Master's Program

The Modern Tibetan Studies MA program has an excellent record of placing its graduates in PhD programs of high quality (including Harvard, Yale, University of Chicago) or in non-academic jobs related to East Asia; it is a good beginning to either an academic or a professional career. 

Columbia’s location in New York City, home to the largest Tibetan community outside of Asia, provides students with a wealth of Tibet-related academic and cultural activities. Students can take advantage of Tibet-related talks, film screenings, exhibitions, and other activities at the Rubin Museum of Art, Trace Foundation’s Latse Contemporary Tibetan Library, Tibet House, the Jacques Marchais Museum, and Asia Society, as well as at the Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, American Museum of Natural History and the New York Public Library.

We emphasize a transnational approach to Tibetan studies, with a focus on the disciplines of history and religion. Students thus work with a range of faculty at Columbia. Our strong Chinese history program features Madeleine Zelin in modern economic and institutional history, Eugenia Lean in modern cultural history, Dorothy Ko in Ming-Qing cultural history and material history, and Li Feng in early history and archaeology. We are just as rich in Chinese literature, with Lydia Liu in modern literature and theory and Shang Wei in Ming-Qing fiction and drama. We have the leading faculty in East Asian religion in this country with Bernard Faure, Max Moerman, Michael Como and Zhaohua Yang in Buddhist studies. We also have great depth on the Japan side, with Carol Gluck, Paul Kreitman, Gregory Pflugfelder, and David Lurie in history, Tomi Suzuki, and Haruo Shirane in literature, and Takuya Tsunoda in Japanese Film and Media.

For more information about the MA program, please refer to the MA Program Overview and Degree Requirements for the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures.