Questions about Transmission and Translation

Professor Gyatso, one of the most creative thinkers in Tibetan studies, reflects on translation, transmission, tradition, and authenticity, while discussing a range of topics including the particular joys of translating Tibetan. Janet has been a pioneer in Tibetan Studies in so many ways starting with her early work on Terma and opening that area up to the inquiry of other scholars and to the general public. She is likely best known for her pioneering and groundbreaking work on autobiography with the publication of Apparitions of the Self and her recent book Being Human in a Buddhist World, winner of the 2016 Toshihide Numata Book Award.

Event: TT Conference 2014Keynote Lecture
Date: October 4, 20149:00 am
Speaker: Janet Gyatso
Topics: Transmission


Janet Gyatso

Harvard University

Janet Gyatso (BA, MA, PhD, University of California at Berkeley) is a specialist in Buddhist studies with concentration on Tibetan and South Asian cultural and intellectual history. Her books include Apparitions of the Self: The Secret Autobiographies of a Tibetan Visionary; In the Mirror of Memory: Reflections on Mindfulness and Remembrance in Indian and Tibetan Buddhism; and Women of Tibet. She has recently completed a new book, Being Human in a Buddhist World: An Intellectual History of Medicine in Early Modern Tibet, which focuses upon alternative early modernities and the conjunctions and disjunctions between religious and scientific epistemologies in Tibetan medicine in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries.