SASIAN - Tibetan Buddhism

General Description:  This course provides a place for graduate-level seminars in Tibetan Buddhism that rely primarily on secondary sources and Tibetan texts in translation.  Content will vary between semesters but will typically focus on a particular theme.  Themes will be chosen according to student interests, with an eye toward introducing students to the breadth of available western scholarship on Tibet, from classics in the field to the latest publications.

Fall 2018:   This year's seminar will examine the formation of Buddhist traditions in Tibet from the tenth through twentieth centuries. After a preliminary review of the kinds of sources that are available to the Tibetan religious historian, class discussions will focus on a range of mechanisms for establishing authority, from polemical writings to lineage formation, visionary encounters and biography, to temple construction, sacred geography, and warfare. The readings will procede chronologically, and each student will be expected to pick, in consultation with the instructor, a week (or two, depending on enrollment) in which s/he will present on that week’s readings. Prerequisites: C114 ("Tibetan Buddhism"); or consent of instructor.