Khadro was on pilgrimage in Wutai Shan, China, when she received the news of the award. “I was stunned, then overwhelmed, thinking of the blessings of my teachers, especially Chagdud Rinpoche [1930–2002], and the support of the sangha that have made possible any accomplishment at all,” she says. “I spent the afternoon praying that I can honor the intention of the fellowship. It is so auspicious that this news arrived in a place permeated with the compassion and wisdom of Manjushri. For me Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche is Manjushri, which gives me confidence and faith.”

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Xiaonan’s dissertation, “Sanskrit and Tibetan Grammatical Literature: On the Vicissitudes of Nāmakāyādi or Ming gi tshogs la sogs pa,” based on primary sources in Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese, investigates how the concept of “nāma- (words), pada- (sentence), and vyañjana-kāya (collection of syllables)” in the Indic Abhidharma literature and the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra developed into the linguistic theory of tshogs gsum (“three collections”) in Tibetan grammatical texts between the 9th and 18th centuries. Using the methodology of contact linguistics, Xiaonan examines the emergence, formation, maturation, and eventual enculturation of Tibetan linguistic theories concerning tshogs gsum. Her dissertation attempts to show how Buddhist scriptures and Sanskrit grammar influenced the formation of Tibetan linguistic theories, as well as how Tibetan linguists used various textual materials to refine and develop the theory of tshogs gsum.

Lingfeng expressed her gratitude to all the committee members: “This recognition means a lot to me and gives me the confidence to continue pursuing my research interests,” she said. She also thanked her supervisor, Venerable Professor KL Dhammajoti, for his guidance and support throughout her doctoral studies. “I firmly believe that Buddhism can help individuals gain a better comprehension of life and the world, provided they possess a proper understanding of the Buddhist teachings,” she added. “Inspired by Khyentse Foundation, I have come to understand that dedicating myself to Buddhist studies as a lifelong career is my way of contributing to the preservation and promotion of the Buddha’s wisdom.”

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Until Nirvana’s Time—the first collection of traditional Khmer Buddhist poetry available in English—presents translations of 45 Khmer dharma songs whose soaring melodies have inspired Cambodian Buddhist communities for generations. Grounded in 15 years of research on oral and written traditions in Cambodia, the book centers on a corpus of poems from the 16th to 20th centuries that are still chanted today in daily prayers or all-night rituals. Many of these texts were transcribed by the translator from cassette tapes or bark-paper manuscripts and appear in print for the first time in this volume. Essays and notes that situate these local compositions within a broader Buddhist context accompany the translations.

KF’s five-member selection committee unanimously approved Professor Natalie Gummer’s nomination of Until Nirvana’s Time for this year’s award. Of her choice, Dr. Gummer writes: “Until Nirvana’s Time is a groundbreaking translation. Not only does it make a fascinating part of Cambodian Buddhist literature widely available for the first time in English, but it also renders the vocal qualities of these songs, in consonance with their composition and use, and offers rich context for their Buddhist background and their ritual recitation. Trent Walker sets a new standard for translations that aim to capture the power of performative texts.”

The book was the focus of a Khyentse Foundation Goodman Lecture in 2023.

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“I am extremely honored and grateful to receive this award from the distinguished Khyentse Foundation. I would like to express my special thanks to the members of the jury for carefully examining my application and eventually selecting my dissertation, even more so since it lies outside the historic field of textual studies.

“This award comes as a significant recognition of research developed over a decade under the patient, insightful guidance of my supervisor Charles Ramble and my co-advisor Christian Luczanits, and along with the continuous support of my colleagues, friends, and family. It will contribute to publishing it in a form that can be more easily accessed by everyone, including the caretakers of the monuments it considers. At a threshold in my life, it also gives me confidence to pursue my career in academia.”

— Nils Martin

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A distinguished scholar of Buddhism, Luis Gómez passed away in Mexico City on September 3, 2017. At the time of his death, he was professor emeritus of Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Michigan. He had retired from the faculty on January 1, 2009.

Luis’s scholarship on Buddhism covered a remarkable range of important topics over his career, including Indian, Tibetan, Chinese, and pan-Asian Buddhism, with a particular emphasis on the literature and religious vision of the Mahayana. He wrote a number of groundbreaking articles devoted to the “sudden vs. gradual” dichotomy both in early Chinese Chan and at the Samye Debate in Tibet. Among his books, The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996) is considered the definitive study of the highly influential Buddhist scripture, the Sukhavativyuha Sutra. He also published extensively in Spanish.

Professor Paul Harrison

Paul Harrison is George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies at Stanford University, where he has taught since 2006. Educated in his native New Zealand and in Australia, he specializes in Buddhist literature and history, particularly of the Mahayana, and in the study of Buddhist manuscripts in Sanskrit, Chinese, and Tibetan. He has edited and translated several Mahayana sutras, and has published numerous journal articles on Buddhist sacred texts and their interpretation. He is also one of the editors of the series “Buddhist Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection.”

Paul’s current projects include editions, translations, and studies of Mahayana and Mainstream Buddhist sutras and shastras, including the Vajracchedika (Diamond Sutra), Lokanuvartana (Sutra of Conformity with the World), and Shikshasamucchaya (Compendium of Training).

Paul serves as co-director of the Ho Center for Buddhist Studies at Stanford.

“When word of the discovery of a Sanskrit manuscript of the Vimalakīrtinirdeśa began to circulate in the early 2000s, it sent shock waves throughout the Buddhist Studies world. Long known only in its Chinese and Tibetan translations, leaving scholars to guess what its original Indian terminology might have been, this highly influential text could now be consulted in an original Indic-language version.

“The news that Paul Harrison and the late Luis Gómez had embarked on a project to translate the newly discovered Sanskrit text was thus greeted with widespread enthusiasm. These two scholars, both leading figures in the field of Mahayana sutra literature, were uniquely qualified to produce a translation of this important text. The two worked on the translation over a period of several years, discussing and debating the rendition of every term. After Luis’s passing, Paul brought the project to completion, and the fruits of their joint labors are now available in print.” — Dr. Jan Nattier, an eminent scholar of Buddhist studies, served as this year’s nominating member on the KF Prize for Outstanding Translation committee.

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The KF Dissertation Award Asia Committee echoes Dr. Singsuriya with this excerpt from a reviewer’s report. “This extensive and well-researched article certainly merits publication after some revisions. The author has provided an original, meticulously presented analysis of the Siamese textual tradition of the Milindapañha, along with its broader context in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, India, and China. The result is [the] first substantial piece of research to not only describe in detail the ways in which printed Siamese recension of the Milindapañha differs so stridently from the Pali Text Society’s Romanised edition, but also to provide a well-evidenced account of how this recension developed through the combination of various textual lineages found in manuscript form between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries.”

Eng Jin shared with us his thoughts on receiving the award. “I am indeed honored and grateful to be selected as the recipient of this year’s Khyentse Foundation Dissertation Award. It’s a pleasure to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Peter Skilling, whose vast expertise and selfless efforts have helped me navigate the intricate terrain of South East Asia Buddhism, manuscripts traditions, and textual studies. I am indebted to him for his patience in encouraging me in academic research. I am deeply indebted to my primary supervisor Dr. Giuliano Giustarini and my secondary supervisor Assistant Professor Kengo Harimoto for their invaluable support and advice, to the academic team at Mahidol University who has supported me along my journey, to the selection committee for recognizing my work, to my family and friends, and to Khyentse Foundation for making this possible. This award encourages and inspires me to continue my efforts to understand and contribute to the field of Buddhist textual transmission and history.”

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Although the dissertation focuses primarily on the cycle of birth-stories in the Saṅghabhedavastu of the MSV, it also draws on other parts of this vinaya as well as different Buddhist genres such as abhidharma treatises, sūtra literature, and the writings of other Buddhist schools. Because this dissertation addresses the religious “other,” it occasionally draws also from non-Buddhist sources such as the so-called Brahmanical dharma literature and the Indian Epics.

The award committee wrote that “The doctoral dissertation of Yael Shiri examines the emergence and transformation of narrative traditions regarding the Śākya clan (the clan of the ‘historical’ Buddha Śākyamuni), especially in the Saṅghabhedavastu of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya. Shiri argues that these traditions can be interpreted as reflecting understandings of the nature of the Buddha; his relation to the monastic community (the Saṅgha) and modes in which the authority of the Saṅgha is legitimated or buttressed; the motif and symbolism of royalty in application to the person and nature of the Buddha; relations of contestation and problems of legitimation in relation to Brahmanism as an important religious ‘Other’; and elements of the social and political realities that served as backdrop for the formation of the texts, especially in the Northwest under the Kuṣāṇas.”

The committee was impressed by this work in several respects: “The selection of topic and materials shows acumen and addresses several weighty issues in the history of Buddhist traditions. The central argument is cogent. The argument also reflects substantive, no-nonsense engagement with important basic themes that are intelligible and pertinent across disciplinary boundaries beyond philology, as far afield as anthropology; for example, such as authority, power, and negotiation with religious others. The author demonstrates a broad knowledge and penetrating understanding of an impressive range of the most excellent secondary scholarship, and uses it to good effect. In methodological terms, the work demonstrates excellent philological acumen and sound control of primary texts and fine method; and it also reaches beyond philology and achieves interdisciplinary scope, especially in its perceptive and solid use of art-historical evidence complementing the textual record.”

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In expressing his gratitude for the award, Ven. Wei Wu said, “I feel very honored and humbled to receive this fellowship from Khyentse Foundation. I share this honor with the members of Than Hsiang Temple/Foundation and International Buddhist College. They also rejoice in the great contribution of Khyentse Foundation for the promotion of buddhadharma.”

At a time when the entire world is going through all kinds of health, climate, economic, and political upheavals, we need bodhisattvas like Venerable Wei Wu more than ever before. We take this opportunity to officially acknowledge him for all his hard work, and we pray for his valuable efforts to continue and to flourish for the benefit of all sentient beings.

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