About

Kurtis R. Schaeffer is a faculty member in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. His research specializes in the narrative and poetic literature of Buddhism in Tibet, India, and the Himalayan Buddhist Kingdom of Bhutan, with a broader focus on the literary and religious cultures of Buddhism. He has over twenty-five years of experience researching and publishing on stories of the Buddha, Buddhist saints, and famous Buddhist masters of the Himalayas, and has authored several books and more than twenty articles on these subjects. Schaeffer's notable publications include translations and analyses of classical Buddhist texts, such as the life story of the Buddha from Bhutan’s cultural history, and works exploring Tibetan religious figures and texts. He is the co-editor of major anthologies of Tibetan literature and history, including 'Sources of Tibetan Tradition' and 'The Tibetan History Reader.' His work also encompasses visual narratives of the Buddha in Tibet and Bhutan, exemplified by his collaborative project that creates the largest narrative mural of the Buddha’s life in Tibet, which combines art, literature, and digital humanities. Currently, Schaeffer works to enhance the role of the humanities in public life through initiatives like the Religion, Race & Democracy Lab and The Sanctuary Lab, which explore religion’s influence on daily life, environmental perceptions, and climate change. He conducts field research in Bhutan, Nepal, India, China, and Tibet. Schaeffer has served as President of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center and has held departmental leadership roles at the University of Virginia, including Chair of the Department of Religious Studies.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Geography
• Archaeology
• Art
• History
• Anthropology
• Epistemology
• Mathematics
• Philosophy

Selected publications

• Letter from the Editors རམ་སག་པའ་ཞ་འཕན།

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2025-07-03

  letterOpen accessSenior author

  Letter from the Editors. རྩོམ་སྒྲིག་པའི་ཞུ་འཕྲིན།

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• Letter from the Editors

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2024-12-14

  letterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Letter from the Editors.

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• Cultural Brokers and Other Historiographic Metaphors: Perspectives from Indo-Tibetan Cultural History

  Medieval Worlds · 2024 · 3 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Sociology
  • Computer Science
  • History

  This contribution discusses the two analytical concepts of »Indo-Tibetan« Buddhism and »cultural broker«, and shows how both can (still) be usefully applied. The term »Indo- Tibetan« Buddhism, though today outdated, can help us to describe specific configurations in the history of Buddhism. The use of the concept of »cultural broker«, which developed in the field of social anthropology and was adopted in the field of historical studies, is shown as problematic when its scope becomes very wide. The more detailed operative definition that is offered as a result of this in-depth analysis is then tested on the case of the iconic early Tibetan Buddhist monk, translator, and traveler Vairocana. When delimited by precise criteria, the broker concept can structure and guide our investigations and helpfully illuminate pivotal moments in history, as it does in the case of the history of »Indo-Tibetan« Buddhism.

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• Letter from the Editors

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2024-05-31

  letterOpen accessSenior author

  W ith the changing of the seasons, and a solar eclipse visible from North America, comes the latest issue of JTL, which includes a diverse array of research articles, translations, and critical reflections on several different forms of Tibetan literary expression.Leonard van der Kuijp and Chen Yilan detail two key episodes in the long history of Dain's (7th c.) Kvydara, the Mirror of Poetics, in Tibet.They chronicle the efforts of two famous scholars, Shalu Lotswa Chkyong Sangpo (zhwa lu lo ts ba chos skyong bzang po, 1441-1528) and Situ Pachen Chkyi Jungn (si tu pa chen chos kyi 'byung gnas, 1699-1774), working two centuries apart, to produce bilingual Tibetan-Sanskrit editions of the fundamental treatise on poetics in Tibet.Van der Kuijp and Chen walk the reader through the careful studies of Sanskrit grammar, lexicography, metrics, and poetics that each scholar undertook in service of this work.The impact of their scholarship is perhaps best known today indirectly through the influence that Situ's multi-lingual scholarship in poetics had upon his student, the Fourth Khamtrul Tenzin Chkyi Nyima (khams sprul IV bstan 'dzin chos kyi nyi ma, 1730-1779), who completed his massive and justly famous commentary on the Kvydara in late 1770.In van der Kuijp's words, "there can be no doubt that it is the most accomplished study of the text to appear anywhere, whether in the Indian subcontinent or in the Tibetan area."Daniel Wojahn turns his attention to the important performance traditions of Tibetan opera known as Ach Lhamo (a lce lha mo).Wojahn's essay "Inherited Stories, Timeless Wisdom: Intertextuality and Proverbs in the Ach Lhamo Namthar" focuses not on the libretti or performance manuals associated with the tradition but the literary versions known as namthar or biographies, which include the stories of numerous well-known characters such as Drowa Sangmo ('gro ba bzang mo), Nangsa bum (snang sa 'od 'bum), and Drim Kunden (dri med kun ldan).This study clearly illustrates the ways in which these materials draw on Indian and Tibetan literary motifs "to reaffirm Buddhist norms and values" while also preserving uniquely Tibetan forms of vernacular expression such as proverbs to communicate highly localized social and cultural practices.The essay also sheds light on the blurred boundaries between oral and literary forms of literature.Namgyal Tsetan's article, "Tibetan Translation Key: Imperial Decrees of the Two Volume Lexicon" makes use of recently available manuscripts to highlight the theory and methods of translation under imperial sponsorship in the late eighth and early ninth centuries.The Two Volume

