Workshop: “Himalayan Buddhist Textual Scholarship: Tools and Techniques of Research”
5 September 2014
Photo: Orna Almogi
September 5–13, 2014, Punakha, Bhutan
The Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Universität Hamburg, has a long tradition of investigating (Buddhist) texts and ideas by employing historical-philological methods. The Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship (KC-TBTS) based at the Department has been established in 2011 mainly with an aim to promote text-based study of Himalayan Buddhism. One of the objectives and activities of the Khyentse Center has been to train young scholars from South Asia (e.g. India, Nepal, and Bhutan) including traditional scholars. The aim of these activities is to introduce them to methods of modern research in the field of Himalayan Buddhist Textual Studies and to impart to them the skills of employing historical-philological tools and techniques, on the one hand, and to increase collaboration between traditional and modern scholars within the domain of the academic study of Buddhism, on the other. As one of the many concrete steps towards realizing this particular objective, the Khyentse Center has thus far conducted two successful nine-day training workshops, namely, (a) “From Manuscripts & Xylographs to Modern Editions: Buddhist Textual Scholarship in Theory and Practice” (August 10–18, 2013, Chuniding, Serbithang, Thimphu, Bhutan), which was funded and conducted by the Khyentse Center and organized in collaborationwith the Centre for Bhutan Studies and GNH Research (Thimphu), and (b) “Buddhist Textual Scholarship and Fundamentals of Academic Research” (March 20–28, 2014, Ngagyur Nyingma Institute, Namdroling Monastery, Bylakuppe, Mysore District, Karnataka State, India), which was conducted by the Khyentse Center, and funded and organized in collaboration with the newly founded Ngagyur Nyingma Research Centre (NNRC)—the sNga-’gyur-nyams-zhib-lte-gnas-khang—of Namdroling Monastery. Although this latter workshop was primarily aimed at providing training to the first batch of the six stipendiary research students (zhib ’jug slob ma) of the NNRC within the framework of its newly introduced modern research program, a number of participants from other Tibetan Buddhist monastic seminaries in India, Nepal, and Bhutan, affiliated with different schools of Tibetan Buddhism, have participated in it.
The upcoming nine-day training workshop with the title “Himalayan Buddhist Textual Scholarship: Tools and Techniques of Research” (September 5–13, 2014, Punakha, Bhutan) is to be hosted by the Central Monastic Body (gZhung-grwa-tshang-lhan-tshogs) of Bhutan and conducted by the Khyentse Center, while being co-funded and co-organized by the two institutions in collaboration. Thisworkshop is aimed primarily at providing training to invited advanced scholars from mainly (but not only) monastic seminaries (bshad grwa) within Bhutan, and thereby laying the foundation for a research program and a research center, which would provide the (monastic) academics in Bhutan with a suitable context, venue, facility, or, purpose to pursue high-level research of Buddhist texts and ideas. The upcoming workshop in Punakha will be conducted at two levels (i.e. Levels 1, for beginners & 2 for advanced, for scholars who already participated in one of the previous workshops.
- For more information, please see the project page of the the ARPI Project