The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies

Suren won the first James Madison Trust Scholarship for Asia and joined the School of Political and International Relations at the University of Kent in 2005 for his MA. He wrote a dissertation on the question of Federal Possibility in Sri Lanka, for which he was awarded a distinction. He returned to Canada and engaged with a research project with University of Ottawa. Suren was offered another scholarship for his PhD by James Madison Trust in 2008. Above this, he also won the ORSAS scholarship by the British Government (for the years 2008-2011) Suren is also the recipient of the OSAP award offered by the Ontario Provincial government of Canada. He carries a number of years of experience in direct political activities including Track I & II peace negotiations and political reforms at national level in Sri Lanka.

Robert Mayer joined the Oriental Institute in 2002, where he holds the posts of University Research Lecturer and Research Officer.   He completed his BA (Hons) at Bristol, and his PhD at Leiden. His first job was Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wales, followed by a Visiting Chair in Tibetology at the Humboldt University of Berlin from 1999 to 2001, and after a year in the Anthropology Department at Kent, he came to Oxford in October 2002. He has also twice been a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College. He is a specialist in the rNying ma school of Tibetan Buddhism, and has published a number of books, monographs and articles, over twenty of them since 2006 for the current REF period, and mostly together with his wife and co-worker, Dr Cathy Cantwell.  One of his goals is to clarify the early rNying ma period by studying the Dunhuang texts in context. Another goal is to improve the standards of philology and critical editing within Tibetan Studies. A third goal is to preserve, protect and describe the few surviving witnesses of the once much more plentiful 'Ancient Tantra Collection', or rNying ma'i rgyud 'bum.  A researcher by vocation, he and his wife Dr Cathy Cantwell have designed and directed several large research projects, mainly funded by the AHRC. However, he also occasionally teaches and takes graduate students, particularly if their interests overlap with his.

He and Cathy's blog can be found at: http://blogs.orient.ox.ac.uk/kila/, and his faculty staff page at http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/isa/rmayer.html.

Rob has recently published a new book with Cathy.  Please Click Here for more details.

Enduring Myths: Smrang, Rabs and Ritual in the Dunhuang Texts on Padmasambhava

Jowita Kramer completed a doctorate (Hamburg, 2004) and habilitation (Munich, 2010) in Indology and currently holds the post of Departmental Lecturer for Buddhist Studies at the University of Oxford. The main focus of her research lies on Indian and Indo-Tibetan Buddhism (with particular emphasis on the philosophical concepts of the Yogācāra tradition) and on aspects of authorship, originality, and intertextuality in Buddhist commentarial literature. Her publications include a monograph on the Yogācāra concept of the “five categories” (vastu) and studies of the Pañcaskandhakavibhāṣā, a 6th-century commentary by the Indian scholar Sthiramati on Vasubandhu’sPañcaskandhaka.

See also the Faculty of Oriental Studies website at http://www.orinst.ox.ac.uk/staff/isa/jkramer.html

Originally from Shan State, Union of Burma, Khammai Dhammasami has a doctorate from Oxford. The incumbent of the Oxford Buddha Vihara, he also heads the International Association of Buddhist Universities (www.iabu.org) and has been involved in organising the UN day of Vesak, based in Bangkok since 2005. He travels the world both in that capacity and as teacher and meditation master. He has a key role in the OCBS’ relations with the Sangha and Buddhist Universities in Theravada countries and more widely across Asia.

L.S. Cousins was formerly Senior Lecturer in Comparative Religion (University of Manchester) and a Supernumerary Fellow of Wolfson College (Oxford). Also a former President of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies and of the Pali Text Society His main areas of research concern the history of Buddhist schools, Abhidhamma literature and thought, as well as Pali, Middle Indian and Buddhist Sanskrit textual studies. His publications include 22 articles in periodicals and festschrifts and some edited volumes. To this can be added some 44 book reviews in 15 periodicals. and the section on Buddhism in: John R. Hinnells, _A New Handbook of Living Religions, Blackwell, 1997, pp. 369–444. Eight of his articles have been reprinted in Vols I–IV of Williams, Paul, Buddhism: critical concepts in religious studies, Routledge, London, 2005. In Oxford, he has taught various aspects of Buddhism, mainly in the Theology Faculty and Pali and Middle Indian in the Oriental Faculty. He has also taught Buddhist meditation for many years and is the Founding Chairman of the Samatha Trust and other related organizations.

Articles

Tambapaṇṇiya and Tāmraśāṭiya

Dr Georgios T. Halkias is a specialist on Tibetan forms and practices of Buddhism in Tibet, Central Asia and the NW Himalayas. He completed his MA (Comparative Philosophy) at the University of Hawai‘i and his DPhil (Oriental Studies) at the University of Oxford. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Buddhism at the Centre of Buddhist Studies, the University of Hong Kong.

He has held several research posts at the Warburg Institute, at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, and has been a British Academy Post-doctoral Fellow at SOAS, University of London. He has several publications including a substantial monograph on the history and development of Pure Land Buddhism in Tibet, Luminous Bliss: a Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet. With an Annotated Translation and Critical Analysis of the Orgyen-ling golden Small Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra (Hawaii: University of Hawai‘i Press 2012); “The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas: Princess Exchange in Ladakh and Baltistan,” in Islam and Tibet: Interactions Along the Musk Routes, ed. by Anna Akasoy, et al. (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), pp. 231-252; 2008. “Buddhist Meditation Traditions in Tibet: The Union of the Three Vehicles,” in Buddhist Meditation: An Introduction, by Sharah Shaw. (New York: Rutledge Press, 2008) pp. 159-186; and “Tibetan Buddhism Registered: Imperial Archives from the Palace-Temple of ’Phang-thang.” (The Eastern Buddhist, Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1 and 2, 2004). pp. 46-105.

He is currently researching the translation history of Buddhism in Tibet with Prof. Roberta Raine http://translationintibet.wordpress.com/.

Articles

Tibetan Buddhism Registered

The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas

From: “The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas: Princess Exchange in Ladakh and Baltistan.” In Islam-Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes,  eds. Anna Akasoy et al. Ashgate Publications, 2011: 231-252.

Georgios' new book is Luminous Bliss: A Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet.  For more details please click here.

Sarah Shaw studied Greek and English at Manchester University, where she obtained a doctorate in English Literature. She studied Pali at Oxford and has written books and articles on Buddhist themes. She is a member of Wolfson College and the Oriental Institute.

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