Speaker: Loden Sherab Dagyab Rinpoche, retired researcher at the Institute for Central Asian Studies, University of Bonn; founding director of Tibethaus
Discussant: Pema Bhum, Director, The Latse Project
Moderator: Riga Shakya, PhD candidate, Dept of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University
This event is co-hosted by the Modern Tibetan Studies Program at Columbia University and The Latse Project, with funding and administrative support from the Weatherhead East Asian Institute.
Loden Sherab Dagyab Rinpoche is one of the few living Tibetan witnesses of the 1950 advance of the People's Liberation Army into Chamdo. Though he was just nine years old, Chinese authorities urged him to participate as one of the high-ranking dignitaries (zhuren) in their first conference. He then went on to study at Drepung Loseling Monastery in Lhasa until his escape to India, together with the Dalai Lama, in 1959. Our esteemed guest will discuss his experience of this historical juncture in conversation with Pema Bhum, director of The Latse Project.
Dagyab Rinpoche is one of the most influential Tibetan religious teachers and traditional scholars in exile. From 1964 until 1966, Dagyab Rinpoche lived in New Delhi where he directed the Tibet House, an internationally recognized institute for the promotion and preservation of Tibetan and Buddhist culture. In 1966, he was invited by the University of Bonn, Germany, to work as a researcher at its Institute for Central Asian Studies. He was associated there for many years and authored many academic works on iconography and Tibetan Buddhist Art, as well as Tibetan language and lexicography. More recently, he has earned added fame for his proposed reforms of the reincarnate lama system. Over the years, Dagyab Rinpoche has returned several times to his homeland in eastern Tibet, where he helped to found two primary schools in especially remote areas. He is also founding director of the Tibethaus in Germany, and spiritual director of 13 dharma centers around the world.
