Georgios T Halkias

Position:

Visiting Associate Researcher 

Faculty / College Address:

Oriental Institute / Wolfson College

Email:

georgios.halkias@gmail.com

Research Interests:

  • Pure Land Buddhism in India, Tibet and Central Asia
  • Buddhism in imperial Tibet
  • Vajrayāna meditation traditions and rituals
  • Religious and Cultural History of Western Himalayas
  • Buddhism in Hellenistic Central Asia

Current Projects:

  • Entangled Histories between East and West: Sources and Interpretations for the Development of Buddhism in Hellenistic Central Asia
  • The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Buddhism

Courses Taught:

  • Indo-Tibetan Buddhism; Genres in Tibetan religious literature; Literary Tibetan language; Buddhism through Film

Recent Publications:

Books:

  • 2013. Luminous Bliss: a Religious History of Pure Land Literature in Tibet. With an Annotated Translation and Critical Analysis of the Orgyen-ling golden short Sukhāvatīvyūha-sūtra. University of Hawai‘i Press.
  • 2009. (ed. with B. Dotson et al) Proceedings of the First International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, SOAS, London 2007. Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies, Serindia Press.

Selected Articles:

  • 2015. “The Self-immolation of Kalanos and other Luminous Encounters among Greeks and Indian Buddhists in the Hellenistic world.” Journal of the Oxford Centre of Buddhist Studies, Vol. VIII, pp. 163-186.
  • 2015. “Invoking Protection from the Buddha of Infinite Light and Wisdom.” In Tibetan and Himalayan Healing: An Anthology of Anthony Aris, eds. Charles Ramble and Ulrike Roesler. Kathmandu: Vajra Books, pp. 299-320.
  • 2014. “Translating the Foreign into the Local: The Cultural Production and Canonization of Buddhist Texts in Imperial Tibet.” In Translation and Global Asia: Relocating Cultural Production Network, eds. Lawrence Wang-chi Wong and Uganda Sze-pui Kwan. Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Research Centre for Translation, pp. 143-168.
  • 2013. “Aspiring for Sukhāvatī in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism: Entering the dhāraṇī and buddhakṣetra of Buddha Aparimitāyus.” Journal of Buddhist Studies, JCBSSL Vol. XI, pp. 77-110.
  • 2013. “When the Greeks Converted the Buddha: Asymmetrical Transfers of Knowledge in Indo-Greek Cultures.” In Trading Religions: Religious Formation, Transformation and Cross-Cultural Exchange between East and West, ed. Volker Rabens. Brill Publishers.
  • 2013. “The Enlightened Sovereign: Kingship and Buddhism in Indo-Tibetan Traditions.” In  A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy, ed. Steven Emmanuel. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers, pp. 491-511.
  • 2013. [Reprint 2009]. “Until the Feathers of the Winged Black Raven Turn White: Sources for the Tibet-Bashahr Treaty of 1679-1684”. In Critical Readings on the History of Tibetan Foreign Relations, vol. 2, ed. Saul Mullard. Leiden: Brill, 2013: 573-604.
  • 2013. “Early Himalayan Kingdoms: Political and Cultural History up to 1700.” In Himalaya: The Exploration and Conquest of the Greatest Mountains on Earth, ed. Philip Parker. London: Anova Publishers, pp. 25-35.
  • 2012. “Buddhist Models of Self: Politics when People Matter.” In Buddhism without Borders, Proceedings of the International Conference on Globalized Buddhism, Bumthang, Bhutan, May 21-23, 2012, ed. Dasho Karma Ura and Dendup Chophel. Bhutan:The Center for Bhutan Studies, pp. 15-35.
  • 2012. “Από τον Μέγα Αλέξανδρο στο Βούδα: Ασύμμετρες Επιδράσεις Βουδισμού και Ελληνικού Πολιτισμού στην Κεντρική Ασία” [From Alexander the Great to the Buddha: Asymmetrical influences between Buddhism and Hellenism in Central Asia]. Conference Proceedings, Alexander, The Greek Cosmos-System and Contemporary Global Society, Academy of Institutions and Cultures, Athens, pp. 215-228.
  • 2010. “The Muslim Queens of the Himalayas: Princess Exchange in Ladakh and Baltistan.” In Islam-Tibet: Interactions along the Musk Routes, eds. Anna Akasoy et al. Ashgate Publications,pp. 231-252.
  • 2009. “Compassionate Aspirations and their fulfilment: Dol-po-pa’s A Prayer for Birth in Sukhāvatī.” In As Long As Space Endures: Essays on the Kālachakra Tantra in Honour of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, ed. Edward Arnold. Snow Lion Publications, pp. 259-275. [Chinese translation by Wei Jiandong] In Ta kong jian yu ru lai zang: jue nang pai ren wu, jiao fa, yi shu he li shi yan jiu [Other-emptiness and the Buddha-Matrix: contributions to the study of Jo-nang-pa figures, doctrine, iconography and history]. Beijing: Beijing da xue chu ban she, 2014: 287-308.
  • 2009. “Until the Feathers of the Winged Black Raven Turn White: the Tibet-Bashahr Treaty of 1679-1684.” In Mountains, Monasteries and Mosques: Recent Research on Ladakh and the Western Himalaya, eds. John Bray et al. Supplement to Rivista Degli Studi Orientali, Nuova Serie, Volume LXXX, pp. 61-86.
  • 2009. “Loss of Memory and Continuity of Praxis in Rampur-Bashahr: an Itinerant Study of Seventeenth-Century Tibetan Murals.” In Contemporary Visions in Tibetan Studies, eds. Brandon Dotson et al. Serindia Publications, pp. 139-155.
  • 2008. “Buddhist Meditation Traditions in Tibet: The Union of the Three Vehicles.” In Buddhist Meditation: An Introduction, Chapter Eight, ed. Sharah Shaw. Rutledge Press, pp. 159-186.
  • 2006. “Pure-Lands and other Visions in Seventeenth-Century Tibet: a Gnam-chos sādhana for the pure-land Sukhāvatī revealed in 1658 by Gnam-chos Mi-’gyur-rdo-rje (1645-1667).” In Power, Politics and the Reinvention of Tradition: Tibet in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century, eds. Brian Cuevas et al. Brill Publishers, pp. 121-151.
  • 2004. “Tibetan Buddhism Registered: Imperial Archives from the Palace-Temple of ’Phang-thang.” The Eastern Buddhist, Kyoto. Vol. XXXVI, Nos. 1 and 2, pp. 46-105.

Photograph of Georgios T Halkias