Current Projects:
Final completion of the “Life & Times of Gedun Chopel (1903-1951). To be or not to be a yogi?” Arguably the most brilliant, controversial Tibetan intellectual of the first half of the 20th century. To be published in the peer-reviewed series: Vajra Academic, vajrabookshop.com, Kathmandu, Nepal.
Biography:
Born into an alternative family, with a father who believed in travel more than schooling as an education, we grew up in a cosmopolitan community on the edge of London. Before reaching the age of 18, I left Beckenham Grammar to go travelling across the Eurasian continent, visiting family friends in India, including Rukmini Devi, founder of the famous school for Bharatanatyam in Southern India. Exploring the library of our neighbours at the Theosophical Society, some old books painted in gold on black paper caught my attention. Finding them to be written in Tibetan, I travelled up to Delhi to the office of HHDL, where they gave me a job teaching English at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts. During my 18-month stay in Dharamsala, in 1966, the Cultural Revolution broke out in the PRC, and after returning to the UK, I took a four-year BA Honours degree in Chinese at SOAS, before moving to Paris, enrolling at the university of Paris VII Jussieu, for a Masters degree again in Chinese - continuing with Tibetan - publishing my research paper as a book in 1975 chez Serindia, London, Early Sino-Tibetan Art (7th-15th c.). This was followed by a doctorate (PhD) in contemporary Tibetan studies, on the life of Gedun Chopel (1903-1951) (see above #5). My MA had been well-received and when I returned to France, I was offered a post as head of Tibetan studies at INALCO, in 1977. There followed 30 years when I went on yearly research missions to Tibet, discovering notably contemporary Tibetan literature that had exploded in the early 1980s. From then on life was exploration of Tibetan territories on the high plateau, intense academic study, writing articles, attending international conferences, and contributing to research programs.
Educational Background:
- 1964 Hammersmith College of Art, Foundation Year.
- 1965-67 Two years travelling in India & the Himalayas, basic studies in spoken & written Tibetan.
- 1967-1970 SOAS, BA, Honours Chinese, with subsidiaries in Chinese Buddhism & classical Tibetan, University of London.
- 1967-1970 SOAS, Member of the group ‘Concerned Asian Scholars’, formed to provide day by day information on the Cultural Revolution in PRC, with the publication of a journal of the same name.
- 1971-1973 Sorbonne, Paris VII, Masters degree in classical Chinese & Tibetan, Jussieu,. Director Mme Vandier-Nicolas.
- 1975 Publication of Masters research, Early Sino-Tibetan Art, Serindia, UK. 2nd edition, Bangkok & Chicago + Chinese translation published in Beijing, PRC.
- 1974-1985 Sorbonne, Paris X, University of Nanterre, Doctorate (in French) in Cultural Studies, on the life and works of Gedun Chopel (1903-1951), including six months research in the Himalayas meeting over 70 people who knew him, followed by publication of my thesis on his life (in French), Le Mendiant de l’Amdo, Societe d’ethnographie, Nanterre, Paris X, 1985. Director A.Macdonald.
- 1997. Habilitation a diriger des recherches, INALCO.
- 1977-2012 Meanwhile, as head of Tibetan studies I gradually extended the teaching program from the original two-year INALCO diploma up to doctorate level, gathering young researchers over a wide range of contemporary & classical subjects, for whom the principal obligation was to carry out fieldwork in Tibet.
Research Interests:
Tibet Land of Snows, and interaction with surrounding civilisations. Mongolians in Central Asia, Himalayas, China, India & Nepal. Literature, art and contemporary Tibetan intellectual life, as an example of transition from tradition to modernity.
Recent Publications:
2013-2015 A History of the Tibetan Empire, by Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang. Editor of the second revised English translation, 697pp. + maps & illustrations, published by Songtsen Library, based on the first English edition 2010, translated by Meghan Howard and Druk Tsering, 651pp + maps
2016 Essential Advice, English translation of 15 public conferences given by Drikung Kyabgon Chetsang on a wide range of subjects (tri-lingual edition, Tibetan, Chinese & English), published in Delhi.
2018 Murals of Tibet, photography by Tom Laird. Vol.1. Photo images only; Vol.2. Essay on the Origins of Style in Tibetan Buddhist Art + Chapters 1-13 by Heather Stoddard; Ch. 14, text by Jacob Winkler. Taschen Books, Germany. & illustrations.
To be published
2024 : Gedun Chopel (1903-1951). Mad Scholar-Yogin of 20th century Tibet. Extensive updating & Rewriting in English of Le Mendiant de l’Amdo, 1985. To be published by Vajra Books, Kathmandu, in the series Vajra Academic.
