Writer-in-digital-residence

The writer-in-digital-residence is the recipient of a grant designed to support Tsadra Foundation’s Buddhist literacy projects that connect the larger public with academic research and advance understanding of specific aspects of Tibetan Buddhist traditions. Writers help to curate this online resource and write essays on the history, philosophy, and practices associated with buddha-nature teachings and tathāgatagarbha theory in Tibet. These essays are addressed to an audience of educated readers of Buddhist materials and Buddhist practitioners.

Current writer

Karma Phuntsho

Lopen (Dr) Karma Phuntsho is one of Bhutan’s leading intellectuals. He finished his monastic training in Bhutan and India before he pursued a M.St in Classical Indian Religions and a D.Phil in Oriental Studies at Balliol College, Oxford. He was a researcher at CNRS, Paris, a Research Associate in the Department of Social Anthropology at Cambridge University, and the Spalding Fellow for Comparative Religion at Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He was also a Research Consultant at University of Virginia.

An author of over one hundred books and articles including the authoritative History of Bhutan and Mipham’s Dialectics and the Debates on Emptiness, he speaks and writes extensively on Bhutan and Buddhism. His work has received extensive media coverage by the BBC, BBS, Kuensel, The Bhutanese, Science, Radio Free Asia, Oxford Today, Times of India, India Today, and Channel News Asia. He is also the President and founder of Loden Foundation, a leading educational, entrepreneurial, and cultural initiative in Bhutan. He is currently based in Thimphu, Bhutan. Read a complete bio on Wikipedia.

Previous writers

Alex Gardner

Alexander Gardner is the Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives, an online biographical encyclopedia of Tibet and the Himalayan Region. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. From 2007 to 2016 he worked at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, serving as their Executive Director from 2013 to 2016. His research interests are in Tibetan life writing and the cultural history of Kham in the nineteenth century. He is the author of The Life of Jamgon Kongtrul the Great, published by Shambhala in 2019. Alex served as the writer-in-residence for Tsadra Foundation's Buddha-Nature Project from 2017-2019.