Research

Research at the Centre for Buddhist Studies

Kathmandu University Centre for Buddhist Studies at Rangjung Yeshe Institute attracts scholars, researchers, and translators from around the globe. They conduct research in the Kathmandu archives, do their fieldwork in the Himalayas, collaborate with translators, or seek advice from Rinpoches, Lamas, Khenpos, and other scholars based in Nepal.

Explore their research topics here:

Publications by KU-CBS-RYI’s Research Professors

Undergraduate Research Projects

Every year, students explore various aspects of Buddhist philosophy, history, culture, and meditation practice in courses offered through Rangjung Yeshe Institute. Here you may browse the undergraduate work done under the guidance of RYI Research Professors over the past years.

Buddhist Meditation Traditions – BSTD 207 

Fall 2020 Buddhist Meditation Masters and Their Traditions

Buddhism and Art – BSTD 405

Fall 2023 Buddhist Art – Embodied Wisdom

Buddhist Traditions: History and Culture – BSTD 101 & 102

– Fall 2019 Losar Research Project on Tibetan New Year Rituals

– Spring 2023 Mapping Boudha’s Monasteries

Research Affiliate Projects

2024

Marin Adam, PhD 

  • Project Title: “Buddhist Ethics” 

David Di Valerio, PhD 

  • Project Title: “Contextualizing Contemplative Practice: Three-year Meditative Retreat in the Tibetan Buddhist Communities of Nepal” 

Vincent Sablich 

  • Project Title: “Of Mountains and Minds: The Climbing Industry’s Effect on Sherpa Buddhism” 
2023

Alexandra Sukhanova 

  • Project Title: “The Life and Deeds of mNga’ ris Paṇ chen Padma dbang rgyal According to His Biography by Rig ‘dzin Padma ‘phrin las” 

Alice Millington 

  • Project Title: Reviving the Forgotten History of Lhastün Namkha Jigme’s (1597-1653) gnas-gsol Ritual in East Nepal 

Anne Kukucka 

  • Project Title: “Gender, Service Work and Lived Buddhism: Himalayan Women’s Everyday Lives in Urban Nepal” 

Austin Simoes-Gomes 

  • Project Title: “Female Deity Possession in the Kathmandu Valley” 

Champa Lhundrup 

  • Project Title: “An Ethnographic Study of Inter-Spirituality in Modern Nepal” 

Gerd Klintschar 

  • Project Title: “A Study of the Question of Realization of Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas in Tibetan Buddhism” 

Joseph Faria 

  • Project Title: “Non-Dual Union: The Mahāmudrā Thought of Mikyö Dorje” 

John Pettit, PhD 

  • Project Title: “Tradition, Innovation, and Revival in Contemporary Nepali Buddhism” 

Tong Cheng 

  • Project Title: The Inner Journey to Khecara: The Flower of the Five Golden Dharmas of the Glorious Shangpa 

Kendall Ogle 

  • Project Title: “The Sacred Life of Bees: Wild Honeybee Health in the Temple Groves of the Kathmandu Valley” 

Margot Clavier 

  • Project Title: “Buddhist Rituals in Rö/ Samagaun Village of Nubri Valley” 

Petra Lamberson 

  • Project Title: “Identities in Situ: The Contested Sacred Sites of Nepal” 

Tina Lang 

  • Project Title: “The Role of Renunciation in the Oral Pith Instructions of the Chöd Tradition of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Nepal” 
2022

Elena Sautkina, PhD 

  • Project Title: “Psychological and Health Benefits of Tibetan Yoga (Trul-Khor) Practices, and Traditional Buddhist” 

Julian Schott, PhD 

  • Project Title: “Indrabhūtis Jñānasiddhi: An In-depth Study of its Indian Origins and Early Tradition within the Indo-Tibetan Mahāmudrā Teachings” 

Rangjung Yeshe Institute Master Graduates’ Thesis

International scholars also share their experience and train RYI students. Students thereby receive the best training in the field of Buddhist Studies. Visiting scholars have come from Harvard University, Emory University, McGill University, Université Laval, Hamburg University, Université de Lausanne, Boston College, University of Vienna, Agnes Scott College, Williams College, and Humboldt State University. In turn, graduates from RYI have been highly successful in securing places in the world’s best PhD programs in Buddhist studies. With their formidable skills in reading, understanding, and interpreting Buddhist primary material in their source language, RYI graduates are pursuing their studies at prestigious universities in the US and Europe, such as Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Hamburg, or Vienna. Besides a career in academia, many have become translators working for translation organizations, such as the 84000, the Khyentse Vision Project, Tsadra, Chodung Karmo Translations, and others.

Recent Master’s Thesis topics can be explored here: 

Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies

The MA in Buddhist Studies (BS) program is a two-year (four semesters, 60 credits) course that combines graduate-level seminars with extensive research in primary source literature and languages. Each student is assigned a Thesis Supervisor in the first year to help develop their thesis proposal and the thesis itself. The first year is tailored based on language proficiency: students proficient in Classical Tibetan and spoken Dharma Tibetan study philosophical texts in Tibetan, while those needing further language development focus on gaining competence in Classical Tibetan or Sanskrit. Research seminars in the first three semesters cover methods relevant to academic research in religion and Buddhism. The second year focuses on applying the skills acquired, culminating in the MA thesis. Admission requires at least 6 credits in Classical Tibetan or Sanskrit and 12 credits in Asian Religion or Buddhist Studies, with a preparatory program available for those who need it.

2025-2018

Martin Burillo

Andrew Jon Bishop

Erica Merritt

Daphne Feller

Sara Messi

  • Thesis Title: Exploring the Pivotal Role of Contemplation in Bridging Study and Practice, as Highlighted by Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Thayé in The Treasury of Knowledge
  • Supervisor: Diane Denis
  • Year of completion: 2024

Keny Allan Virapin

  • Thesis Title: Moonbeams of Mahāmudrā and the Connection between Study and Practice
  • Supervisor: Diane Denis
  • Year of completion: 2024

Gilad Yakir

Chholay Namgay

  • Thesis Title: For the Time(less) Being: A Case Study of Tertön Pema Lingpa
  • Supervisor: Diane Denis
  • Year of completion: 2023

Jiangyong Songmao

Venus Gravagna

Kerstin Shoho Kuebast

Søren Buskov Poulsen

Alejandro Martinez Gallardo

Utkarsh Chawla

Monica Thunder

Johanna Knutzen

Rolf Truhitte

  • Thesis Title: Imaginal Pilgrimage: The Gandavyuha Sutra as “Imaginal Practice Text”
  • Supervisor: Daniel McNamara
  • Year of completion: 2021

Johanne Donovan

  • Thesis Title: Dharmakīrti’s Failure, Two Reasonable Constructions Regarding the Failure and Success of the Svabhāvapratibandha Reasoning in the Svārthānumāna Chapter of the Pramāṇavartittika
  • Supervisor: Diane Denis
  • Year of completion: 2021

Carla Ott

  • Thesis Title: Adaptations of the Longchen Nyingtik Preliminary Practices: A Historical, Comparative, and Field Study
  • Supervisor: Diane Denis
  • Year of completion: 2021

Moondil Jahan

Champa Lhundrup

  • Thesis Title: “Sino-Tibetan Buddhism:” A Neglected Facet of the Historical Chinese and Tibetan Relationship
  • Supervisor: Julia Stenzel
  • Year of completion: 2021
  • Current Status: Instructor

Kaleb Yaniger

  • Thesis Title:  Blessings in the Nyingma Shedra System: Three Modes to Interpret the Lineage of Realization
  • Supervisor: Julia Stenzel
  • Year of completion: 2021

Peter Woods 

Andrew N. Hallahan

Robert Offner

  • Thesis Title: Kham to Kathmandu: Monastic Vajrayana in Motion, A Historical, Demographic, and Ethnographic Study of Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers, Gregory Sharkey SJ
  • Year of completion: 2018

Gonzalo Perilhou

  • Thesis Title: Soteriology in the Doctrine of Dependent Origination: Presentation in the Nikāyas, Nāgārjuna and Mipham
  • Supervisor: Karin L Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2018
2017-2008

Julie Jay

  • Thesis Title: Gdams ngag: Oral Instructions, The Formation of a Tibetan Buddhist Literary Genre
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2017

Costanzo E. Allione

  • Thesis Title: Systemization and Harmonization in 14th Century Nyingma Doxography: An Overview of Klong chen pa’s Buddha Nature Interpretation in the Grub mtha’ mdzod
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2017

Martina N. Cotter

  • Thesis Title: Mipham on the Dependent Nature: The Three Natures through the Lens of Purity and Delusion
  • Year of completion: 2017

Christina B. Lang

  • Thesis Title: Chöd Through the Lens of Pith Instructions Awareness and Devotion in Chöd Practice at Ka-Nying Shedrub Ling Monastery, Nepal
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2017

Florian L. T. W. Sautter

  • Thesis Title: The Karma Bka’ Brgyud Pa School: The Role of Reincarnation in Its Formation and Identity
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2016

Seung-Jae Pi

  • Thesis Title: Candrakīrti  as an Object of Reading: A Methodological Study of Contemporary Interpretations of Candrakīrti
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2016
  • Current status: PhD at Yale University

Joseph A. Faria Jr.

  • Thesis Title: A Holistic Theory of Non-Dual Union: The Eighth Karmapa’s Mahāmudrā Vision as Reaction, Re-Appropriation, And Resolution
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2015

Felicia Rosas

  • Thesis Title: Unravelling The Enigma: A Study of Gro lung pa’s bsTan rim chen mo and the bstan rim genre
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2015

Yanneke Josephus Jitta

  • Thesis Title: Mipham Gyatso Rinpoche’s ‘Makeover’ of Hwashang Moheyan
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2015

Aleš Rýznar

  • Thesis Title: The Eleven Themes of the Great Perfection: History and Textual Analysis of Esoteric Instructions from the Ye khri mtha’ sel cycle attributed to the eighth century Dran pa Nam mkha’
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2014

Paul Thomas

  • Thesis Title: Stotra, Psychological Conditioning, and the Bodhicaryāvatāra Together with a Translation of the Bodhicittānuśamsapariccheda
  • Supervisor:Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2014

Katrin Jäger

  • Thesis Title: Gampopa – The Incomparable Physician from Dagpo
  • Supervisor: 
  • Year of completion: 2013

Gwenaelle Witt-Dörring

  • Thesis Title: Slob Dpon Bsod Nams Rtse Mo and His Saintly Death: Illuminating the Second Founding Father’s Position Within The Sa Skya Tradition
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2013

Ishwor Chandra Vidya Sagar Shrestha

  • Thesis Title: The Politics of Devotion: Grags pa rGyal mTshan’s Theory of Guru Worship
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2013

Andreas Kilchmann

  • Thesis Title: The Indian Mahāsiddha Tilopa and the Formation of the Tibetan Kagyu Tradition
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2013

Gerd Klintschar

  • Thesis Title: The Arhat Peak and its Position on the Tibetan Madhyamaka Plateau On the Question of Realization of Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas in Tibetan Buddhism
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2013

Anna Zilman

  • Thesis Title: Jamyang Khyentse Wangpo and the Nonsectarian Movement: A Critical Look at Representations of 19th-Century Tibetan Buddhism
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2013

Adam Kane

  • Thesis Title: The Way Insight Actually Arises: Pema Karpo’s Explanations of the Four Yogas of Mahāmudrā
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2013

Heather Daniels

  • Thesis Title: Stepping Stones on the Path. Comparing the Foundation For the Path as Taught in the Threefold Excellence, Guru’s Heart Practice, And Chogyam Trungpa’s Teachings on the Nine Yānas
  • Year of completion: 2013

Sophie M. Pickens

  • Thesis Title: Gampopa – Divine Blue Water: The Contamination Purifying Smoke Offering Performed by The Great Master Padmasambhava A Buddhist Adaptation of a Tibetan Purification Ritual
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2012

Cyntia Font Zorrilla

  • Thesis Title: A Treasure Revealer’s Inner Life. A Study and Translation of Lochen Dharmaśrī’s “Inner” Biography of Chögyal Rigdzin Terdak Lingpa
  • Supervisor: Philippe Turenne
  • Year of completion: 2012

Alexander Yiannopoulos

  • Thesis Title: Luminosity. Reflexive Awareness in Ratnākaraśānti’s Pith Instructions for the Ornament of the Middle Way
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2012

John L. Pickens

  • Thesis Title: I Remember Seeing Blue: Reflexive Awareness and Memory in Dignāga’s Pramāṇasamuccaya
  • Supervisor: Karin Meyers
  • Year of completion: 2012

Benjamin Collet-Cassart

  • Thesis Title: The Generic Commentaries on Development Stage in the 18th and 19th Centuries A.D., A Study and Translation of Kunkhyen Tenpe Nyima’s Compendium of Key Instructions
  • Supervisor: Andreas Doctor
  • Year of completion: 2011

Leonard Brouwer

  • Thesis Title: The Bodhicaryāvatāra-Ṭippaṇī A Study and Edition of a Commentary on the Bodhicaryāvatāra
  • Supervisor: David V. Fiordalis
  • Year of completion: 2011

Franziska Oertle

Joyadip Dhammadīpa

  • Thesis Title: A Study of the Vijñaptimātra Doctrine of Vasubandhu and Dharmapāla in the Context of Critiques Foundn in Candrakīrti’s Madhyamakāvatāra
  • Supervisor: Thomas Doctor
  • Year of completion: 2011

Ryan Conlon

  • Thesis Title: Waves on the Ocean: Tracing the fault-lines of Ontological Commitments in the Madyamaka Conventional Truth
  • Supervisor: Thomas H. Doctor
  • Year of completion: 2011

Zachary Beer

  • Thesis Title: The Science of the Development Stage: A Study and Translation of Shechen Gyaltsab’s General Outline of the Development Stage
  • Supervisor: Andreas Doctor
  • Year of completion: 2010

Sergio Rodrigues de Senna Corrêa

  • Thesis Title: The Suhrlleka, According to Ācārya Mahāmati
  • Supervisor: Andreas Doctor
  • Year of completion: 2010

Morten Østensen

  • Thesis Title: In the Presence of the Dharmakaya Dzogchen Practice According to Khangsar Tenpe Wangchug‟s Notes on Dza Paltrul’s Extraordinary Teaching of the Wise and Glorious King (mkhas pa shri rgyal po’i khyad chos).
  • Year of completion: 2008

Krishna Gopal Singh

  • Thesis Title: The Mind of Awakening: The Foundation of Mahāyāna Buddhism. An Annotated Translation of the Cittotpāda Chapter of the Bodhisattvabhūmi
  • Supervisor: Mattia Salvini
  • Year of completion: 2008
Master of Arts in Translation, Textual Interpretation, and Philology

The MA program is a two-year (four semesters, 60 credits) course that combines graduate-level philosophy and translation seminars, engaging students with primary source literature and Buddhist tradition languages. It aims to teach translation, textual interpretation, and philology, enabling students to undertake independent translation projects and research in Buddhist Studies. Each student is assigned a Thesis Supervisor in the first year to help select and define a thesis project, typically an annotated translation with an introduction. Students should have a strong command of Classical Tibetan and some experience with Sanskrit and spoken Tibetan. Coursework includes Buddhist philosophical and textual study, translation workshops, and classes in translation and philological methods, covering translation history and theory while fostering critical scholarship and research in Translation Studies.

