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EMMERICK, RONALD ERIC, (b. Sydney, 9 March 1937; d. Hamburg, 31 August 2001), distinguished Australian scholar of the ancient civilizations and languages of Iran, India, and Tibet. He was the only son of Eric Steward Emmerick (1905-67) and Myrtle Caroline Emmerick, née Smith (1908-72). Prompted by his keen interest in languages and their history, he studied Latin, Greek, French, and German at Sydney University (1955-58), where he also attended an unofficial Sanskrit course offered by the classicist and linguist Athanasius Pryor Treweek. He took his B.A. degree with First Class Honors and received the University Medal for Classics with a thesis on “Mycenaean Morphology.” Subsequently he was appointed as a teaching fellow in the Latin department in 1959. His choice to write his thesis on Mycenaean Greek, whose script, Linear B, had only been deciphered in 1953, attests to his intellectual curiosity and shows how he was attracted by little explored subjects whose study could open up new vistas and deepen our knowledge of history in general. His chosen field of research, however, to which he devoted most of his life, was to be the Khotanese language and texts. He first heard of this language when, in Sydney, at the age of twenty-two, he read Harold Walter Bailey’s 1938 inaugural lecture, “The Content of Indian and Iranian Studies.” He was so impressed by this lecture that he decided to study Khotanese with Bailey at Cambridge University. There, he first completed his studies in Classics and was instructed in Iranian and Indian studies by Bailey, receiving the Brotherton Sanskrit Prize, the Bhaonagar Medal for Sanskrit and the Rapson Scholarship. Then, in the years 1963-65, he wrote his doctoral dissertation entitled "Indo-Iranian Studies: Saka Grammar" and took his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in 1965. In the meantime, he had been elected research fellow at St. John’s College, Cambridge (1964-67) and lecturer in Iranian Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London (1964-71). In addition, he taught Sanskrit at Cambridge while Bailey was on a sabbatical leave (1965-66). He subsequently revised and enlarged his dissertation and published it under the title Saka Grammatical Studies (1968f), which became an indispensable reference work for both ancient and modern Iranian studies.
(Read more [https://iranicaonline.org/articles/emmerick-ronald-eric-scholar here])
Artemus B. Engle began studying the Tibetan language in Howell, New Jersey in early 1971 at Labsum Shedrup Ling, the precursor of the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center. In 1972 he became a student of Sera Mey Khensur Lobsang Tharchin Rinpoche, a relationship that spanned more than thirty years. In 1975 he enrolled in the Buddhist Studies program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and received a PhD in 1983. Since the mid-1980s he taught Tibetan language and Buddhist doctrine at the Mahayana Sutra and Tantra Center in Howell, New Jersey. In 2005 he became a Tsadra Foundation Translation Fellow and has worked primarily on the ''Pañcaskandhaprakarana'' and the ''Bodhisattvabhūmi''. +
Dr. Jack Engler (1939-2023) was a distinguished clinical psychologist who served as a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School and maintained a private practice in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He earned his PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Chicago and became a pioneer in integrating Western psychodynamic therapy with Buddhist meditation practices. Engler co-authored the influential book "Transformations of Consciousness" with Ken Wilber and Daniel Brown, which presented a groundbreaking "full-spectrum model of human development" that bridged conventional psychological development with contemplative spiritual practices. He was a founding board member of the Insight Meditation Society (IMS) and served on the board of the Barre Center for Buddhist Studies. In 1989, he was invited to participate in a panel on "Transformations of Consciousness" with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Engler is best remembered for his famous formulation: "You have to be somebody before you can be nobody," which encapsulated his understanding of the relationship between psychological development and spiritual realization. He published papers in academic journals, contributed chapters to books, and co-authored "The Consumer's Guide to Psychotherapy" with Daniel Goleman. ([https://pphd.crediblemind.com/people/jack-engler Source Accessed June 2, 2026]) +