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• Letter from the Editors

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2023-12-18

  letterOpen accessSenior author

  I n the inaugural issue of the Journal of Tibetan Literature, we suggested that the journal's name "is meant to direct attention to the literary qualities of Tibetan texts-that is, to places where a self-awareness of forms, structures, and styles seems to break through the page, and in which those attributes become central to the creation of meaning and its impact on readers."Moreover, we reflected that one response to the challenge of determining such literary qualities might be to "consider how Tibetan writers have exploited the intricacies and richness of language to evoke a vivid and diverse range of human experiences."The contributions to the present issue nicely illustrate the richness and variety of Tibetan expression across a range of genres and historical periods.Through them we see no less than four different types of intellectual work that literary concerns bear upon: philosophy, historiography, politics, and translation theory and practice.In each of these realms, aesthetic and literary qualities of the written word emerge front and center, albeit in distinctive ways.In his essay "History for the Future: Politics and Aesthetics in the Fifth Dalai Lama's Cuckoo's Song, " Ian MacCormack reflects on the self-conscious and self-reflective poetic qualities in the Fifth Dalai Lama's 1643 political history the Cuckoo's Song (Dpyid kyi rgyal mo'i glu dbyangs), a work long recognized for its complexity, erudition, and style.In doing so, he makes the case that this example of "literary historiography" adopts a high aesthetic register in pursuit of specific political ends.The piece foregrounds the text's careful deployment of language, which-MacCormack argues-serves "as a means for not only documenting but also making history."The recording of the past and the aesthetic modes for doing so are, in this case, inextricably intertwined.Khenpo Yeshe's article, "The Origins of the Dzogchen Eleven Words and Meanings: Comparing Nyima Bum, Longchenpa, and Rikzin Gdemchen, " details the deft playfulness at work in a little-known twelfth-century treatise on Great Perfection thought, and its unacknowledged impact on later, better-known Great Perfection writers such as Longchenpa (1308-1364) and Gdemchen (1337Gdemchen ( -1408)).Nyima Bum, for instance, takes up the common rubric for identifying and defining Indian Buddhist scripture, the five "excellences" of speaker, audience, teaching, setting, and time to link his own writings to the authoritative past of Indian Buddhist writing, only to turn this five-fold rubric on its head.The setting is in fact no-setting, the audience is no-audience,

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• Letter from the Editors

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2023-07-26

  letterOpen accessSenior author

  A s we write this letter, preparations are underway for welcoming the Tibetan year of the water- hare, still several weeks away.But clearly, we have already entered the year of Tibetan women writers.Over the past months, we've seen a run of major international conferences, workshops, and symposia dedicated to writing by and about Tibetan women.This is likewise reflected by a spate of Tibetan-language publications, including major collections of Tibetan women's writing from the past as well as contemporary prose and poetry.This has led to what Lama Jabb, in the inaugural issue of JTL, referred to as "a refreshing yet long-overdue proliferation of Tibetan women's literary voices, " both present and past.In the space of less than one year there have been four workshops, conferences, and symposia on Tibetan women's writing and Tibetan women writers.From April 8-10, 2022, the University of Virginia convened the "Tibetan Women Writing Symposium: A Celebration of Tibetan Women's Literature" (Tashi Dekyid Monet's report appeared in Volume 1.1 of JTL).In the same month, on April 21, the University of Colorado hosted "Emerging Voices: Tibetan Women Writers, " a workshop on contemporary Tibetan poetry and short fiction by Tibetan women writers from India and China (workshop organizer Holly Gayley collaborates with Somtso Bhum on a contribution in the present issue).In the Fall of 2022, Northwestern University hosted "Celebrating Buddhist Women's Voices in the Tibetan Tradition, " a workshop centered on translating Tibetan women's writing (conference organizer Sarah Jacoby contributes an essay of criticism in the present issue, where she says more about the workshop at Northwestern).And in January of 2023, INALCO in Paris hosted the conference "Charting the Uncharted World of Tibetan Women Writers Today, " organized by Franoise Robin, which aimed to continue the conversation about and by Tibetan women writers.These international events mark a watershed moment in the history of Tibetan women's writing, and scholarship on and appreciation of Tibetan women's voices, the currents of which will help to shape the contours of Tibetan literary studies for decades to come.These conferences and workshops follow upon the most important decade in the history of Tibetan literature for the publication of Tibetan writing by and about Tibetan women, for the 2010s saw the publishing of three major collections.The first and the last were published by Larung rya Tr Book Series Editorial Association (Larung rya Tr Petsok Tsomdrik Khang ) at Larung Gar Monastery in the Serta region of eastern Tibet in

