Kai-Hsiang Lin

Kai-Hsiang Lin is a PhD candidate in the Department of Religions and Philosophies at SOAS University of London, specialising in Tibetan Buddhism with particular focus on the Sakya tradition. His doctoral research, A History of Khön Vajrakīlaya Practice and Its Multiple Constructions: Lineage, Text, Ritual, and Materiality, examines the historical development, ritual system, and contemporary enactments of the Khön Vajrakīlaya tradition. 

Drawing on textual analysis, historical reconstruction, and ethnographic fieldwork, his work investigates how ritual lineages are transmitted, reinterpreted, and embodied across generations.  After graduating from National Chengchi University in Taiwan in 2014, he entered the Sakya Centre in Dehradun, India, where he undertook a traditional monastic education with a particular emphasis on ritual and liturgical training. 

In 2017, he completed the rigorous programme in ritual studies and became the first Taiwanese practitioner to pass the Grand Vajrakīlaya Puja examination. The following year, he continued his formal studies in Buddhist philosophy at Sakya Magon Shedra Thubten Namgyal Ling in Puruwala. During his monastic training, he also served as a Chinese translator for His Holiness the 41st Gongma Trichen Rinpoche and His Holiness the 42nd Sakya Trizin during major Dharma teachings and transmissions. He is presently pursuing his doctoral studies at SOAS University of London.

• Tibetan Buddhism
• Buddhist Rituals
• Ethnographic approaches to contemporary Tibetan Buddhist communities