Lingran Xie is a Master student concentrating on Tibetan religions and history, Buddhist modernity, media, and intercultural communication.
She received B.A in Religious Studies and Asian Studies from DePauw University. At DePauw, her research broadly included textual analysis of Chinese pre-modern and modern literatures, discussion of distrust between Chinese government and Tibetan Buddhism in the 21st century, and political implication in manthangs (medical thangkas). Before joining the program at Columbia, she worked at Yak Museum of Tibet in Lhasa for two years as a research assistant, and she conducted a field investigation and published a research paper “Comparative Analysis of Online and Offline Modes of Thangkas Selling” accepted by ISCCED, which examined how communication theories and tools were employed for cross-cultural communication of Tibetan culture.
During her time at Columbia, she continues working on Buddhist modernity of Tibet, and centers at a female treasure deity temple (Grapchi Lhamo Temple) in Lhasa to explore its history, transition, and how it adjusts itself in today’s modernity, museumification, and commercialism.