Professor Dan Hirshberg is offering the following courses in the Spring term of 2025:

• ASIA 1700: Introduction to Tibetan Civilization
• ASIA 4700: Enlightened Visionaries, Dirty Tricksters, and Warrior Heroes
• RLST 3550: Tibetan Buddhism

Additionally, a second semester of Tibetan is being offered through the Rangjung Yeshe Institute in Nepal. Please email Professor Daniel A. Hirshberg for more details.

For more information, you can visit his webpage: Dan Hirshberg | Center for Asian Studies.

Brief Bio of Professor Dan Hirshberg: 

Dan Hirshberg, Ph.D. is a Visiting Scholar for the Tibet Himalaya Initiative and Lecturer for the Center for Asian Studies and the Religious Studies Department. Much of his research centers on cultural memory, the narrative of Tibet’s 8th ce. conversion to Buddhism, and the apotheosis of its protagonist, Padmasambhava, in both literature and iconography. The former is the focus of his monograph, Remembering the Lotus-Born (Wisdom SITB, 2016). He has repeatedly collaborated on the latter with the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art in NYC. Dan has held year-long fellowships at UC Santa Barbara, LMU Munich, and UVa’s Contemplative Sciences Center. Before returning to Boulder, he was associate professor of Asian religions at the University of Mary Washington, where he founded one of the first Contemplative Studies programs for undergrads, established a Japanese-style garden, and led study abroad programs to Nepal and Japan. He also serves as Editor and Chair for the Journal of the North American Japanese Garden Association.

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The Crown Institute invites you to experience the creation of a Chenrezig Mandala, a symbol of compassion, healing, and impermanence. This sacred ceremony, led by the Jangchub Choeling Nunnery based in Mundgod, South India, will unfold over several days.

The Crown Institute warmly invites you to visit throughout the mandala’s creation and attend both the Opening and Closing ceremonies.

The event begins with a consecration ritual led by Buddhist nuns, invoking the force of goodness through the rhythmic chanting of mantras, accompanied by drums and cymbals. The first steps of the mandala’s creation will commence with the intricate drawing of the design.

Once the Chenrezig Mandala is completed, the Venerables will consecrate and to symbolize the impermanence of all that exists, the Sacred Sand Mandala is swept up. Attendees will be welcome to take a small packet of the sacred sand as a keepsake, while the remaining sand will be poured into Boulder Creek to release its healing energy into the world.

Throughout the week, you will have the unique opportunity to watch millions of colored sand grains meticulously laid in place, gradually bringing the mandala’s breathtaking beauty to life.

You are welcome to stop by and observe anytime during drop-in hours. For classes or groups who wish to visit, please contact Shubham Sapkota via shubham.sapkota@colorado.edu to make arrangements.

Location: Renée Crown Wellness Institute,  1135 Broadway Boulder, CO 80302

For more information about the event, visit the Crown Institute website. 

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“When wonder adorns wonder, Tibetan nomads sing: ‘Were I to heighten a high thing with something high,/ With clouds I would heighten the collar of the blue sky.’ Here is a heaped cloud offering of essays by distinguished scholars in honor of Janet Gyatso. Plumbing the extraordinary depths of Tibetan language, she has been revealing the riches and wisdom of Tibetan civilization in all its myriad complexities over a lifetime.”—Lama Jabb, author of Oral and Literary Continuities in Modern Tibetan Literature: The Inescapable Nation

“Janet Gyatso truly is a living treasure. She is an inspiration for scholarly excellence in the fascinating dimensions represented in this book—studies in Tibetan literature, the Nyingma tradition, gender and sexuality in Buddhism, early modernity, the more-than-human world, and so much more. But beyond this, she is an example of how to live a life dedicated to intellectual precision, far-ranging curiosity, and wholehearted mentorship.”—Sarah H. Jacoby, author of Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro

“Through the works she has written, the courses she has taught, and the scholars she has mentored, Janet Gyatso has transformed the field of Tibetan Buddhist studies, as the essays in this volume so eloquently attest.”—Donald S. Lopez Jr., Arthur E. Link Distinguished University Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

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On February 24^th, 2023, the University of Colorado Boulder ushered in the new Tibetan year of the Water Hare with Losar celebrations. Losar (ལོ་གསར་) meaning New Year in Tibetan is celebrated widely across the Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayan regions of Nepal, India, and Bhutan. Taking place on CU Boulder campus for the second time, this year’s Losar cultural program was jointly organized by the Center for Asian Studies (CAS), the Tibet Himalaya Initiative, Department of Anthropology, and the Anderson Language and Technology Center.

The event started with the serving of the ceremonial sweet rice (dresi) – an auspicious food symbolizing prosperity and good fortune— Tibetan butter tea, chai, and Tibetan Losar cookies (khabsey). The khabsey was prepared by the CU Tibetan students with the support and sponsorship of the local Boulder-based Tibetan-owned Cafe, Little Lama Cafe located at Naropa University.

CAS Tibetan Teaching Professor Tenzin Tsepak commenced the Losar celebrations by giving a brief background of Losar and its importance in Tibetan culture. This was followed a simultaneous Tibetan and English reading of a short Tibetan story titled ‘The Hero of the Grassland’ by Gavin Shoew, a first-year Tibetan language student. Aidan Euler, an intermediate Tibetan language student presented on the meaning of the ubiquitous Tibetan mantra Om Mani Padme Hun (ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པདྨེ་ཧཱུྃ། ). David Kwei, an intermediate Tibetan language student, presented a short biography of Tibetan writer and poet Gungthang Dawei Lodro, followed by a short poetry reading.

Following the presentations by the Tibetan language students, Samdup, a CU Tibetan student, gave an emotive performance of the Tibetan song titled ‘Samten Lhundup.’ A jovial group performance by the CU Tibetan students through the unity song ‘Ngatso De La Zom Zom’ recharged much enthusiasm into the audience. The event was emceed energetically by Tsering, another CU Tibetan student.

After the closing remarks from Professor Emily Yeh, who encouraged CU students to continue their pursuit of Tibetan and Himalayan studies, the Losar program concluded with dinner catered from Little Lama Café and gorshey (Tibetan circle dance). In the last thirty minutes of the program, students and faculty alike filled the dance floor to learn and bond through Tibetan dance. The evening ended with footsteps beating to the rhythm of the communal dance, sounds of vibrant laughter, and smiling faces. This cultural event brought together CU students, faculty, and the Tibetan community to celebrate and learn about Tibetan and Himalayan culture. The event was attended by 70-80 people, more than double that of last year.

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The Tibet Himalaya Initiative was honored to host a lunch symposium with Tibetan women writers Tsedron Kyi, Nyima Tso, and Min Nangzey at Koenig Alumni Center on April 22nd. These writers are prominent women's voices in the Tibetan literary scene, both on the plateau and in the diaspora. 

The lunch symposium was an intimate gathering of 20 THI faculty, visiting scholars, local translators, alumni, and graduate students. We had the opportunity to hear about the literary journeys of each writer and engage in informal discussion with them.

This was a follow up to the public event, Emerging Voices: Tibetan Women Writers (attended by approximately 75) on Thursday evening the 21st, in which the writers read from their works, a combination of poetry and short stories, in Tibetan followed by a reading of the translations.

Nicole Willock (Old Dominion University) introduced the event with a lecture on the history of contemporary Tibetan literature from seminal figures such as Tseten Zhabdrung, the topic of her book  (Columbia University Press, 2021), up to emerging publications by Tibetan women writers.

About the Tibetan Writers:

Tsedronkyi (ཚེ་སྒྲོན་སྐྱིད) is a short story writer from Chapcha, Amdo and teacher of Tibetan language and literature. She has published two books of collected short stories, A Melancholy Drama (སྐྱོ་སྣང་གི་ཟློས་གར། 2005) and Clinging (ཞེན།་ 2016).

Nyima Tso (ཉི་མ་འཚོ།) is a poet and short story writer from Labrang, who currently lives in Dharamshala. She has published two books of collected poems and short stories respectively: The First Journey of This Life (མི་ཚེ་འདིའི་འགྲུལ་བཞུད་ཐེངས་དང་པོ། 2003) and A Fragment (ཟུར་ཞིག Zhur zhig 2007).

Min-Nangzey (སྨིན་སྣང་མཛེས།) is an emerging poet and essayist from Golok, who currently lives in Dharamshala. She has published two books of collected poems and lyrics respectively: Princess of the Snow Mountain (གངས་རིའི་སྲས་མོ། 2006) and Songs of Emotions (ཚོར་བའི་གླུ 2015).

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We are grateful to UVA's Tibet Center, who arranged for this group of writers to come on tour to the US with presentations at UVA, Harvard, Columbia, and CU Boulder.

Sponsored by the Tibet Himalaya Initiative with support from the Center for Humanities and the Arts and the Research Innovation Office at CU Boulder.

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In the lecture, Daniel Miller displayed a number of photographs in the exhibition. This was followed by a broad overview of the physical geography of the Tibetan Plateau, including a number of photos taken by astronauts from space.  From here, he discussed the cultural geography of the Tibetan Plateau from ancient times to the present, with a focus on the material culture of pastoralism.  He also included discussed similarities between ranching cultures of the US West and pastoral culture on the Tibetan Plateau, as well as climate change impacts, and why Tibet matters today.  Following the talk, Sanggay Tashi, graduate student in the Department of Anthropology, briefly talked about his own experiences growing up in a herding community in the Tibetan region of Amdo, followed by a Q&A session.  

Daniel Miller served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Nepal from 1974-78 and earned an MA in range ecology from the University of Montana. His career in development, particularly work on livestock development projects, has spanned projects for the Asian Development Bank in Bhutan, ICIMOD in Nepal, and the World Bank.  He also worked with wildlife biologist George Schaller in the Changtang region of Tibet. He currently lives in Wyoming, and has published numerous articles, book chapters, and photographic books about rangelands and pastoralism in the Himalayas, Tibetan Plateau, and Mongolia.

Photo by Dan Miller.

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The special inaugural issue on "Contemporary Bhutanese Literature" explores the development of contemporary Bhutanese literature, including works in Dzongkha and English. Research articles discuss key issues, genres, and moments in contemporary Bhutanese literature, delving into the relationship, transformations, and tensions between oral and literary forms, colonial and post-colonial influences, religious and secular themes, and national and international languages in the formation of a multilingual body of contemporary Bhutanese literature.

CU Associate Professor of Buddhism, Holly Gayley, served as the guest editor, based on a panel organized for the the annual conference of the Association of Asian Studies held in March 2019 in Denver, Colorado, USA.

Download a PDF of the IJBHR Inaugural Issue. Table of contents is below.

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The Center for Asian Studies has received a grant from the U. S. Department of Education's Undergraduate International Studies and Foreign Languages (UISFL) program for AYs 20-23, which will allow the center to further develop offerings in Tibetan and Himalayan studies at the University of Colorado Boulder. 

The grant has three main components:

1) Tibetan and Himalayan area studies: The center plans to hire a half-time instructor who will develop and teach introductory courses on Tibetan and Himalayan civilization from traditional to contemporary times, offer course development grants to encourage CU Boulder faculty members to add Tibetan and Himalayan content to existing courses or create new courses focusing on the region, and work with partners at the Tibet Himalaya Initiative to plan a series of events on the region. The first event, “The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier: Rebellion, Repression, and Remembrance on a Tibetan Borderland of Early-Maoist China,” a lecture by Benno Weiner, associate professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University, was held remotely this month.

2) Tibetan and Nepali language courses: Beginning in Fall 2021, the center plans to offer credit-bearing Directed Independent Language Studies courses in both Tibetan and Nepali languages, in partnership with the Anderson Language Technology Center (ALTEC).

3) Language study scholarships: The center will offer scholarships to students who will pursue summer language programs in Tibetan and Nepali, either through study abroad or domestically, to help them build their language skills beyond the introductory level available at CU Boulder.

For the Press Release in the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine, please click here.

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* Tuesday, October 27 at 6pm MDT via Zoom, Pre-Register below to receive the link! *

In 1997, the first cohort of women to receive the highest degree in Buddhist philosophical training graduated from the Larung Gar monastic institute in Eastern Tibet. After graduating as khenmos or scholar nuns, they began to assume institutional authority throughout Larung Gar, and have become teachers, publishers, and even philosophical commentators. Today, similar programs bestowing these khenmo degrees are slowly expanding throughout eastern Tibet to similar results. The Larung khenmo program was founded as part of a larger effort by the institute’s founder, Khenpo Jigme Phuntsok (1933-2004), to challenge the public perception of women as incapable of advanced learning. Jue Liang and Andrew Taylor Illuminate how this public demonstration that nuns are capable of the same rigorous scholarship and religious practices as monks has helped to legitimate nuns as fields of merit for donors who had traditionally supported monasteries at the expense of nunneries. The khenmo movement has changed and is changing both women’s self-understandings of their own practice and lay attitudes toward women’s religious capacities.

Join us on Tuesday, October 27 at 6pm MDT via Zoom for a dynamic conversation between Jue Liang and Andrew Taylor, based on their collaborative research and recent article, “” (Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 2020). Professor Padma ’tsho of Southwest University for Nationalities will offer a response, followed by time for questions.

Pre-register here to receive the link (at least 24 hours in advance):

Jue Liang is the ASIANetwork-Luce Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow in the Religion Department at Denison University. She is a scholar of women, gender, and sexuality in Buddhism, Buddhist hagiographies, and Treasure (gter ma) literature.

Andrew S. Taylor is a Ph.D. candidate in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. Trained as a Tibetologist, his scholarship seeks to revive comparative religion as both a field and a method.

Padma 'tsho is Professor in the Tibetan Studies Depart­ment of Southwest University for Nationalities in Chengdu, China. Her areas of research and teach­ing include Tibetan Buddhism, ritual studies, gender issues, and the education of Buddhist nuns in Tibetan areas.

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Please join us for a virtual talk The Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier: Rebellion, Repression, and Remembrance on a Tibetan Borderland of Early-Maoist China by Benno Weiner on October 7, Wednesday, at 5 pm MDT. Pre-register at 

When in 1949 the Chinese Communist Party “liberated” the ethnocultural frontier region known to Tibetans as Amdo, its goal was not just to build a state, but to create a nation. Rather than immediately implement socialist reforms, it pursued relatively moderate “United Front” policies meant to “gradually” persuade Tibetans and Amdo’s other non-Han inhabitants of their membership in the new Chinese nation. At the outset of 1958’s Great Leap Forward, however, United Front gradualism was jettisoned in favor of rapid collectivization. This led to large-scale rebellion, overwhelming state repression, and widespread famine. Rather than a “voluntary” and “organic” transformation, Amdo was incorporated through the widespread and often indiscriminate deployment of state violence. In this talk, Dr. Weiner discusses 1958’s Amdo Rebellion and explores ways in which the violence of 1958 and its aftermath continues to cloud the state’s efforts to integrate Tibetans into the modern Chinese nation-state.

Benno Weiner is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Carnegie Mellon University. He is author of the Chinese Revolution on the Tibetan Frontier (Cornell UP) and co-editor of Contested Memories: Tibetan History under Mao Retold (Brill).

The book is available from  for 30% off with code 09FLYER

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