SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Prof Delger Borjigin (Inner Mongolia University)

This presentation provides a brief introduction to the Mongolian people worldwide, their spoken language and the various script systems which they adopted or created during different historical periods. It will also introduce the most famous works of literature written in these scripts.

Dr Fabian Sanders (Venice)

In the Tibetan tradition, time is not linear. Time changes its intrinsic quality through the ages. Sentient beings living in the ups and downs of time have different problems and needs. In Tibet an unusual and unique feature has been developed in order for the Dharma to continue to be useful and effective in shifting times: Termas. This lecture presents various kinds of termas and the biographies of some of the most important terma discoverers.

Dr Dorje and Dr O Tsokchen (Tsongon Provincial Research Institute of Tibetan Medicine and Tsongon Tibetan Culture Museum)

A group of four Tibetan doctors and researchers affiliated with the Tsongon Provincial Research Institute of Tibetan Medicine and Tsongon Tibetan Culture Museum will present a lecture on their research and the history of Tibetan medicine more generally. 

Dr Martin Boord

Taking his cue from the dBa' bzhed chronicle of the Tibetan Imperial period, Martin Boord will look at some of the ways in which Buddhist funeral rites departed from previously established customs.  While the new system of imported Buddhism certainly introduced creative innovations in harmony with what had been done before, there were also conflicts of view concerning the spirits of the other world that gave rise to some amusing rivalries.

Dr. Ulrike Roesler (Oxford)

Atiśa is a key figures in the revival of Buddhism in the 11th century. From Bengal, he reached Tibet in 1042 and remained for the last 12 years of his life. His early biographies speak about adventurous travel, religious rivalry, struggle for patronage, cultural misunderstandings and language problems. This paper introduces the most important sources for the life of Atiśa and re-evaluates his significance for Tibetan Buddhism.

Dr Paola Zamperini (Amherst)

This talk will present the lives of prominent female teachers in Tibetan Buddhism, in order to reconstruct the trajectories to realization that women undertook, often at high personal and societal cost. By utilizing biographical and autobiographical records, Professor Zamperini will analyze the narrative and social aspects of these women’s choice to privilege the Vajrayana path to enlightenment at the expense of more conventional and socially accepted lifestyles.

Ah Lai

The Sino-phone Tibetan poet and novelist, Ah Lai, discusses and reads from his works. 

Dr Gyurme Dorje

This talk will examine the assimilation of four distinct disciplines of Indian origin, which have all contributed richly to the formation of the Indo-Tibetan cultural milieu: language, logic, art and astro-medical studies. Reference will be made to the key literary sources representing each of these genres, and their content will be summarised from the perspective of Jamgon Kongtrul’s 19th century Treasury of Knowledge (Shes bya kun khyab mdzod).

Dr. Pascale Dollfus (Centre d'Etudes Himalayennes)

This paper examines the definitions and the local terms given for “colour” in dictionaries and encyclopaedias, then discusses the colour terms used by people in everyday life, as well as those used to express colour in medical and hippiatric or in painting treatises.

Prof. Delger Borjigin

Elio Guarisco

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, attributed to Padmasambhava, the legendary eighth century figure who introduced Tantric Buddhism to Tibet, was 'rediscovered' by Karma Lingpa in the fourteenth century. From that time one, its renown spread throughout the Himalayan regions where The Tibetan Book of the Dead became the focus of funerary rites. The Book is aimed specifically at aiding the dying person in the critical passage from life to death.

Dmitry Ermakov

This talk treats female lineage-holders of Bönpo Dzogchen. These women came from all over Inner Asia, received Dzogchen teachings and became renown for spiritual accomplishment. Their instructions are said to have been recorded by the 8th century Bönpo master Lachen Drenpa Namkha. The last in this lineage, Chöza Bönmo, played a role in saving Bön teachings from the 8th century persecution under the Tibetan emperor Trisong Deutsen.

Charles Allen

This illustrated lecture by Charles Allen, a historian of South Asia, will focus on the role of Emperor Ashoka in the transformation of Buddhism into a world religion and the process by which Ashoka was 'discovered' by Orientalists in the nineteenth century. 

Dr Agnieszka Helman-Wazny (Universität Hamburg)

This talk explores Tibetan illuminated manuscripts as physical objects adorned with a variety of hand-painted decorations, revealing miniatures, ornamented borders, initial letters and circles imitating holes after palm-leaf books. The lecture will be illustrated with examples of the London Sel dkar Kanjur, the Manuscript Kanjur of Berlin, and Prajñāpāramitā manuscripts from various collections.

Dr Artur Przybyslawski (Jagiellonian University)

Robert Beer

The Mahasiddhas, literally the ‘Greatly Attained Ones’, lived in India between the 8th and 12th centuries and were the instigators of the highly esoteric Yoga Tantra systems that were finally transmitted into Tibet. The Mahasiddhas came from all walks of life, and the diversity of their often-outlandish legends reveals much about the different approaches to enlightenment.  Robert Beer gives this illustrated talk which will explore some of their pithy life stories.

Dr Pema Dorjee

Urine is like a clear mirror. It reflects the state of health and makes it easier for a physician to understand the nature of a disease. Diseases of the vital organs can be understood more clearly from pulse reading while diseases of the vessel organs and hot and cold nature of a disease can be understood more accurately through urinalysis.