Khyentse Foundation

To promote the academic study of Buddhism, Khyentse Foundation helped create a new faculty position at the University of California at Berkeley (UC Berkeley), the Khyentse Chair in Buddhist Studies. The Foundation is now exploring similar opportunities and developing innovative strategies to support other centers of academic excellence worldwide. We are also working to establish cultural and educational exchange programs between traditional Buddhist institutes and major universities.

In 2010, the Khyentse Foundation Award for Excellence in Buddhist Studies  was established to recognize and encourage the development of primary skills and tools related to Buddhist studies at the university level. The following institutions were invited to participate: the UC Berkeley; the University of Hamburg, Germany; the University of Pennsylvania, USA; and the University of Sydney, Australia.  The awards are given to university students selected by their department faculty. The first recipient of the award was Samantha Ann Catella, UC Berkeley, in March 2010. We hope to expand the award program to many other institutions around the world.

The Khyentse Chair in Buddhist Studies at UC Berkeley

At the 2004 Khyentse Foundation board meeting, Rinpoche and the board of directors selected the UC Berkeley as the institution with which to establish a partnership. Berkeley offered an attractive combination of an established Buddhist studies program, an extensive library of texts, enthusiasm for our partnership, and a relatively low cost commitment. In July 2005, UC Berkeley approved the new faculty position in Tibetan Buddhism, formalizing Khyentse Foundation’s commitment to establish the Khyentse Chair in Buddhist Studies. A group of anonymous KF donors funded the project.

In his letter to Khyentse Foundation confirming the new faculty position, Anthony Cascardi, Interim Dean of Arts and Humanities, College of Letters and Science, wrote, “The addition of a faculty expert in Tibetan Buddhism will advance the campus’s programmatic and intellectual vision to promote teaching, research, and a greater understanding of the central significance of Tibet in the history of Asia, and of Tibetan Buddhism in the history of Buddhism, generally.”

This position, jointly held by the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures and the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, is further supported by five additional units in the university: the Department of Linguistics; the Department of Art History; the Group in Buddhist Studies; the Berkeley China Initiative; and the Program in Religious Studies. In all, seven separate units are backing this position, an indication of the university’s multidisciplinary approach to the study of Buddhism.

Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche visited the University of California at Berkeley in August, 2006. He toasted the efforts of everyone involved, saying, “I feel with this one contribution we’ve started the equivalent of 100 monasteries.”

The university conducted a nationwide search for a faculty member to fill the position, and Jake Dalton, then of Yale University, was hired to begin teaching in spring, 2009.