The Author

desktopMy PhD dissertation on the Dzogchen works of Jigme Lingpa was completed in 2000, and since 1999 I’ve worked with the Stein collection at The British Library for the International Dunhuang Project. In the beginning I worked on the Central Asian manuscripts from the Tibetan imperial period. Between 2002 and 2005 I compiled a detailed catalogue of the Tibetan tantric manuscripts from Dunhuang. At the moment I’m engaged in an ongoing research project on the palaeography of the Tibetan and Chinese Dunhuang manuscripts. Since 2002 I’ve taught as a part-time lecturer at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London) on Tibetan and Central Asian Religions.

Publications by Sam van Schaik

Books

Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-century Buddhist Pilgrim (with Imre Galambos). Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming in October 2010.

Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang, (edited with Matthew T. Kapstein). Leiden: EJ Brill, 2010.
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Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang. (with Jacob Dalton). Leiden: EJ Brill, 2006.
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Approaching the Great Perfection. Boston: Wisdom Publications, 2004.
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Articles

“A New Look at the Invention of the Tibetan Script.” Old Tibetan Documents Monograph Series, vol.III, edited by Yoshiro Imaeda, Matthew Kapstein and Tsuguhito Takeuchi. Forthcoming in 2010/11.

“Towards a Tibetan Paleography: A Preliminary Typology of Writing Styles in Early Tibet.” Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa, vol.I, edited by Michael Friedrich, Jörg Quenzer, Matthew Driscoll and Jan-Ulrich Sobisch. Berlin: de Gruyter. Forthcoming in 2010.

“The Origin of the Headless Style (dbu med) in Tibet.” Tibeto-Burmese Linguistics, edited by Nathan Hill. Leiden: EJ Brill, 2010.

“The Limits of Transgression: The Samaya Vows of Mahāyoga” in Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang, eds. Matthew T. Kapstein and Sam van Schaik. Leiden: EJ Brill, 2010.

“The Prayer, the Priest and the Tsenpo: An Early Buddhist Narrative from Dunhuang” (with Lewis Doney) in the Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 30.1–2 (2007 [2009]): 175–217.
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“Fragments of the Testament of Ba from Dunhuang” (with Kazushi Iwao) in the Journal of the American Oriental Society 128.3 (2008): 477-488.

“The Sweet Sage and the Four Yogas: A Lost Mahāyoga Treatise from Dunhuang” in Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 4 (2008). http://www.thlib.org?tid=T5564

“A Definition of Mahāyoga: Sources from the Dunhuang Manuscripts.” Tantric Studies 1 (2008).

“Oral Teachings and Written Texts: Transmission and Transformation in Dunhuang” in Contributions to the Cultural History of Early Tibet, ed. Matthew T. Kapstein & Brandon Dotson. Leiden: EJ Brill, 2007. 183–208.
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“Beyond Anonymity: Palaeographic Analyses of the Dunhuang Manuscripts” (with Tom Davis and Jacob Dalton) in Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies 3 (2007). http://www.thlib.org?tid=T3106

“The Tibetan Avalokitesvara Cult in the Tenth Century: Evidence from the Dunhuang Manuscripts” in Tibetan Buddhist Literature and Praxis (Proceedings of the Tenth Seminar of the IATS, 2003, Volume 4), ed. Ronald M. Davidson and Christian Wedemeyer. Leiden: EJ Brill, 2006. 55–72.
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“The Early Days of the Great Perfection” in Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 27/1 (2004): 165–206.

“Where Chan and Tantra Meet: Buddhist Syncretism in Dunhuang” (with Jacob Dalton) in Susan Whitfield (ed), The Silk Road: Trade, Travel, War and Faith. London: British Library Press, 2004. 61–71.

“Lighting the Lamp: the Structure of the Bsam gtan mig sgron” (with Jacob Dalton) in Acta Orientalia 64 (2003): 153–175.

“The Great Perfection and the Chinese Monk: rNying-ma-pa defences of Hwa-shang Mahāyāna in the Eighteenth Century” in Buddhist Studies Review 20.2 (2003): 189–204.
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“Tibetan Dunhuang Manuscripts in China” in The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 65.1 (2002): 129–139.

“The Resolution of the Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to the Great Perfection in the Klong chen snying thig” in Religion and Secular Culture in Tibet (Proceedings of the Ninth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Leiden 2000), ed. Henk Blezer. Leiden: EJ Brill, 2002: 309–320.

“Sun and Moon Earrings: the Teachings Received by ‘Jigs med gling pa” in The Tibet Journal 25.4 (2000): 3–32.
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“A Catalogue of the First Volume of The Waddell Manuscript rNying ma rgyud ‘bum” in The Tibet Journal 25.1 (2000): 27–50