Robert Thurman
Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman (born August 4, 1941 in New York City) is an American Buddhist writer and academic. He is the Je Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University. He also is the co-founder and president of Tibet House New York and currently holds the first endowed chair in this field of study in the United States. He is the father of five children including the actress Uma Thurman.
Dr. Thurman is highly-regarded for his lucid, dynamic translations and explanations of Buddhist religious and philosophical material, particularly that pertaining to the Gelukpa (dge-lugs-pa) school of Tibetan Buddhism and its founder, Je Tsong Khapa including Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold: Reason and Enlightenment in the Central Philosophy of Tibet, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, and his most recent, Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness.
At the age of 24, he became the first Western monk of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. A close friend of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, he has served as occasional translator to His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. He has lectured all over the world.
The Translations and Writings of Robert Thurman
The Central Philosophy of Tibet: A Study and Translation of Jey Tsong Khapa’s Essence of True Eloquence, Princeton University Press, 1984
The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1994
Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, H. Abrams, 1996
Tibetan Buddhism, HarperSanFrancisco, 1996
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
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
The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism, Free Press, Simon Schuster, 2005
Anger, Oxford University Press, 2005
The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000