2021-2022 Courses
Fall 2021
UN1365: Introduction to East Asian Civilizations: Tibet
Faculty: Anna Sehnalova (See course on Vergil.)
This course seeks to introduce the sweep of Tibetan civilization and its history from its earliest recorded origins to the present. The course examines what civilizational forces shaped Tibet, especially the contributions of Indian Buddhism, sciences and literature, but also Chinese statecraft and sciences. Alongside the chronological history of Tibet, we will explore aspects of social life and culture.
S2205: Buddhism: Indo-Tibetan
Faculty: Thomas Yarnall (See course on Vergil.)
The course introduces the history of Indo-Tibetan Buddhism throughout India, South and Southeast Asia, Tibet, and Central Asia, its essential primary textual source materials translated from Pali, Sanskrit, and Tibetan, and the philosophical insights of some of the traditions’ outstanding individuals.
GU4318: Interpreting Buddhist Yoga
Faculty: David Kittay (See course on Vergil.)
A seminar exploring the meanings of Buddhist Tantra and being, time, space, gender, technology, and mysticism through traditional religious, modern, post-modern, digital, quantum, and Buddhist "hermeneutics," the science and art of interpretation. We will read ancient and modern classics on hermeneutics, by Schleiermacher, Gadamer, Heidegger, Barthes, and Ricouer; Indian and Tibetan works on their systems of interpretation, at least as sophisticated as anything from Europe; and contemporary works on how digital technology brings us into a world of new meaning for everything, including Buddhist yoga.
GU4553: Survey of Tibetan Literature
Faculty: Lauran Hartley (See course on Vergil.)
Designed for both undergraduate and graduate students, this course introduces Tibetan belles-lettres and vernacular works (all in English translation) spanning from the imperial period to the present day. We will engage in close readings, together with discussion of the genre each text represents and its salience in current Tibetan intellectual discourse. In the final four weeks, we will read landmark works from the post-Mao period, with a view to the negotiation of traditional forms amidst the advent of new literary genres and the economics of cultural production. Questions to address include: How have Tibetan literary forms and content developed throughout history? How has the very concept of "Tibetan literature" been conceived? How have Tibetan writers and scholars—past and present—negotiated literary innovation? Each session will consist of a brief lecture followed by discussion. Lectures will incrementally provide students with a general timeline of Tibetan literary and related historical developments, as well as biographical material regarding the authors assigned for that week. Tibetan language students and heritage learners will be offered three optional sessions to read excerpts of selected texts in Tibetan.
UN1410: FIRST YEAR CLASSICAL TIBETAN I
Faculty: Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
This is an introductory course and no previous knowledge is required. It focuses on developing basic reading and translation skills. Students are also introduced to classical Tibetan through selected readings and guest lectures.
UN 1600: FIRST YEAR MODERN COLLOQUIAL TIBETAN I
Faculty: Sonam Tsering
This is an introductory course and no previous knowledge is required. It focuses on developing basic abilities to speak as well as to read and write in modern Tibetan. Students are also introduced to modern Tibetan studies through selected readings and guest lectures.
UN2412: SECOND YEAR CLASSICAL TIBETAN I
Faculty: Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
This is the second year in the Classical Tibetan language progression. Students will work with faculty to read classical Tibetan texts from various genres and learn to read a variety of classical Tibetan scripts and seals. Prior completion of UN1410: First Year Classical Tibetan or the equivalent required.
UN2603: SECOND YEAR MODERN COLLOQUIAL TIBETAN I
Faculty: Sonam Tsering
Completion of UN 1600: First Year Modern Colloquial Tibetan or the equivalent required.
UN 2710: ADVANCED LITERARY TIBETAN I
Faculty: Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
This two-semester class is designed to assist students who already have the equivalent of at least two-years of Classical Tibetan language study. The course is intended to build on this foundation so that students gain greater proficiency in reading a variety of classical Tibetan writing styles and genres, including texts relevant to their research.
The course readings will focus primarily on texts written during the Ganden Phodrang period up through the 19th century. Over the two semesters, the class will cover three sets of materials: 1) famous or otherwise influential classical works (mostly historical, some literary); 2) important historical texts that have come to light in recent years but are scarcely known in western scholarship; and 3) classical language texts that support the research needs of the enrolled students. Classical Tibetan grammar and other conventions will be identified and discussed in the course of the readings.
UN3611: THIRD YEAR MODERN COLLOQUIAL TIBETAN I
Faculty: Sonam Tsering
For those whose knowledge is equivalent to a student who’s completed the Second Year course. The course develops students’ reading comprehension skills through reading selected modern Tibetan literature. Tibetan is used as the medium of instruction and interaction to develop oral fluency and proficiency.
Spring 2022
GU4310: LIFE WRITING IN TIBETAN BUDDHIST LITERATURE
Faculty: Gray Tuttle (See course on Vergil.)
This course engages the genre of life writing in Tibetan Buddhist culture, addressing the permeable and fluid nature of this important sphere of Tibetan literature. Through Tibetan biographies, hagiographies, and autobiographies, the class will consider questions about how life-writing overlaps with religious doctrine, philosophy, and history. For comparative purposes, we will read life writing from Western (and Japanese or Chinese) authors, for instance accounts of the lives of Christian saints, raising questions about the cultural relativity of what makes up a life's story. This course fulfills the undergraduate Global Core requirement.
GU4558: TIBETAN SCIENCE - MEDICINE, KNOWLEDGE AND THE STATE ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD
Faculty: Anna Sehnalova (See course on Vergil.)
This course aims to pose the question of what ‘science’ can be in Tibetan and Himalayan cultures, and to examine these ‘sciences’ in their social, religious, political, transnational, and inter-cultural dimensions. Especially through the field of medicine, it explores the main developments of Tibetan knowledge mostly during the modern era from the 17th century onward, building on both ethnography and primary and secondary written sources. This course pays particular attention to the relation of this knowledge to various states, centralizing institutions, and policies and practices of legitimization, and further to the modernization and globalization of the production, application, and consumption of Tibetan medical knowledge, including during the current Covid-19 pandemic.
GU4565: CULTURAL PRODUCTION AND SOCIAL CHANGE: TIBET IN THE WORLD
Faculty: Lauran Hartley (See course on Vergil.)
This course explores the intersection of cultural production and national/global economies in the context of Tibet. We will focus not on colonial sources but on a wide range of representational and expressive practices -- film, literature, music, social media, art, performance, etc.-- engaged by Tibetans since the early 1980s in the multi-ethnic borderlands of China, South Asia, and more recently the diaspora, including New York City. We will explore the impact of settler colonialism and socioeconomic marginalization on the de-centering and re-centering of ethnicity and identity in education, publishing and the arts, with reference to secondary studies as well as conversations with area artists. This course fulfills the undergraduate Global Core requirement.
GU4720: 20th CENTURY TIBETAN HISTORY
Faculty: Gray Tuttle (See course on Vergil.)
UN1410: FIRST YEAR CLASSICAL TIBETAN II
Faculty: Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
This is an introductory course and no previous knowledge is required. It focuses on developing basic reading and translation skills. Students are also introduced to classical Tibetan through selected readings and guest lectures.
UN 1600: FIRST YEAR MODERN COLLOQUIAL TIBETAN II
Faculty: Sonam Tsering
This is an introductory course and no previous knowledge is required. It focuses on developing basic abilities to speak as well as to read and write in modern Tibetan. Students are also introduced to modern Tibetan studies through selected readings and guest lectures.
UN2412: SECOND YEAR CLASSICAL TIBETAN II
Faculty: Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
This is the second year in the Classical Tibetan language progression. Students will work with faculty to read classical Tibetan texts from various genres and learn to read a variety of classical Tibetan scripts and seals. Prior completion of UN1410: First Year Classical Tibetan or the equivalent required.
UN2603: SECOND YEAR MODERN COLLOQUIAL TIBETAN II
Faculty: Sonam Tsering
Completion of UN 1600: First Year Modern Colloquial Tibetan or the equivalent required.
UN 2710: ADVANCED LITERARY TIBETAN II
Faculty: Sonam Tsering Ngulphu
This two-semester class is designed to assist students who already have the equivalent of at least two-years of Classical Tibetan language study. The course is intended to build on this foundation so that students gain greater proficiency in reading a variety of classical Tibetan writing styles and genres, including texts relevant to their research.
The course readings will focus primarily on texts written during the Ganden Phodrang period up through the 19th century. Over the two semesters, the class will cover three sets of materials: 1) famous or otherwise influential classical works (mostly historical, some literary); 2) important historical texts that have come to light in recent years but are scarcely known in western scholarship; and 3) classical language texts that support the research needs of the enrolled students. Classical Tibetan grammar and other conventions will be identified and discussed in the course of the readings.
UN3611: THIRD YEAR MODERN COLLOQUIAL TIBETAN II
Faculty: Sonam Tsering
For those whose knowledge is equivalent to a student who’s completed the Second Year course. The course develops students’ reading comprehension skills through reading selected modern Tibetan literature. Tibetan is used as the medium of instruction and interaction to develop oral fluency and proficiency.