2025-2018

Sabrina Yang

Tatiana Tagle Audelo

Anna Yatri

Rachel Berry

  • Thesis Title: Kṣemendra’s Bodhisattvāvadānakalpalatā: A Study Engaging Three Pallavas and Two Tibetan Commentaries 
  • Supervisor: Daniel McNamara
  • Year of completion: 2025

Olof Axelson

  • Thesis Title: Seeing the Tathāgata: A Study and Translation of Vimalamitra’s Saptaśatikāṭīkā (Sections 1-7)  
  • Supervisor: Daniel McNamara
  • Year of completion: 2025

Montes, Gerardo (Damcho Gyaltsen)

Maite Castellano 

Alexandria Dhami

Frederic Anselme (Ānanda)

  • Thesis Title: A Study and Annotated Translation of Ju Mipham Gyamtso’s (1846-1912) Short Commentary on the Profound Song on the View (lta ba’i mgur zab mo ‘grel chung)
  • Supervisor: Daniel McNamara
  • Year of completion: 2024

Karma Lhazom

Luoxi Yang

  • Thesis Title: Exploring Buddha Ākāra Through Sākāravāda Nirākāravāda And Mipham’s Pearl Garland: An Annotated Commentary on the Compendium of Timeless Wakefulness Essence
  • Supervisor: Diane Denis
  • Year of completion: 2024

Kinley Dema

Michael Smith

Claudia Fregiehn

  • Thesis Title: Who is the Author? Mangtö Ludrup Gyatso’s Essential Nectar in the Collected
  • Thesis Title: Works of Jamyuang Khyentse Wangpo: A Case Study of the Attribution of Authorship in Tibetan Buddhism
  • Supervisor: Catherine Dalton
  • Year of completion: 2023

Bella Chao

Tia Sinha

Inka Wolf

August Sundin

Matteo De Micheli

XunQiao Zhou

Yuan Wei li

Ellen Johannesen

  • Thesis Title: Marvels From the Midst of the Sky: A Translation of Trülku Migyur Dorjé’s Inner Namthar by Karma Chakmé
  • Supervisor: Catherine Dalton
  • Year of completion: 2020

Han Kop

  • Thesis Title: The Queen of Great Bliss. A Translation of the Commentary by Jigme Tenpe Nyima Including an Investigation into the Treasure Cycle and its Synthesis of Nyingma and Sarma Elements
  • Supervisor: Catherine Dalton
  • Year of completion: 2020

David Teasdale

Jordi Roig

  • Thesis Title: A Window to the Dris Lan Genre Through The Translation and Study of Fount of Scripture and Reasoning by Sokdokpa Lodro Gyaltsen
  • Supervisor: Catherine Dalton
  • Year of completion: 2020

Maria Vasylieva

  • Thesis Title: Vasubandhu’s Āryabhadracaryāpraṇidhānaṭīkā: A Contextual Study and Translation
  • Supervisor: Daniel McNamara
  • Year of completion: 2019

Nicholas Schmidt

  • Thesis Title: The Jewel’s Radiance: A Translation of “*Ratnabhāsvara,” an Extensive Commentary on the Vajravidāraṇa-nāma-dhāraṇī
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2018

Oriane Lavolé

  • Thesis Title: Gter ma as Timely Tradition: The Collapse of Time and Centrality of Timeliness in Gter Ston Mchog Gyur Gling Pa’s Literary Self-Portrayal
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2018

Stefan Mang 

  • Thesis Title: A Delightful and Fulfilling Feast: The Gaṇacakra Ritual within the 20th-Century Nyingma Tradition
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2018
2017-2008

Benjamin Ewing

  • Thesis Title: The Saraha of Tibet: How Mgur Shaped the Legacy of Lingchen Repa, a Tibetan Siddha
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2017

Chloé Cramer

  • Thesis Title: Maṇḍalas, A Study, Translation and Critical Evaluation of the Maṇḍala Chapter of an Explanatory Tantra, the rDo rje sems dpa’i sgyu ’phrul dra ba gsang ba thams cad kyi me long zhes bya ba’i rgyud/ (The Mirror of all Secrets of Vajrasattva’s Magical Net)
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2017

Lowell Cook

  • Thesis Title: Ju Mipham on Pure Land Practice and Practice
  • Supervisor: James Gentry
  • Year of completion: 2016

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