Robert A.F. Thurman

Robert A.F. Thurman stands as a towering figure in Buddhist studies and Tibetan cultural preservation, serving as the first Westerner ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama in 1965. As the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and President of Tibet House U.S., Thurman has dedicated over five decades to bridging Eastern and Western philosophical traditions. His remarkable journey began after losing an eye in an accident during his Harvard years, which led him on a spiritual quest through Asia where he met the Dalai Lama in 1962. After his monastic period, Thurman returned to academia, earning his Ph.D. from Harvard and becoming the first endowed chair in Buddhist Studies in the West. His influence extends beyond academia through his role in co-founding Tibet House US with Richard Gere and Philip Glass, his numerous books on Buddhism and Tibetan culture, and his work as a public intellectual - recognized by Time magazine as one of America's 25 most influential people in 1997. Thurman's unique ability to make complex Buddhist concepts accessible to Western audiences, combined with his scholarly expertise and personal connection to the Dalai Lama, has made him the leading American authority on Tibetan Buddhism and a crucial figure in preserving and promoting Tibetan civilization in the West.