Uttarakhand Information Centre

Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 4, 1941) is an influential and prolific American Buddhist writer and academic who has authored, edited or translated several books on Tibetan Buddhism. He is the Je Tsongkhapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, holding the first endowed chair in this field of study in the United States. He also is the co-founder and president of the Tibet House New York and is active against the People’s Republic of China’s control of Tibet.

Life

Thurman was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Dean (née Farrar), a stage actress, and Beverly Reid Thurman, Jr., an Associated Press editor and U.N. translator. He attended Philips Exeter Academy from 1954 to 1958, followed by Harvard University, obtaining an A.B. in 1962.

He married Christophe de Menil, an heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune, in 1959; they had one daughter, Taya; their grandson was the late artist Dash Snow. In 1961 Thurman lost his left eye in an accident while he was using a jack to lift an automobile, and the eye was replaced with an ocular prosthetic. Following the accident he decided to re-focus his life, divorced his wife and traveled from 1961 to 1966 in Turkey, Iran and India. He converted to Buddhism and became an ordained Buddhist priest in 1964, the first American monk of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. He studied with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, who became a close friend. In 1967, back in the United States, Thurman resigned his vow of celibacy and married his second wife, German-Swedish model, Nena von Schlebrügge, who had previously been briefly married to Timothy Leary. Thurman and Schlebrügge, now a psychotherapist, had four children, the oldest being actress Uma Thurman.

Thurman obtained an A.M. in 1969 and a Ph.D. in Sanskrit Indian Studies in 1972 from Harvard. He was professor of religion at Amherst College from 1973 to 1988 when he accepted a position at Columbia Universityas professor of religion and Sanskrit. Time chose him as one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997.

Works

• The Central Philosophy of Tibet: A Study and Translation of Jey Tsong Khapa’s ‘Essence of True Eloquence‘ (Princeton Library of Asian Translations, Princeton University Press, 1991)
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1994)  Essential Tibetan Buddhism, (Castle Books, 1995 ISBN 0-7858-0872-8)
• Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet (H. Abrams, 1996) Tibetan Buddhism (HarperSanFrancisco,
  1996, ISBN 0-7881-6757-X)
• Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment (Shambhala Publications, 1997)
• Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion (Harry N. Abrams, 1999)
• Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness (Penguin, 1999)
• The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture (translated by Robert Thurman, Pennsylvania
  State University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-271-01209-9)
• Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas co-authored with Tad
  Wise (Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1999)
• Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well (Riverhead Books, 2004, ISBN 1-57322-267-4)
• The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism (Free Press, Simon Schuster, 2005)
• Anger (Oxford University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-19-516975-1)
• Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World (Atria Books/ Beyond Words, 2008, ISBN 1-58270-220-9)

Media

• The Bob Thurman Podcast
• Thurman, Robert (1999). Robert A.F. Thurman on Buddhism. DVD. ASIN B00005Y721.
• Thurman, Robert (2002). Robert Thurman on Tibet. DVD. ASIN B00005Y722.

References

External links

• Bob Thurman Authorized web site
• Why the Dalai Lama Matters Authorized web site
• The Bob Thurman Podcast
• Video of an energetic talk about Buddhism and education at Columbia
• Thurman’s Interview with the Dalai Lama in Mother Jones
• Bob Thurman: Becoming Buddha — on the Web TED, Dec. 2006