Welcome to the University at Buffalo's
Asian Studies Program.

Program Highlights

Classical Tibetan language class to be offered at UB in 2008-09

     The visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in September 2006 raised the consciousness of campus and community concerning Buddhism and its unique expression in Tibet.  The treasure of thought and tradition in Tibetan Buddhism is locked in classical Tibetan texts, mostly untranslated into modern Tibetan, Chinese, or Western languages. 

     The Asian Studies Program, has been able to secure the services of Dr. Craig Preston, a scholar of classical Tibetan, to teach two courses in Classical Tibetan and a course on Tibetan Buddhist Thought.  The course offerings for the fall will be:

Fall 2008 - AS 393, Reg. #391308  Tibetan Buddhist Thought (3 cr hrs.)

          AS 431/531, Reg #369413, Classical Tibetan (3 cr hrs)

    Dr. Preston majored in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia where he studied under Professor Jeffrey Hopkins, a widely known scholar of Tibet.  He holds a law degree, and studied Tibetan in India.  He is an adjunct faculty member of the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca NY.  He is the author of the textbook, How to Read Classical Tibetan.

      For more information, including how to register for the course, contact Elizabeth Felmet, administrative assistant of the Asian Studies Program - 645-3474, Ext. 3; efelmet@buffalo.edu.

Law and Buddhism:
UB Births a New Scholarly Field

 On Wednesday and Thursday, September 20-21, 2006 the UB Law School and Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy sponsored a path-breaking conference on “Law, Buddhism, and Social Change.” 

The highlight of the entire event was a visit by His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet who sat in a circle with the fifteen participants and talked for the first time about law. He has never before visited a law school or spoken on law and related political processes so this was a unique event in many ways. His Holiness answered questions from an interesting group including philosophers, historians, a linguist, legal scholars, and law practitioners. Some of the members had met before at preliminary Law and Buddhism conferences and others gathered over the summer beforehand to discuss readings on the Dalai Lama and the proposed topics.

His Holiness was very engaged in the conversation.  Of particular note were his ideas on monks participating in party politics and the concept of “dirty law.” To begin with the latter, he said, “If some person commits a crime but tries to prove that he is innocent, that is ‘dirty law’.”  In effect, what this means is that an individual lawyer who is not proceeding daily on the basis of a feeling of true loving kindness toward the human beings that she interacts with – be they criminals, corporate representatives, wealthy trustees, or the homeless – is practicing “dirty law.” With respect to monks, he stated that monks should generally not be entering politics as they are in Sri Lanka and other countries. They may do so with a clear motivation that they are the only educated actors and are acting only to reduce tension and conflict, to help the local people.  However, when it becomes an issue of power or manipulation or bias or heightened conflict, the monk or nun should remove him/herself from the process.

The UB Law School spent months preparing for the visit, and the site of the event was the beautiful open air atrium of the second floor lobby of the Charles B. Sears Law Library. The walls were hung with banners illustrating Tibetan law texts and large documentary cases were filled with actual manuscripts of legal documents. His Holiness stopped on his way into the conference to look at the documents and commented extensively on them asking questions of the archivist Karen Spencer who had prepared them. Also, in the central circle of participants was a striking piece of art by Chrysanne Stathacos, a mirror covered with rose petals. He sat in a large chair made for sitting cross-legged that was specially made by Stickley, Audi & Co. of Western New York.