Awards

The Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2017 will be awarded to Jeongsoo Lee alias Bhikṣu Hejung. This year the conferral event will be conducted jointly for both the Department’s KF Award and the KF Award for Outstanding PhD Dissertation in Buddhist Studies in Europe for the year 2017, which was granted to Dr. Christopher Jones  from University of Oxford. On the occasion of the conferral event, Prof. Franceso Sferra (Dipartimento Asia Africa Mediterraneo, Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale,” Naples, Italy) will hold a celebratory lecture titled “When Buddhists Are the Enemies: A Sketch of the Debate on the Different Ways of Salvation in Tantric Buddhism.” 

The Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2016 will be awarded to Mr. Eric Werner. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Prof. Birgit Kellner will give a lecture entitled “On Proving Idealism: Arguments from Dharmakīrti.”

The Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2015 will be awarded to Dr. Jörg Heimbel. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Prof. Harunaga Isaacson will give a lecture entitled “Some Observations on Indian Buddhist Textual Scholarship, With Particular Reference to Commentaries on Tantras.”

The Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2014 will be awarded to Dr. Hodo Nakamura. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Dr. Vincent Eltschinger will give a lecture on “The Yogācārabhūmi’s Systematic Critique of Vedic Ritual Violence (hiṃsā).”

The recipient of the Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2013 has been Sabine Klein-Schwind, who completed PhD dealing with an exegetical work relating to the Guhyasamājatantra, titled “The Compendium of the Ten Fundamentals. Daśatattvasaṃgraha of Paṇḍita  Kṣitigarbha,” under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson. The Award ceremony took place on July 3rd, 2013 in the Asia-Africa Institute. On the occasion of the award ceremony, Dr. Ulrich Pagel held a lecture on “Buddhist Monks in Tax Disputes: Monastic Attitudes towards Revenue Collection.” 

The recipient of the Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2012 has been Ms. Dagmar Schwerk, who is completing her Magister in the field of Tibetology (with focus in Buddhist Studies) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk. She has written a thesis in German with the title: “Spiegel der Sichtweise: Die Kernpunkte [der Philosophie] des Mittleren [Weges] (dBu ma’i bsdus don lta ba’i me long): Eine kurze Abhandlung über das Madhyamaka rJe dGe-’dun-rin-chens (1926–1997), dem 69. rJe mKhan-po von Bhutan”. The prize has been awarded in recognition of her proficiency in primary research languages, including Tibetan and Sanskrit and her commitment in Tibetan Buddhist Studies.

The Award ceremony took place on June 22, 2012 at the Main Building (Room 118) of the University of Hamburg. Due the last-minute cancellation of Dr. Martin Delhey’s planned  lecture on “Abhidharma Works of the Yogācāras and Their Practical Uses” to mark the occasion, Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk gave a lecture on “The Buddhist Ontology of Mereism.”

The recipient of the Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies for the year 2011 has been Ms. Ayako Nakamura, who is pursuing her PhD in the field of Classical Indology under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson, with a doctoral dissertation on the concept of “awakening” (bodhi: byang chub). The prize has been awarded in recognition of her proficiency in primary research languages, including Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Buddhist Chinese, and her meticulous and careful study of one of the most important Buddhist concepts. The Award ceremony took place on July 12, 2011 in the Asia-Africa Institute. The event was marked by a lecture held by Dr. Giuliana Martini—the current ITLR fellow of the Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship (KC-TBTS)—on “The bodhisattva path in the early Buddhism of Khotan.”

The first recipient of the “Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies” has been Mr. Dimitri Pauls, who is pursuing a Magister degree in Tibetology (with focus on Buddhism) and a Diploma in Mathematics. Mr. Dimitri showed his natural talent in classical Tibetan and Sanskrit and his skill in dealing with complex Buddhist texts and ideas. Owing to his command of classical Tibetan, Mr. Pauls has also been appointed as a tutor in the Department for a number of years, thereby contributing in the maintenance of a very high standard of academic performance in the Department. The Award ceremony took place on July 8, 2010 at the Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies.