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Mitsuyo Demoto studied Sanskrit Language and Literature at Kyoto University, Japan, where she took an M.A. and a Ph.D. Her main focus was on Buddhist narrative literature in Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese. After several years of research and teaching activities at Japanese universities, she came to Marburg in 2000 as a Postdoctoral Fellow for Research Abroad of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and gained experience in textual criticism. Since 2009 she has been involved in various DFG projects on the cataloguing and editing of Sanskrit manuscripts. ([https://hatha.hosting144023.a2e88.netcup.net/team/ Source Accessed Aug 11, 2026]) +
Mark Dennis is Associate Professor of Religion at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth Texas. He earned his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2006, focusing on early Japanese Buddhism. Before joining the Religion Department at TCU in 2007, he taught for four years at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota. He has lived in Japan and India for eight years where he studied Buddhism and Hinduism, and has traveled widely in Asia. His research focuses on the reception history of Japanese Buddhist texts, looking particularly at notions of authorship, textuality, and canon. He has published a translation of the ''Shomangyo-gisho'', a Japanese Buddhist text written in classical Chinese and attributed to Japan’s Prince Shotoku (574–622 CE). He has also written articles looking at the reception of this text in various periods of Japanese history. One of these articles examines the different ways in which four medieval Japanese monks understood and used the text, while another considers modern representations of it in Japanese manga, or comic books. He has also coedited a volume of essays on Shusaku Endo's novel ''Silence'' that was published in 2014 by Bloomsbury-Continuum. ([https://www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies/centre-religion-culture-asia/about/associate-fellows/textual Source Accessed Jun 6, 2019]) +
Marc-Henri Deroche is associate professor at Kyōto University (GSAIS, Shishu-Kan), Japan, where he teaches Buddhist studies and cross-cultural philosophy. His doctoral dissertation (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, 2011) and a series of articles have investigated the life, works, and legacy of Tibetan author Prajñāraśmi (Tertön Sherab Öser, 1518-84) in the successive revivals of the Nyingma school and the nineteenth-century ecumenical (''rimé'') movement. He is also the coeditor of ''Revisiting Tibetan Religion and Philosophy'' (AMI, 2012). Recent research has focused on Dzokchen, including "The ''Dzogs chen'' Doctrine of the Three Gnoses" (with Akinori Yasuda, RET, No. 33, 2015) and a current project on its specific philosophy of vigilance. Having traveled extensively in Tibet and the Himalayas, and having lived in Kyōto since 2008, his work centers on the philosophical and transcultural significance of the Buddhist paradigm of the development of wisdom according to "listening, reflection, and meditation." (Source: ''A Gathering of Brilliant Moons'', 327–28) +
Sushama Devi is a notable scholar in the field of Buddhist studies, particularly recognized for her contributions to the translation and critical editing of important Buddhist texts. One of her significant works is the ''Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja'', published in 1958 as part of the Śata-piṭaka series. This text is a critical edition that includes translations from Sanskrit into Tibetan and Chinese, showcasing her expertise in multiple languages and her dedication to preserving Buddhist literature.
In addition to her work on the ''Samantabhadracaryā-praṇidhānarāja'', Devi has engaged with various aspects of Buddhist literature and its transmission across cultures. Her research often explores the historical and doctrinal contexts of Buddhist texts, contributing to a deeper understanding of their significance within Mahayana traditions. Devi's scholarship emphasizes the importance of these texts in understanding the broader landscape of South Asian religious traditions, particularly in their esoteric dimensions. +
'''Short Biography:'''<br>
Mitra Tyler Dewar met [[Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche]] in 1997, just one year after beginning his journey of practicing the dharma. Through an auspicious coincidence, he learned the Tibetan alphabet that summer and soon after formed the conviction to serve the dharma through translating Tibetan into English. He became a formal student of Rinpoche's in 1998 and began translating for Rinpoche's organizations, Nalandabodhi and Nitartha Institute, in 2000. In 2001 he became the regular translator for Acharya Sherab Gyaltsen Negi at Nalandabodhi Seattle. From that point onward, Tyler has traveled extensively with The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche on Rinpoche's teaching tours, translating for the Tibetan segments of Rinpoche's teachings and occasionally presenting aspects of Rinpoche's teachings himself. In 2003 Nalandabodhi welcomed Acharya Tashi Wangchuk as a resident teacher; Tyler served as Acharya's oral interpreter and also worked closely with Acharya on the translation of several texts from the philosophical and intuitive traditions of Indian and Tibetan Buddhadharma. Tyler has served as a secretary in the Office of The Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche for the past seven years, and has thus felt enriched by the opportunity to support Rinpoche's teaching activity from many perspectives.
In terms of his formative dharma training, Tyler completed two dathuns (month-long intensive meditation retreats) in the late 90s and resided for one year, 1997-1998, at Gampo Abbey Monastery in Nova Scotia, Canada, practicing intensively, participating in several study curricula, and attending lengthy seminars by Ani Pema Chödrön on Mind Training. He has attended Nitartha Institute's summer program since 1999 and has been a faculty member since 2000, translating for such courses as Collected Topics, Abhidharma, Mind Only, and Madhyamaka. He attended his first Nalandabodhi Sangha Retreat in 2001 and has been in attendance ever since.
Two books of Tyler's translations have been published by [[Snow Lion Publications]]: [[Trainings in Compassion]]: Manuals on the Meditation of Avalokiteshvara (2004) and [[The Karmapa's Middle Way]]: Feast for the Fortunate (2008), a translation of a major philosophical work by the Ninth Karmapa, Wangchuk Dorje.
John Deweese served as an editor for ''Drops of Nectar'', Andreas Kretschmar's translation of Khenpo Kunpal’s commentary on the ''Bodhicaryāvatāra''. He was also an editor for Rje btsun grags pa rgyal mtshan's ''Parting from the Four Attachments''. +
William Dewey is a scholar and digital humanist, who is also a full stack web developer with experience in Ruby and JavaScript frameworks. He has a lifelong interest in coding, the Internet, and other digital media. A specialist in Tibetan Buddhism, he has taught diverse groups of students and has worked at the Rubin Museum. (Adapted from Source: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/william-dewey-phd-156baa32/ LinkedIn]) +
Michelle L. Dexter is one of the editors of the book ''Santideva and Bodhicaryavatara'' along with Prof. C. Upender Rao and Chodrung-ma Kunga Chodron. This book is focused on the Buddhist text ''Bodhicaryavatara'' by the 8th-century Indian Buddhist philosopher Shantideva. Beyond this specific publication, there is limited information available about Michelle L. Dexter's other work in Buddhist studies or editing. +
Dezhung Rinpoche, born Ngawang Zangpo, (1906—1987) was a Tibetan lama of the Sakya school. In 1960 he came to the Seattle, Washington in the United States of America, one of the first Tibetan Lamas to settle and teach in the United States. He was born in the Ga (sga) region of eastern Tibet. +
Geshe Langri Tangpa (Tib. དགེ་བཤེས་གླང་རི་ཐང་པ་, Wyl. dge bshes glang ri thang pa) (1054-1123 ), aka. Langthangpa Dorje Senge (གླང་ཐང་པ་རྡོ་རྗེ་སེངྒེ་glang thang pa rdo rje seng+ge) — a famous Kadampa master and disciple of Potowa Rinchen Sal, who is best known for composing the ''Eight Verses of Training the Mind''. ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Geshe_Langri_Tangpa Source Accessed Nov 8, 2024]) +
The first of the Katok Getse (kaH thog dge rtse) incarnations, Gyurme Tsewang Chokdrup, Katok Getse Mahapandita (1761-1829) was an important Nyingma scholar from Katok Monastery who famously wrote a catalogue to the Nyingma Gyübum.
He was born in the Iron Snake year of the thirteenth calendrical cycle (1761) and recognized as an incarnation of Tsewang Trinlé, the nephew of Longsal Nyingpo (1625-1692). His teachers included Dodrupchen Kunzang Shenpen, Ngor Khenchen Palden Chökyong, Changkya Rolpé Dorje and Dzogchenpa Ati Tenpé Gyaltsen. Through his connection with the Derge royal family, he arranged for the printing of the ''Collection of Nyingma Tantras'' (''Nyingma Gyübum'') and the writings of Longchenpa and Jikmé Lingpa, and took responsibility for proofreading. Among his students were the Third Dzogchen Rinpoche and the Third Shechen Rabjam, Rigdzin Paljor Gyatso (1770-1809). ([https://www.rigpawiki.org/index.php?title=Gyurme_Tsewang_Chokdrup Source Accessed Feb 18, 2022])
See also:<br>
*[[Deity, Mantra and Wisdom]]: Development Stage Meditation in Tibetan Buddhist Tantra, translated by the Dharmachakra Translation Committee, Snow Lion, 2007.
**Ronis, Jann M. “Celibacy, Revelations, and Reincarnated Lamas: Contestation and Synthesis in the Growth of Monasticism at Katok Monastery from the 17th through 19th Centuries”. Available from [https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/downloads/hq37vp052?filename=1_Ronis_Jann_2009_PHD.pdf the University of Virginia, here].
*Tomoko Makidono, "Kah thog Dge rtse Mahāpaṇḍita’s Doxographical Position: The Great Madhyamaka of Other-Emptiness (gzhan stong dbu ma chen po)" in Indian International Journal of Buddhist Studies (IIJBS) vol. 12 (2011), pp. 77-119
*Tomoko Makidono, "The Turning of the Wheel of Mantrayāna Teachings in the Rnying ma rgyud ’bum dkar chag lha’i rnga bo che by Kaḥ thog Dge rtse Mahāpaṇḍita ’Gyur med tshe dbang mchog grub (149-186)" in IIJBS vol. 13 (2012), pp. 149-186 +
Bhante Dhammapala is the Founder and Abbot of Brahmavihara Monastery & Retreat Centre Melaka, Bodhivana Monastery of Sungai Pelek and The Centre of Mindfulness in Hong Kong. He travels frequently to conduct meditation retreats, Dhamma talks as well as Dhamma camps for youths and teenagers. +
Geshe Ngawang Dhargyey was born on the 13th of the fifth Tibetan month in the year of the Iron-Bird (1921) in the town of Yätsak (or Ya Chak) in the Trehor district of Tibet's eastern province Kham. He was soon enrolled in the large local Dhargyey Monastery of the Gelug tradition, where he took pre-novice ordination vows. Although he was enrolled there he studied mainly in the village Sakya monastery, Lona Gonpa where he received instruction in reading, writing, grammar etc, and learned numerous texts and practices by heart. His teachers there included two of his uncles, as well as Kushu Gonpä Rinpoche, who was a master of all the five major fields of learning.
Gen Rinpoche left his home country to further his spiritual education at Sera Monastery, the great monastic university in Lhasa. There he underwent extensive training in all the five divisions of Buddhist philosophical study: Logic, Perfection of Wisdom, the Middle View, Metaphysics, and Ethical Discipline. This was interspersed with periods of intensive retreat at some of the many hermitages near Sera. By the time he was nineteen he had already mastered his studies sufficiently to become a scriptural teacher, and he began to have many students of his own. At the age of 21, he took full ordination vows of a Bhikshu from the widely renowned Purchog Jamgön Rinpoche. He also received numerous teachings, initiations and commentaries from the great Lamas of that time such as Kyabje Trijang Dorje Chang (His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Tutor), Bakri Dorje Chang, Lhatsün Dorje Chang, Gönsar Dorje Chang and others. His monastic teachers were the great scholar-practitioners Gen Sherab Wangchuk, Gen Chöntse, and the now Gyume Kensur Ugyän Tseten.
He studied in Sera in Tibet for twenty years until, in 1959, Chinese oppression forced him to leave Tibet. Two years earlier he had been appointed tutor to two high incarnate lamas, Lhagön Rinpoche and Thupten Rinpoche. The three escaped from Chinese occupied Tibet together taking a long and dangerous journey of nine months under Chinese gunfire and snowstorms until they reached the Mustang region of Nepal. From Mustang it was a comparatively easy journey to India, where they joined His Holiness the Dalai Lama and some of Gen Rinpoche's other teachers.
In India, after a brief pilgrimage to the sacred Buddhist sites, he took up his studies once again, and for several continued tutoring the tulkus (incarnate lamas). In the mid 1960s, he was chosen along with fifty-five other scholars to attend an Acarya course at Mussourie (north of Delhi). During his year in Mussourie, he and the other scholars wrote textbooks for the Tibetan refugee schools being established in India at that time. He then returned to Dalhousie where, over various periods, he continued to teach another seven incarnate lamas. He also finished his Geshe studies and, in oral examinations held at the Buxador refugee camp in Assam in eastern India (the seat of Sera monastery at that time) he gained the highest grade (First Class) Lharampa Geshe.
In 1971 he was asked by His Holiness the Dalai Lama to start a teaching program for westerners at the newly constructed Library of Tibetan Works and Archives in Dharamsala, northern India. Two of his incarnate lama disciples, Sharpa Rinpoche and Kamlung Rinpoche, acted as translators. He stayed there, teaching very extensively to thousands of Westerners, until 1984. During this time he himself received extensive and often exclusive teachings from His Holiness the Dalai Lama and from both of the tutors, Kyabje Trijang Rinpoche and Kyabje Ling Rinpoche.
In 1982 he travelled to the West for the first time to take up a one-semester visiting professorship for at the University of Washington in Seattle. This was followed by a year-long extensive tour of Buddhist teaching centres all over North America, Europe and Australasia.
He spent six weeks in New Zealand during this tour, and at the end of the visit he was requested to establish a Buddhist centre here. In 1985 His Holiness advised Gen Rinpoche to come to New Zealand, initially for one and a half years, to establish a centre. After a six month tour of Australia, he arrived in Dunedin in mid 1985. Due to the success of the Buddhist centre he remained here, occasionally travelling to other parts of New Zealand and to Australia on teaching tours.
Gen Rinpoche gave his last formal teaching in February 1995 in Dunedin. Gen Rinpoche entered into the death process on the 11th August 1995 (the 16th of the 6th Tibetan month) remaining in meditation for of three days.
His body was cremated with full traditional Tibetan funerary rites at Portobello, near Dunedin on 17th August (22nd of the 6th Tibetan month). Kushu Lhagön Rinpoche, one of Gen Rinpoche's tulku disciples, presided over the Great Offering to His Holy Body Ceremony at a specially built cremation stupa. ([https://dbc.dharmakara.net/GNDBiography.html Adapted from Source Feb 24, 2023])
[http://dharmapublishing.com/about/our-founder/ About Tarthang Tulku]
Keenly aware of Tibet’s irreparable loss and willing to do everything possible to sustain the precious heritage of the Land of Snows, Dharma Publishing has worked to realize three principle goals: preservation of Tibetan texts and art, publication of works in Western languages that communicate the meaning and value of the Dharma, and distribution of texts to monks and scholars of the Tibetan Community.
It is our hope that, even if the lineages do not survive in their traditional form, the texts and the knowledge they contain will be available for future generations. Although civilizations rise and fall, perhaps the day will come when this precious enlightened knowledge can once more be fully applied for the benefit of all sentient beings. ([http://dharmapublishing.com/about/ Source Accessed August 26, 2015]) +
Dharmakṣema. (C. Tanwuchen; J. Donmusen; K. Tammuch'am 曇無讖 (385-433 CE). Indian Buddhist monk who was an early translator of Buddhist materials into Chinese. A scion of a brāhmaṇa family from India, Dharmakṣema became at the age of six a disciple of Dharmayaśas (C. Damoyeshe; J. Donmayasha) (d.u.), an Abhidharma specialist who later traveled to China c. 397–401 and translated the ''Śāriputrābhidharmaśāstra''. Possessed of both eloquence and intelligence, Dharmakṣema was broadly learned in both monastic and secular affairs and was well versed in mainstream Buddhist texts. After he met a meditation monk named "White Head" and had a fiery debate with him, Dharmakṣema recognized his superior expertise and ended up studying with him. The monk transmitted to him a text of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' written on bark, which prompted Dharmakṣema to embrace the Mahāyāna. Once he reached the age of twenty, Dharmakṣema was able to recite over two million words of Buddhist texts. He was also so skilled in casting spells that he earned the sobriquet "Great Divine Spell Master" (C. Dashenzhou shi). Carrying with him the first part of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'' that he received from "White Head," he left India and arrived in the Kucha kingdom in Central Asia. As the people of Kucha mostly studied Hīnayāna and did not accept the Mahāyāna teachings, Dharmakṣema then moved to China and lived in the western outpost of Dunhuang for several years. Juqu Mengxun, the non-Chinese ruler of the Northern Liang dynasty (397–439 CE), eventually brought Dharmakṣema to his capital. After studying the Chinese language for three years and learning how to translate Sanskrit texts orally into Chinese, Dharmakṣema engaged there in a series of translation projects under Juqu Mengxun's patronage. With the assistance of Chinese monks, such as Daolang and Huigao, Dharmakṣema produced a number of influential Chinese translations, including the ''Dabanniepan jing'' (S. ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra''; in forty rolls), the longest recension of the sūtra extant in any language; the ''Jinguangming jing'' ("Sūtra of Golden Light"; S. ''Suvarṇaprabhāsottamasūtra''; in four rolls); and the ''Pusa dichi jing'' (S. ''Bodhisattvabhūmisūtra''; in ten rolls). He is also said to have made the first Chinese translation of the ''Laṅkāvatārasūtra'' (C. ''Ru Lengqie jing'', but his rendering had dropped out of circulation at least by 730 CE, when the Tang Buddhist cataloguer Zhisheng (700–786 CE) compiled the Kaiyuan Shijiao Lu. The Northern Wei ruler Tuoba Tao, a rival of Juqu Mengxun's, admired Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise and requested that the Northern Liang ruler send the Indian monk to his country. Fearing that his rival might seek to employ Dharmakṣema's esoteric expertise against him, Juqu Mengxun had the monk assassinated at the age of forty-nine. Dharmakṣema's translation of Indian Buddhist texts into Chinese had a significant impact on Chinese Buddhism; in particular, the doctrine that all beings have the buddha-nature (''foxing''), a teaching appearing in Dharmakṣema's translation of the ''Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra'', exerted tremendous influence on the development of Chinese Buddhist thought. (Source: "Dharmakṣema." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 247–48. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.)
