Sam Julius van Schaik is an English tibetologist.

Education

He obtained a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist literature at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

in 2000, with a dissertation on the translations of

Dzogchen Dzogchen ( 'Great Completion' or 'Great Perfection'), also known as ''atiyoga'' ( utmost yoga), is a tradition of teachings in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and Bön aimed at discovering and continuing in the ultimate ground of existence. The goal ...

texts by Jigme Lingpa.

Career

Since 1999 van Schaik has worked at the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, where he is currently the Head of the Endangered Archives Programme a position to which he was appointed in February 2019. He was previously a project manager for the International Dunhuang Project, specialising in the study of Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang. He has also taught occasional courses at

SOAS, University of London The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS University of London; ) is a public university, public research university in London, England, and a constituent college, member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, ...

. From 2003 to 2005 van Schaik worked on a project to catalogue Tibetan Tantric manuscripts in the Stein Collection of the British Library, and from 2005 to 2008 he worked on a project to study the

palaeography Palaeography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, UK) or paleography (American and British English spelling differences#ae and oe, US) (ultimately from , , 'old', and , , 'to write') is the study and academic disciplin ...

of Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhuang, in an attempt to identify individual scribes.

Books

Van Schaik is the author or co-author of: * ''Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig'' (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004). * ''Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library'', co-authored with Jacob Dalton (Leiden: Brill, 2006). * '' Tibet: A History'' (London: Yale University Press, 2011). * ''Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim'', coauthored with Imre Galambos (Berlin: de Gruyter, 2012). * ''Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition'' (Boston & London: Snow Lion, 2015). *''The Spirit of Zen'' (Yale University Press, 2018), winner of the 2019 Tianzhu Book Prize for Excellence in Chan Studies * ''Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment Through the Ages'' (Boulder: Shambhala 2020) His

edited volume Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written language, written, Image editing, visual, Audio engineer, audible, or Film editing, cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing p ...

s include: * ''Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for this Life and Beyond'', co-edited with Matthew Kapstein (Leiden: Brill, 2010). Reviews of ''Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang'': * * He is also the translator of: *Dhongthog Rinpoche, ''The Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism: A History'', Translated by Sam van Schaik (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, Inc., 2016).

References

External links

Sam van Schaik's academic blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Schaik, Sam Employees of the British Library Living people Tibetologists Year of birth missing (living people) Alumni of the University of Manchester English historians British scholars of Buddhism