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Robert Thurman, PhD, makes the teachings of the Buddha interesting and meaningful to people all over the world. He is cofounder and president of Tibet House, US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and promoting the wisdom and the arts of Tibet.
Thurman's work is grounded in more than 35 years of academic scholarship. He holds bachelor's, master's, and doctorate degrees from Harvard University and has studied in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in India and the United States. In 1962, he became the first American ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk. He gave up his robes after several years, however, when he discovered he could be most effective in the American equivalent of the monastery, the university. He is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University and president of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies. Thurman also personally translates important Tibetan and Sanskrit philosophical writings, and lectures and writes on Buddhism, Asian history, and critical philosophy. His scholarly and popular writings focus on the "inner revolution" that individuals and societies successfully negotiate when they achieve enlightenment.
Thurman is author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics, and culture, including The Tibetan Book of the Dead and Why the Dalai Lama Matters. Policy makers often seek his expertise on Tibetan history and culture, and he has testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Additionally, a plan he authored, which appeared in the Wall Street Journal in 1998 as an op-ed piece entitled "Freeing Tibet Is in China's Interest," is regarded as a practical plausible blueprint for peacefully ending the human rights violations and cultural destruction in Tibet.