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About Us: Participants in the Sera Monastery Project
Hosting Institution
University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Director and Principal Investigator
José Ignacio Cabezón (UCSB)
Collaborating Institutions
Sera Monastery, Bylakuppe
Sera Monastery, Lhasa
Tibet Academy of Social Sciences (TASS)
University of Virginia, Charlottesville (UVA)
Faculty Collaborators
David Germano (UVA), Buchung (TASS), Tsewang Rinchen (TASS)
Chief THL Research Assistant for the Sera Project
David Newman (2001-2005), Dan Haig (2005-2008), Steven Weinberger (2008-)
THL Staff Assistants
Drolkar,
Mark Ferrara,
Than Grove,
Travis McCauley,
R. Kirk Moore,
Will Rourk,
Michael Ryan,
Steven Weinberger,
Eric Woelfel
Student Assistants
Alex Catanese (UCSB),
Wilson Chen (UCSB),
David Cooper (UCSB),
Michael Cox (UCSB),
Ezra Goldman,
Taline Goorjian (UCSB),
Zoran Lazovic (UCSB),
Thomas Nguyen (UCSB),
Alyson Prude (UCSB),
Michael Ryan (UVA),
Phil Smith (UCSB),
Kyle Stephens (UCSB),
Vanessa Turner (UCSB),
Chris Walker (University of Chicago),
Emily Yeh (UC, Berkeley; presently Asst. Prof., University of Colorado)
The director of the Sera Project would like to especially acknowledge the contributions of Prof. David Germano to this initiative. He has dedicated extraordinary intellectual energy, time, and resources to the Sera Project, and without his help it would never have come to fruition. Mr. David Newman, a member of the THL staff, has from the outset been involved at almost every turn. In Tibet (2002) he acted as photographer, videographer, and chief research assistant. He was also responsible for all of the technical aspects of the construction of the interactive map. Of course, none of this work would have been possible without the incredible cooperation and assistance the research team has received, and continues to receive, from the monks of Sera in Tibet, in India, and elsewhere in the world.
Credits for the Sera Panoramas (2007/8). Seeing the power of QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) panorama technology to provide an immersive experience of a site, we became convinced of the need to create a body of these for Sera Monastery. In the summer of 2004, Alex Catanese (and in one instance, Will Rourk) photographed various sites at Sera and surrounding areas in Lhasa under the direction of José Cabezón. Alex Catanese and José Cabezón were funded on this 2004 trip by a grant from UC Santa Barbara’s Academic Senate, Committee on Research. Thanks to Will Rourk and David Germano of THL, to Buchung of the Tibet Academy of Social Sciences, and to Mark Ferrara of THL, who was responsible for the webpage design.
José Ignacio Cabezón
José Ignacio Cabezón, the director and principal investigator of the Sera Project, is Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies in the Religious Studies Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree with an emphasis in Physics from the California Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition from 1978 to 1986, and was a monk of Sera-India, living and engaging in the traditional curriculum of studies there from 1980 to 1985. He has taught at Carleton and Trinity Colleges, at Ohio State, and at the Iliff School of Theology. His major publications are in the area of Tibetan Buddhist philosophical thought. His books (edited, translated, or authored) include:
- Buddhism, Sexuality and Gender (1992)
- A Dose of Emptiness: An Annotated Translation of the sTong thun chen mo of mKhas grub dGe legs dpal bzang (1992)
- Buddhism and Language: A Study of Indo-Tibetan Scholasticism (1994)
- Tibetan Literature: Essays in Honor of Geshe Lhundub Sopa (with Prof. Roger Jackson, 1995)
- Scholasticism: Cross-Cultural and Comparative Perspectives (1998)
Besides directing the Sera Project, Prof. Cabezón is currently working on a book on Buddhism and sexuality.
David Newman
David Newman studied at Oberlin College and moved to Nepal in 1993 to edit an anthology of Tibetan stories. He continued to work there as a teacher and tour guide for five years. In 1998 Mr. Newman joined the THL staff, where he held a variety of important posts. From 2001 to 2005 Mr. Newman served as the chief THL liaison to the Sera Project; among other things, during this time he was responsible for the technical aspects of the creation of the Sera interactive map, one of the most innovative aspects of the Sera Project. He is fluent in Tibetan, Nepali, and Chinese.
Dan Haig
Dan Haig studied Tibetan Buddhism under Geshe Lhundub Sopa at the University of Wisconsin. From 2005 until 2008 he served as THL liaison to the Sera Project.
Steven Weinberger
Steven Weinberger received his PhD in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies from the University of Virginia for his work on Yoga Tantra. He is the manager of the Tibetan and Himalayan Library and is currently the THL liaison to the Sera Project.