Robert Thurman

Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 3, 1941) is an American Buddhist author and academic who has written, edited, and translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He was the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, before retiring in June 2019.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> He was the first endowed chair in Buddhist Studies in the West.<ref name=":0" /> He also is the co-founder and president of the Tibet House US New York. He translated the Vimalakirti Sutra from the Tibetan Kanjur into English. He is the father of actress Uma Thurman and grandfather of Maya Hawke.

Early life and education

Thurman was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Dean Farrar (1907–1973), a stage actress, and Beverly Reid Thurman, Jr. (1909–1962), an Associated Press editor and U.N. translator (French and English).<ref name=wrgs1>Template:Cite web</ref> He is of English, German, Scottish, and Scots-Irish/Northern Irish descent.<ref name=wrgs1/> His brother, John Thurman, is a professional concert cellist who performs with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy from 1954 to 1958, then went to Harvard University, where he obtained his B.A. in 1962. He later returned to Harvard for graduate study in Sanskrit, receiving an M.A. in 1969 and a Ph.D. in 1972.<ref name="Binelli2013">Template:Cite web</ref>

On June 7, 1960, he married Marie-Christophe de Menil, daughter of Dominique de Menil and John de Menil and heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune.<ref>The Houston Post, 12 June 1960, page 8, section 7, column 3.</ref><ref name="Binelli2013"/><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Their daughter Taya Thurman was born on March 5, 1961.

Career

In 1961 Thurman lost his left eye in an accident "involving a racecar and a car jack", and the eye was replaced with a glass eye.<ref>Jennifer Armstrong, "Robert Thurman, Buddha’s Champion", lionsroar.com, 5 February 2019.</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> After the accident, Thurman says, he decided to refocus his life, divorcing de Menil and traveling from 1961 to 1966 in Turkey, Iran and India.<ref name="Binelli2013"/><ref name="nyt">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In India he taught English to exiled tulkus (Tibetan lamas).<ref name="Binelli2013"/> After his father's death in 1962, Thurman came back to the United States and in New Jersey met Geshe Wangyal, a Kalmyk Buddhist monk from Mongolia who became his first guru.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="Binelli2013"/> Thurman became a Buddhist and went back to India where, due to Wangyal's introduction, Thurman studied with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama.<ref name="nyt"/><ref name="Valpy2006">Template:Cite web</ref> Thurman was ordained by the Dalai Lama in 1965, the first American Buddhist monk of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and the two became close friends.<ref name="Valpy2006"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1967, Thurman returned to the United States and renounced his monk status (which required celibacy) to marry the German-Swedish model and psychotherapist Nena von Schlebrügge, who was divorced from Timothy Leary.<ref name="nyt"/>

Thurman then worked towards his Ph.D. in Sanskrit Indian Studies from Harvard, which he obtained in 1972. He went on to become professor of religion at Amherst College from 1973 to 1988, then the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, retiring in 2020.<ref name="Binelli2013"/><ref name = "Greenblatt">Lilly Greenblatt, "Celebrating Robert A. F. Thurman on his 82nd birthday", lionsroar.com, 3 August 2023,</ref>

In 1986, at the request of the Dalai Lama, Thurman created Tibet House US along with his wife Nena, Richard Gere and Philip Glass.<ref name="Hoban1998">Template:Cite news</ref> Tibet House US is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help preserve Tibetan Culture in exile. In 2001, the Pathwork Center, a Template:Convert retreat center on Panther Mountain in Phoenicia, New York, was donated to Tibet House US. Thurman and von Schlebrügge renamed the center Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa. Menla (the Tibetan name for the Medicine Buddha) was developed into a state-of-the-art healing arts center grounded in the Tibetan Medical tradition in conjunction with other holistic paradigms.<ref>Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman. Contemporary Authors Online, Gale, 2007.</ref> In 2009, Thurman starred in Rosa von Praunheim's film History of Hell - Rosas Höllenfahrt.

Ideas

Thurman is known for translations and explanations of Buddhist religious and philosophical material, particularly that pertaining to the Gelugpa (dge-lugs-pa) school of Tibetan Buddhism and its founder, Je Tsongkhapa.<ref name="nyt"/>

Recognition and awards

Time named Thurman one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997.<ref>Time's 25 most influential Americans. Time, 21 April 1997</ref> In 2003 he received the Light of Truth Award, a human rights award from the International Campaign for Tibet. New York Magazine named him as one of the "Influentials" in religion in 2006.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In 2020 he was a recipient of India's prestigious Padma Shri Award for literature and education.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Thurman is considered a pioneering, creative and talented translator of Buddhist literature by many of his English-speaking peers. Speaking of Thurman's translation of Tsongkhapa's Essence of Eloquence (Legs bshad snying po), Matthew Kapstein (professor at the University of Chicago and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris) has written that "the Essence of Eloquence is famed in learned Tibetan circles as a text of unparalleled difficulty. ... To have translated it into English at all must be reckoned an intellectual accomplishment of a very high order. To have translated it to all intents and purposes correctly is a staggering achievement."<ref>"Review of Robert Thurman, Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold in the Essence of True Eloquence in Philosophy East and West XXXVI.2 (1986): 184</ref> Similarly, prominent Buddhologist Jan Nattier has praised the style of Thurman's translation of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, praising it as among the very best of translations of that important Indian Buddhist scripture.<ref>“The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa): A Review of Four English Translations” by Jan Nattier in Buddhist Literature 2 (2000), pg. 234-258</ref>

Personal life

File:Robert Thurman 14 Jan 2006.jpg

Thurman in 2006

Twice married, Robert Thurman is the father of five children and grandfather to eight grandchildren. With Marie-Christophe de Menil, he has one daughter, Taya; their grandson was the artist Dash Snow.<ref name="Binelli2013"/> He also has a great-granddaughter through Snow.<ref name="Feuer2009">Template:Cite news</ref> Robert and Nena Thurman have four children, including Ganden, who is executive director of Tibet House US, actress Uma Thurman, Dechen, and Mipam.<ref name="nyt"/><ref name="Green2017">Template:Cite news</ref> Robert and Nena's children grew up in Woodstock, NY, where the Thurmans had bought nine acres of land with a small inheritance Nena had received. The Thurmans built their own house there.<ref name="Green2017"/>

Selected publications

• The Central Philosophy of Tibet: A Study and Translation of Jey Tsong Khapa's Essence of True Eloquence, Princeton University Press, 1991 Template:ISBN
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1994 (translations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Russian) Template:ISBN
• Essential Tibetan Buddhism, Castle Books, 1995 Template:ISBN
• Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, with Marilyn Rhie Abrams, 1996 Template:ISBN
• Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment, with Denise P. Leidy, Shambhala Publications, 1997 Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN
• World of Transformation: Masterpieces of Tibetan Sacred Art in the Donald Rubin Collection, with Marilyn Rhie, Tibet House US/Abrams, 1999 Template:ISBN
• Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, Penguin, 1999 Template:ISBN
• Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas with Tad Wise, Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1999 Template:ISBN
• The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000, Template:ISBN
• Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well, Riverhead Books, 2004, Template:ISBN
• The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (with Lozang Jamspal, et al.), Columbia University Press, 2005 Template:ISBN
• The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism, Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2005 Template:ISBN
• Visions of Tibet: Outer, Inner, Secret, photographs by Brian Kistler, introduction by Robert Thurman, ed. Thomas Yarnell, Overlook Duckworth, 2005, Template:ISBN
• Anger: of the Seven Deadly Sins, Oxford University Press, 2005, Template:ISBN
• Life and Teachings of Tsongkhapa, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2006, Template:ISBN
• Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World, Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2008, Template:ISBN
• A Shrine for Tibet: The Alice Kandell Collection with Marylin Rhie, Overlook, 2010 Template:ISBN, Template:ISBN
• Tsong Khapa’s Extremely Brilliant Lamp, Robert Thurman, 2010, Template:ISBN
• Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp of the Five Stages, Columbia University Press, 2011, Template:ISBN
• Love Your Enemies: How To Break the Anger Habit & Be a Whole Lot Happier with Sharon Salzberg, Hay House, 2013 Template:ISBN
• My Appeal to the World, 14th Dalai Lama, Sofia Stril-Rever, compiler, Robert Thurman, foreword, Tibet House US, Hay House, 2015, Template:ISBN
• Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet, graphic novel, William Meyers, Robert Thurman, Michael G. Burbank, initiated artistically by Rabkar Wangchuk, art a team effort of five artists coordinated by Steve Buccellato and Michael Burbank, Tibet House US, Template:ISBN
• The Treasury of Buddhist Sciences, series, editors, Robert Thurman, Thomas Yarnall and The Treasury of Indic Sciences, series, editors Robert Thurman, Gary Tubb and Thomas Yarnall, are copublished with the American institute of Buddhist Studies and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies; distributed by the Columbia University Press:

External links

• Template:Official website
• Tibet House Thurman Biography
• Tibet House, New York City
• First 30 Years of Tibet House film
• Tibet House US Channel
• Menla Retreat, Resort and Spa in upstate New York, the Dalai Lama and Robert Thurman, Spiritual Directors
• Sharon Salzberg + Robert Thurman, Meeting Our Enemies and Our Suffering, On Being with Krista Tippett unedited interview