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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“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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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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“Since there has not been any monograph that studies comprehensively the issue of vāsanā, and only a very few studies have so far paid attention to this concept, Mingyuan’s dissertation is undoubtedly a significant contribution,“ said Venerable Professor Dhammajoti in his nomination letter. “The dissertation is well documented, based on solid primary Sanskrit, Tibetan, Classical Chinese, and Pāli sources. Some important passages in the dissertation are translated for the first time into English, with considerable annotation. It also critically examines a large number of secondary sources by modern scholars in English, Japanese, French, and Chinese.”

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Ducher’s grasp of her materials is impressive, and although the scope of the project is vast, ranging from the origins of the bKa’ brgyud tradition in India in the tenth century up to the present situation in Tibet’s gZhung Valley, she manages to document the genesis, development, flourishing, and dissolution of the Mar rNgog lineage, as well as its influences on other traditions and later attempts to preserve and revive its practices. Her discussions on hagiography as a valid source of information about religious and social forces and on the concept of lineage are enlightening, and the excursion into Bourdieu’s theories about “capital” is stimulating. “It is a great honor for me to have been awarded this year’s Award for Outstanding PhD Dissertation in Buddhist Studies by Khyentse Foundation. I feel much gratitude and joy that my work on the history of the Mar rNgog bKa’ brgyud lineage is recognized by such a distinguished foundation and can in this way contribute to shedding some light on this central yet relatively forgotten tradition that constitute the core of the bKa’ brgyud tantric wealth,”

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