Robert A. F. Thurman was the first Westerner to become an ordained Tibetan Buddhist monk in 1964. After two years of monastic life in India, where he developed a close relationship with the Dalai Lama, he decided to return to America in order to educate the West on the esoteric and colorful Tibetan culture and ancient religous tradition. He currently holds the first endowed chair of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University.
As the author of numerous books on the subject (of which Inner Revolution and a translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead), Thurman has played a crucial role in bringing Buddhism to the West. |