Kazuo Enoki was born in Kobe city in 1913 and was an educator and historian. In 1955 he became a Professor of Tokyo University. He studied mainly Central Asia under guidance of Shiratori Kurakichi. Besides this, he wrote several historical books about China and Japan. In 1974, he was Director General of Toyo Bunko. Also, he was in England (1952-53) as guest professor of London University. He was related to [the] amassing of distinctive materials of Toyo Bunko after WW2, such as documents unearthed from Dunhuang and Turfan, Middle Eastern Documents, the Jesuitas na Asia from the Biblioteca de Ajuda in Lisbon, etc. In 1990. his bereaved donated his 30,000 books to Toyo Bunko. ([http://www.toyo-bunko.or.jp/toyobunko-e/library3/shozou/enoki-e.html Adapted from Source Mar 23, 2021]) +
Jacob Ensink was born in Hilversum on June 5, 1921. He earned his PhD from Utrecht University under the supervision of Jan Gonda in 1952. From 1954-1961 he was lecturer in Sanskrit at Groningen University. And from 1962-1984 he was professor of Sanskrit at the same institution. He became emeritus professor in 1984. ([https://www.dutchstudies-satsea.nl/deelnemers/ensink-jacob-jaap/ Adapted from Source Mar 23, 2021]) +
'Baatra' Erdene-Ochir is a Ph.D. student in Buddhist Studies. He received a bachelor's degree in philosophy from UCSB and a master's degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School. He is interested in Indo-Tibetan Buddhist philosophical polemics and the history of Buddhist scholastic traditions as well as monastic institutions in Tibet and Mongolia. ([https://www.religion.ucsb.edu/people/student/erdenebaatar-baatra-hehimhis-erdene-ochir/ Source Accessed June 9, 2021]) +
Ergilu-a Rinčin (Tibetan: Rgyal ba rin chen) was a Mongolian Buddhist translator, active in the late 16th or early 17th century. He is known as the translator of the Mongolian version of the ''Vimalakīrtinirdeśasūtra'' preserved in manuscript Q95 of the Mongolian collection of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR in Leningrad. This translation differs from the Mongolian Kanjur version of the text and represents an older textual tradition. Neither the date nor the place of the translation is recorded in the colophon, and the provenance of manuscript Q95 itself is unknown. +
Ben Ewing is a member of the Dharmachakra Translation Committee and the Subashita Translation Group. He completed an MA thesis from Rangjung Yeshe Institute entitled "The Saraha of Tibet: How Mgur Shaped the Legacy of Lingchen Repa, Tibetan Siddha." +
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A monk and translator of the Western Jin apparently of unknown origin active between 290–306. A collaborator of Dharmarakṣa, who appears in the colophon of Dharmarakṣa's translation of the ''Lalitavistara'' and the ''Daśabhūmikasūtra''. (Source: Zürcher, ''The Buddhist Conquest of China'', 2007) Twenty-four texts are attributed to him in the Taisho canon. (See [http://www.acmuller.net/descriptive_catalogue/indexes/index-authors-editors-translators.html ''The Korean Buddhist Canon: A Descriptive Catalogue'']) +
Born in central India, Fatian (法天, ?-1001), or Dharmadeva, had been a monk in the Nālandā Monastery in the kingdom of Magadha. In 973, the sixth year of the Kaibao (開寶) years of the Northern Song Dynasty, he went to China and stayed in Pujin (蒲津), in Lu County (漉州). He translated the Sūtra of the Infinite-Life Resolute Radiance King Tathāgata Dhāraṇī, the Stanzas in Praise of the Seven Buddhas, and other texts. His translations were recorded and edited by Fajin (法進), an Indian monk of the Kaiyuan Temple (開元寺) in Hezhongfu (河中府).
In 980, the fifth year of the Taiping-Xinguo (太平興國) years, the county official presented a written recommendation of Fatian to Emperor Taizong (宋太宗). Very pleased with what he read in the report, the emperor summoned Fatian to the capital city and bestowed upon him the purple robe. Furthermore, he decreed the building of an institute for sūtra translation. In 982, at the command of the emperor, Fatian, Tianxizai (天息災), Shihu (施護), and others moved into the institute, starting to translate the Sanskrit texts each had brought. In the seventh month, Fatian completed his translation of the Mahāyāna Sūtra of the Holy Auspicious Upholding-the-World Dhāranī. Then the emperor named him Great Master of Transmission of Teachings. Between 982 and 1000, he translated forty-six sūtras. Fatian died in 1001, the fourth year of the Xianping (咸平) years, his age unknown. The emperor conferred upon him a posthumous title, Great Master of Profound Enlightenment. ([http://www.buddhism.org/Sutras/3/translators.html Source Accessed Aug 25, 2021]) +
Fazang is Zhiyan’s most accomplished and influential student, and became the third patriarch of Huayan. He is responsible for systematizing and extending Zhiyan’s teaching, and for securing the prominence of Huayan-style Buddhism at the imperial court. He is known especially for his definitive commentaries on the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'' and ''Awakening of Faith in Mahayana'', and for making Huayan doctrines accessible to laity with familiar technologies such as mirror halls and wood-block printing. These contributions support the traditional regard for Fazang as the third patriarch of the Huayan School.
Fazang’s ancestors came from Sogdiana (a center for trade along the Silk Road, located in what is now parts of Uzbekistan and Tajikestan), but he was born in the Tang dynasty capital of Chang’an (now Xi’an), where his family had become culturally Chinese. Fazang was a fervently religious adolescent. Following a then-popular custom that took self-immolation as a sign of religious devotion, Fazang burned his fingers before a stupa at the age of 16. After becoming a monk, he assisted Xuanzang—famous for his pilgrimage to India—in translating Buddhist works from Sanskrit into Chinese. Fazang had doctrinal differences with Xuanzang, though, so he later became a disciple of Zhiyan, probably around 663 CE.
Zhiyan’s access to the imperial court gave Fazang access to Empress Wu, with whom he quickly gained favor. He undertook a variety of public services, such as performing rain-prayer rituals and collaborating in various translation projects. He traveled throughout northern China, teaching the ''Avatamsaka Sutra'' and debating Daoists. He intervened in a 697 military confrontation with the Khitans, gaining further favor when Empress Wu ascribed to his ritual services an instrumental role in suppressing the rebellion. In addition, Fazang provided information to undermine plots by some of the empress’ advisors to secure power after her death. This secured Fazang’s status—and the prominence of Huayan teachings—with subsequent rulers. ([https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/buddhism-huayan/#Faza643712 Source Accessed Jan 28, 2020])
Henri-Léon Feer, born in Rouen on November 22, 1830 and died in Paris on March 10, 1902, was a French linguist and orientalist .
Léon Feer studied at the Royal College (then high school) in Rouen (1842-49). He learned Persian at the School of Oriental Languages with E. Quatremère as a teacher, then Sanskrit at the College de France with Philippe-Édouard Foucaux.
He became a professor at the School of Oriental Languages in 1864, succeeding Philippe-Édouard Foucaux in the Chair of Tibetan and in 1872 librarian in the manuscripts department of the National Library.
He participated in the Congresses of Orientalists in Paris (1873), London (1874), Leiden (1883), Vienna (1886), Stockholm (1889) and Geneva (1894). He also became a member of the council of the Indo-Chinese Academic Society , and published, in addition to books, articles in numerous journals. A specialist in Sanskrit , also knowing Tibetan , Mongolian and Pali , he translated many ancient texts (notably the Tibetan Kanjur ). ([https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Feer Source Accessed Aug 29, 2023]) +
Venerable René Feusi trained as a florist for the purpose of taking over the family business of flower shops in Geneva, Switzerland. In 1979, while on a spiritual quest in India and Nepal, he met Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who were to become his main teachers, at the month-long November course at Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu Valley. Until his ordination he would spend half the year working in the family business and the other half receiving teachings and doing retreats. At the advice of Lama Zopa Rinpoche in 1985, he took ordination as a novice monk from Losang Nyingma Rinpoche, abbot of Namgyal Monastery, and then a year later full ordination from His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He spent two more years in India and Nepal receiving teachings and doing retreats before joining Nalanda Monastery in the south of France. Khensur Rinpoche Geshe Tekchog was the abbot and teacher at that time. In his four years there, he studied a number of texts on the graduated path to enlightenment, mind training, as well as various philosophical texts. (Source: [https://wisdomexperience.org/product/beautiful-way-life/ Wisdom Publications]) +
Christian Fiel is a translator affiliated with the Marpa Translation Committee. He is credited as a translator for Khenpo Tsultrim Gyamtso Rinpoche's ''The Instructions for the Preliminaries of the Nying Thig - "The Oral Instructions of My Lama, Samantabhadra"''. +
Jean Filliozat became a medical doctor in 1930, and was awarded a diploma from the École pratique des hautes études in 1934. In 1935 he was awarded a diploma by the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. He was director of studies at the École pratique des hautes études from 1941 to 1978. He established the Institut Français d'Indologie at Pondicherry in 1955 and was at the same time director of the École Française d'Extrême Orient from 1956 until 1977. He became a member of the Academie in 1966 and vice president of the Societe Asiatique in 1974. He was a member of the Legion d'honneur. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Filliozat Source Accesed Feb 22, 2021]) +
After a career as a journalist based in New York and Hong Kong, Damchö Diana Finnegan ordained as a Buddhist nun in 1999. In 2009, she received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, with a thesis on gender and ethics in Sanskrit and Tibetan narratives about Buddha’s direct female disciples in the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya.