Dharmamitra ［曇摩蜜多・曇無蜜多］ (356–442) (Skt; Jpn Dommamitta or Dommumitta): A monk from Kashmir in ancient India who translated Buddhist sutras into Chinese. He entered the Buddhist Order while young and traveled through various kingdoms to pursue study of the sutras. He dedicated himself to the practice of meditation and, passing through Kucha and Tun-huang, went to China in 424, where he exhorted people to practice meditation. In 433 he went to Chien-k’ang, the capital of the Liu Sung dynasty, and in 435 founded Ting-lin-shang-ssu temple, where he lived. He converted the empress and crown prince of the Liu Sung dynasty. His works include ''The Secret Essentials of Meditation'' and Chinese translations of the ''Universal Worthy Sutra'' and the ''Meditation on Bodhisattva Space Treasury Sutra''. ([https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/55 Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
Dharmamitra (Tib. Slob dpon chos kyi bshes gnyen) was an Indian Buddhist scholar who flourished between 850 and 899 CE. According to BDRC, he studied under Ācārya Chos kyi 'byung gnas and had at least two known students, Paṇchen Vi khyA ta de va and Ācārya Śākya 'od. He is best known as the author of the ''Prasphuṭapadā'' ("A Clarification of the Words," Tib. ''Tshig rab tu gsal ba''), an influential commentary on Maitreya's ''Abhisamayālaṃkāra'' that numbers among the traditional set of Indian commentaries on that root text studied in Tibetan monastic curricula. He also composed the ''Vinayasūtraṭīkā'' (''<i>'</i>Dul ba'i mdo'i rgya cher 'grel pa''), an extensive commentary on Guṇaprabha's ''Vinayasūtra''. Both works were translated into Tibetan and are preserved in the Tengyur across multiple editions. This ninth-century Dharmamitra is to be distinguished from other Indian and Central Asian Buddhist figures of the same name from earlier periods. +
Bhikshu Dharmamitra (ordination name "Heng Shou" - 釋恆授) is a Chinese-tradition translator-monk and one of the earliest American disciples (since 1968) of the late Guiyang Ch'an patriarch, Dharma teacher, and pioneer of Buddhism in the West, the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua (宣化上人). He has a total of 34 years in robes during two periods as a monastic (1969‒1975 & 1991 to the present). Dharmamitra's principal educational foundations as a translator of Sino-Buddhist Classical Chinese lie in four years of intensive monastic training and Chinese-language study of classic Mahāyāna texts in a small-group setting under Master Hsuan Hua (1968-1972), undergraduate Chinese language study at Portland State University, a year of intensive one-on-one Classical Chinese study at the Fu Jen University Language Center near Taipei, two years of course work at the University of Washington's Department of Asian Languages and Literature (1988-90), and an additional three years of auditing graduate courses and seminars in Classical Chinese readings, again at UW's Department of Asian Languages and Literature. Since taking robes again under Master Hua in 1991, Dharmamitra has devoted his energies primarily to study and translation of classic Mahāyāna texts with a special interest in works by rya Nāgārjuna and related authors. To date, he has translated more than fifteen important texts comprising approximately 150 fascicles, including most recently the 80-fascicle Avataṃsaka Sūtra (the "Flower Adornment Sutra"), Nāgārjuna's 17-fascicle Daśabhūmika Vibhāṣā ("Treatise on the Ten Grounds"), and the Daśabhūmika Sūtra (the "Ten Grounds Sutra") . . . ([https://www.alibris.com/search/books/author/Bhikshu-Dharmamitra# Source Accessed July 15, 2021]) +
Cotranslator with Zhu Fonian of the ''Aṣṭasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā''. +
Dharmarakṣa. (C. Zhu Fahu; J. Jiku Hōgo; K. Ch’uk Pǒpho 竺法護) (c. 233-310). One of the most prolific translators in early Chinese Buddhism, who played an important role in transmitting the Indian scriptural tradition to China. Presumed to be of Yuezhi heritage, Dharmarakṣa was born in the Chinese outpost of Dunhuang and grew up speaking multiple languages. He became a monk at the age of eight and in his thirties traveled extensively throughout the oasis kingdoms of Central Asia, collecting manuscripts of Mahāyāna scriptures in a multitude of Indic and Middle Indic languages, which he eventually brought back with him to China. Because of his multilingual ability, Dharmarakṣa was able to supervise a large team in rendering these texts into Chinese; the team included scholars of Indian and Central Asian origin, as well as such Chinese laymen as the father-and-son team Nie Chengyuan and Nie Daozhen. Some 150 translations in over three hundred rolls are attributed to Dharmarakṣa, including the first translation of the ''Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra'', the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśa'', the ''Lalitavistara'', the ''Bhadrakalpikasūtra'', and some of the prajñāpāramitā literature. Although many of Dharmarakṣa's pioneering renderings were later superseded by the fourth-century retranslations of Kumārajīva, Dharmarakṣa is generally considered the most important translator of the early Chinese Buddhist saṃgha. (Source: "Dharmarakṣa." In ''The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism'', 251. Princeton University Press, 2014. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46n41q.27.) +
