Buddhism and Culture in Early Modern Tibet: Cosmopolitanism and Aesthetics at Mindroling Monastery
110 Fort Greene Place Brooklyn NY 11217
Gray Tuttle
This dissertation is an investigation of the imbrications of Buddhism and culture as exemplified at Tibet’s Mindroling Monastery in the 17th and 18th centuries. I argue that Mindroling played a key role in educating and shaping the worldview of Tibet’s ruling elite. As the first extensive Western-language study of Mindroling this project employs an interdisciplinary methodology combining historical, sociological, cultural and religious studies. Official institutional documents including the monastic history, constitution and curriculum are analyzed in conjunction with biographies and letters to construct a rich history of Mindroling’s defining role in shaping the intersections of Buddhism and culture in early modern Tibet.
Course taught: Introduction to Buddhism, NYU Courses assisted: Tibetan Civilization, Columbia University Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Columbia University The Buddhist World of Thought and Practice, Princeton University
“Love en route to the Monastery: Romantic elements in the biography of Miwang Polhané” in Sources of Tibetan Tradition. Kurtis R. Schaeffer, Gray Tuttle, Leonard W. J. van der Kuijp, Matthew Kapstein, Editors. (Under contract with Columbia University Press for the series Introduction to Asian Civilizations, Theodore de Bary, Series Editor. Expected publication date: 2012). A version of this paper was presented at the Association for Asian Studies conference in Philadelphia in 2010. “Biographies of Sakya Masters” Available on http://www.tibetanlineages.org/: The Treasury of Lives: Biographies of Himalayan Buddhist Masters. Tibetan Buddhist Research Center. “Letters From the Fifth Dalai Lama,” Forthcoming. In Highland Passages: Himalayan and Tibetan Studies in Honor of Hubert Decleer, edited by B. Bogin and A. Quintman. Boston: Wisdom Publications. (Expected publication date 2012). A version of this paper was presented at the International Association of Tibetan Studies Conference in Vancouver in 2010.
Weatherhead East Asian Institute Dissertation Fellowship, Columbia University; Charles H. Smith Fellowship, Harvard Divinity School
I spent five years in Tibetan Buddhist communities in East and South Asia before beginning my graduate studies. During that time I had the opportunity to improve my Tibetan language skills, conduct extensive research, and teach undergraduate courses for study abroad programs.