After completing her dissertation she worked closely with the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa, Ogyen Trinley Dorje, serving as co-editor on various publications, including ''Interconnected: Embracing Life in a Global Society'' and ''The Heart Is Noble: Changing the World from the Inside Out''.
In 2007, she co-founded Dharmadatta Nuns’ Community (Comunidad Dharmadatta), a community of Spanish-speaking Buddhist nuns, based first in India and later in Mexico. Together with the other Dharmadatta nuns, she leads a large Latin American community with a commitment to gender and environmental justice as part of its spiritual practice.
At the same time, Damchö continues to participate in academic circles, presenting at conferences, editing books, and engaging in various research projects. The most recent publication on which she collaborated, a translation from Sanskrit and Tibetan of the manual for conferring full ordination to women, is forthcoming from Hamburg University’s Numata Center for Buddhist Studies.
Damchö has served as a board member of Maitripa College since its founding in 2005. ([https://maitripa.org/damcho-diana-finnegan/ Source Accessed Sep 23, 2021]) +
Bronwyn Finnigan is a senior lecturer in the School of Philosophy, RSSS, at the Australian National University and an early career research fellow with the Australian Research Council. She works primarily in metaethics, moral psychology, and philosophy of mind in Western and Asian philosophical traditions and is currently working on two related research projects. The first investigates the nature of practical rationality involved in skilled action taken as a model of moral agency. The second examines Buddhist moral psychology and the meta-ethical grounds for rationally reconstructing Buddhist ethical thought. Bronwyn is a member of the Cowherds who authored ''Moonshadows: Conventional Truth in Buddhist Philosophy'' (Oxford), and has recently published articles on Buddhist arguments concerning animal welfare and vegetarianism (2017), idealism (2018), and the reflexive awareness of consciousness (2018). (Source: ''Readings of Śāntideva's Guide to Bodhisattva Practice'', 285) +
Louis Finot (1864 in Bar-sur-Aube - 1935 in Toulon) was a French archeologist and researcher, specialising in the cultures of Southeast Asia. A former director of the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient, his contribution to the study of Khmer history, architecture and epigraphy is widely recognised.
A bachelor of law and letters, Finot was admitted to the École Nationale des Chartes in 1886. He left it two years later with the title of palaeographer. He worked initially as a trainee then as an assistant librarian with the French National Library and undertook studies of Sanskrit. In 1898, he was named director of the archaeological mission in Indochina, which would become in 1900 the Ecole française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO). In 1933 he became a member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres. ([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Finot_(archaeologist) Source Accessed Jan 8, 2021]) +
Dr. David Fiordalis joined 84000 in July 2022 after more than twenty years in higher education, beginning in the fall of 2001 as an adjunct instructor of writing, communication, and the humanities at the City Colleges of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago. His work has let him pursue a lifelong interest in the histories, cultures, and religions of Asia, particularly South Asia and the Himalayan region, an interest that began in early childhood in Hindu satsangs and ashrams in the United States and deepened as a teenager, when he had the opportunity to live and work among brahmin priests from India.
As an undergraduate at Carleton College in Minnesota, Dr. Fiordalis began the formal study of Sanskrit and Marathi under Roger Jackson and Eleanor Zelliot. He then received a Fulbright scholarship to research modern Sanskrit education in India before earning a Master of Divinity from the University of Chicago in 2001. He completed his doctorate in Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan, where Luis Gómez served as his dissertation advisor, Gareth Sparham was his first teacher of Tibetan, and Madhav Deshpande tutored him in Pali and Prakrit.
After temporary teaching positions at Albion College in Michigan and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Dr. Fiordalis joined the faculty at Linfield University in Oregon, where he taught and chaired the Department of Religion from 2011 to 2025, earning tenure in 2015. Over the course of his career he has also taught at Buddhist institutions of higher education, including the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Kathmandu and Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon. His publications include scholarly articles, book chapters, and translations, as well as an edited volume on Buddhist philosophy as a form of spiritual practice. (Source: [https://84000.co/about/person/dr-david-fiordalis 84000]) +