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• Notes on Shelkar Lingpa’s “Song of Lhasa Memories”

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2023-07-26

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Few compositions of the early twentieth century hold a place as dear to the hearts of Tibetan readers as the “Song of Lhasa Memories.” This ornate poem, composed by Shelkar Lingpa (Shel dkar gling pa, 1876–1913) in the Indian hill station of Darjeeling, evokes everyday life in faraway Lhasa, even as it makes not- so-subtle barbs at the Chinese military that had forced him into exile. This essay serves as an introduction to the English translation by Geshe N. L. Nornang and Lawrence Epstein. It surveys the author’s life and historical context, the poem’s structure and contents, the work’s publication and translation history in Darjeeling and Tibet, and the reasons these evocative verses have served as a potent vehicle for Tibetan self-reflection. བརྒྱ་ཕྲག་ཉི་ཤུ་པའི་འགོ་སྟོད་དུ་བོད་ཀྱི་ཀློག་པ་པོ་རྣམས་ལ་ལྷ་ས་དྲན་གླུ་ལྟ་བུ་བག་ཆགས་ཟབ་པའི་བརྩམས་ཆོས་ནི་ཆེས་ཉུང་ངུ་ལས་མེད།ཤེལ་དཀར་གླིང་པས(1876-1913)་རྒྱ་གར་རྡོ་རྗ་གླིང་གི་རི་གྲོང་དུ་བརྩམས་ཤིང་སྙན་ངག་གི་རྒྱན་གྱིས་ལེགས་པར་སྤུད་པའི་སྙན་རྩོམ་འདིས་ཐག་རིང་ལྷ་སའི་ཉིན་རེའི་འཚོ་བ་དག་ལྷང་ངེར་གསལ་བར་བྱས་པ་དང་མཉམ་དུ་དེ་ཙམ་མངོན་མིན་པའི་སྒོ་ནས་ཁོང་ཉིད་གཞན་ཡུལ་ལ་སྐྲོད་མཁན་གྱི་རྒྱའི་དམག་མིར་ཡང་ཟུར་ཟ་གནང་ཡོད། ད་ལྟའི་རྩོམ་ཡིག་འདི་ནི་དགེ་བཤེས་ཨན་ཨེལ་ནོར་ནང་དང་ལོ་རན་ཨེཔ་སྚན་གཉིས་ཀྱིས་དབྱིན་བསྒྱུར་ཞུས་པའི་སྙན་རྩོམ་དེའི་ངོ་སྤྲོད་ཡིན། རྩོམ་འདིས་རྩོམ་པ་པོ་གང་དེའི་ལོ་རྒྱུས། ལོ་རྒྱུས་ཀྱི་སྐབས་དོན། སྙན་རྩོམ་དེའི་གཞུང་དོན་དང་སྒྲོམ་གཞི། བོད་དང་རྡོ་རྗེ་གླིང་སོགས་སུ་སྙན་རྩོམ་དེ་དཔེ་སྐྲུན་བྱས་ཚུལ་དང་རྩོམ་བསྒྱུར་གང་བྱས་ཀྱི་ལོ་རྒྱུས། རྒྱུ་མཚན་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་དྲན་པའི་རི་མོ་ཅིག་ཅར་ཡིད་དུ་བསྐུལ་བར་ནུས་པའི་སྙན་ངག་འདི་བོད་མི་ཚོར་རང་ཉིད་ལ་ཕྱིར་རྟོགས་བྱེད་པའི་ཐབས་ལམ་ནུས་ལྡན་ཞིག་ཏུ་གྱུར་ཚུལ་བཅས་གྱི་སྐོར་རྒྱས་པར་ཞིབ་འཇུག་བྱས་ཡོད།། །།

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• Acknowledgments

  University of Hawaii Press eBooks · 2023

  • Geography

  Stories about Xuanzang, that most famous of pilgrims, have traveled far and wide.It seems appropriate, then, that this book, a story about stories, has taken shape on the road.It began in Taiwan,

  DOI

• Bon and Naxi Manuscripts

  De Gruyter eBooks · 2023 · 3 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Art
  • Geography
  • Archaeology

  The present volume offers a dozen studies of manuscripts of the Tibetan Bon and Naxi Dongba traditions across time and space. While some of the contributions focus on particular features of manuscripts from either tradition, others explicitly bridge the two by considering common codicological and material aspects of selected examples or common themes in the content of the texts. This is the first primarily object-based study to deal with the cultural history and technology of books from the two traditions. It discusses collections of Bon and Naxi manuscripts, the concepts and history of both traditions, the science and technology of book studies as it relates to these collections, the relationship between text and image, writing materials, and the historical and archaeological context of the manuscripts’ places of origin. The authors are specialists in different fields including philology, anthropology, art history, codicology and archaeometry. The contributions shed light on trade routes, materials and technologies as well as on reading practices and ritual usage of Bon and Naxi manuscripts.

  DOI

• Letter from the Editors

  Journal of Tibetan Literature · 2022-11-15

  letterOpen accessSenior author

  the question of de ning literature, Laurent Dubreuil begins his essay "What is Liter- ature's Now" with the suggestion, "Of course it is impossible.To de ne literature-if by this we mean nding a sense that is xed or given once and for all-nobody'll do it.'Literature is-' has nothing of an easy beginning."With this inaugural issue of the Journal of Tibetan Literature, we present a space for considering the contours of literature and the literary across the landscape of Tibetan expression, and we aspire for an easy beginning even as we resolutely refrain from denitions that are either xed or given once and for all.e Journal of Tibetan Literature ( JTL) is an open-access, peer-reviewed publication dedicated to research, translation, and appreciative criticism of Tibetan literature.e journal approaches the subject of Tibetan literature in a capacious way.In the broadest sense, we use the phrase "Tibetan literature" to refer to any Tibet-language text, oral or written, from the beginnings of Tibetan composition to the present day, as well as literary works by Tibetan authors in other languages.More narrowly, the journal's name is meant to direct attention to the literary qualities of Tibetan texts-that is, to places where a self-awareness of forms, structures, and styles seems to break through the page, and in which those attributes become central to the creation of meaning and its impact on readers. is rather open-ended de nition is also meant to expand the genre-bound taxonomies that o en replicate static categories of literary types (poetry, ction, drama, philosophy) or maintain predetermined notions of belles lettres, or " ne writing."e foundational work of José Cabezón and Roger Jackson in the introduction to their book, Tibetan Literature: Studies in Genre (), provides rm footing for exploring strategies for working with "genre" in Tibetan contexts.ey suggest that, even as Tibetan composition lacks a precise equivalent to Western notions of genre, Tibetan writers seem to have implicitly accepted the concept of genre, one based largely on subject matter and less so on qualities of form or function (Tibetan Literature, -).It is upon Cabezón and Jackson's work that we have based our e orts to focus more intently upon issues of literary composition and style.e expansiveness of our operational de nition of literature-perhaps stated brie y as "texts in which form and content both matter"-has the obvious advantage of inclusivity, even as it creates a challenge for making choices about what to include and what to leave out.In response to this challenge, we might consider how Tibetan writers have exploited the intricacies and richness

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Frequent coauthors

• Nelson Foster

  University of British Columbia

  16 shared

• Zhe Ji

  Peking University Third Hospital

  16 shared

• Se-Woong Koo

  University of British Columbia

  16 shared

• Gary Snyder

  University of British Columbia

  16 shared

• Megan Bryson

  Heidelberg University

  16 shared

• Sammi Kile

  University of British Columbia

  16 shared

• Raoul Birnbaum

  16 shared

• Jason Protass

  Universität Hamburg

  16 shared

Labs

• Kurtis R. Schaeffer LabPI

Awards & honors

• President of the Buddhist Digital Resource Center