesha Fuentes shares a unique and interdisciplinary insight into art conservation of human remains in Tibetan material religion This talk introduces research into the use and instrumentalization of human remains in Tibetan material religion – as skull vessels, bone ornaments, thighbone trumpets and the double-sided skull drum – through an object-centered methodology that combines the technical do...

Bo Wang discussing the practice of depositing garments as offerings to sacred mountains in Eastern Tibet Different interpretations of what constitutes “trash” can reveal complex interactions between Tibetans and Han Chinese in the Eastern Himalayas. This talk adopts the term “trash talk” to illuminate how the Tibetan practice of depositing garments as offerings to sacred mountains has become a cen...

Alla Sizova discusses the role of translation activities in the spread of Buddhism in the 12th century and outlines the extent of Tibetan influence on the Tangut culture. In the 12th century the spread of Buddhism in the Tangut Empire, including its translation and publication activities, reached its peak. From the colophons of the surviving texts, we learn that the numerous Buddhist texts in Tang...

Fictional Facts or Factual Fiction? Lucia Galli's talk on self-representation and the social reality behind two Tibetan memoirs Cultural meanings and socio-historical realities hide in the interstices between literature and history, and narrative indisputably plays a central part in both fictional and factual writings. While the role of historians as “fiction-makers” has been theorised by Hayden W...

The Oracle in Exile: Pema Choedon's talk on the Nechung Oracle and identity construction in the Tibetan Diaspora Nowadays, Tibetans in the diaspora are increasingly conscious of what they consider as their ‘culture,’ and certain cultural elements are therefore crucial in their identity formation. Today the Gnas chung rgyal po, known among Tibetans as “the state oracle of Tibet,” is one of their mo...

I am currently focusing on the problem of the Dalai Lama’s mortality that is, the question of how to come to terms with his suffering and death, in light of the association between Tibetan kingship and the deity Avalokiteśvara. In this talk, I’ll share some of my work in progress on the divine kingship of the 5th Dalai Lama. In particular, I am currently focusing on the problem of the Dalai Lama’s...