FACULTY

Six faculty members worked closely with the administrators in designing the seminar and joined in full-time teaching during the seminar in 2007. They are:

David Germano, Associate Professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Virginia, is founder and director of the Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (THDL), a multi-media, web-based teaching and research project that encompasses religion, history, language, and art.  He has conducted extensive fieldwork in many parts of Tibet and was instrumental in establishing the University of Virginia’s semester-abroad program at the University of Tibet in Lhasa in 2005, the first full-time foreign-study program based in Tibet.

HO H Puay-Peng, Professor of Architecture, Honorary Professor of Fine Arts, University Dean of Students, Chinese University of Hong Kong. Trained as an architect (Edinburgh) and having received a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of London, Ho’s major work is on the architecture of Buddhist temples.  He has conducted fieldwork and participated in architectural conservation projects in central Tibet.

Christian Luczanits, Buddhist Studies and Art History, affiliated with the Institute for South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna and currently Research Fellow at the Lumbini International Research Institute. Luczanits has more than fifteen years of on-site research experience, acquired mainly in projects funded by the Austrian Research Funds and the Austrian Academy of Sciences. His most recent book is Early Buddhist Clay Sculpture in the Western Himalaya (2004).

Shargan Wangdus, Associate Curator, Tibet Museum (Lhasa). Educated at Sichuan University (Chengdu), he conducts research on ancient sites in western Tibet. He has published articles on archaeology and history.

Jeff Watt , Senior Curator of the Rubin Museum of Art, and Director of Himalayan Art Resources.  He has over thirty-five years of experience working with Tibetan art, religious, and ritual systems.  He has collaborated on and co-edited a number of recent books, including Demonic Divine: Himalayan Art and Beyond (2004).

XIONG Wenbin (Yontan Phuntshog), Professor, China Tibetology Research Institute, Beijing.  Xiong’s current research focuses on thirteenth-century sites in the interior of Tibet. He is the author of five books on the history of Buddhist temples in central Tibet, relations between China and Tibet during the Yuan dynasty, and the pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet.