Ngagyur Nyingma Research Centre (NNRC)
A ten-day research workshop (Levels 1, 2 & 3) was held at Namdroling Monastery on July 20–29, 2015. It was organized and hosted by the Ngagyur Nyingma Research Centre (NNRC), the research unit of Ngagyur Nyingma Institute (NNI), and conducted by Prof. Dorji Wangchuk, Dr. Orna Almogi, Ms. Rebecca Hüfen, and Mr. Eric Werner of the Khyentse Centre for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship, Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg, Germany. The workshop, entitled “Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship: Means and Methods of Research”, was the fourth of its kind held thus far and a continuation of the workshop “Buddhist Textual Scholarship and Fundamentals of Academic Research” (March 20–28, 2014) held previously at Namdroling. Twenty-eight scholars from various monastic universities and seminaries in Bhutan, Nepal, and north and south India participated in the workshop. Although Level 1 had not been initially planned, a condensed beginners’ course was offered to the participants who attended the workshop as observers. The workshop in general covered a wide range of topics dealing with both the theories and practices of the historical-philological study of Buddhist texts and ideas.
On Saturday (July 25), three members of the team from Hamburg gave talks on their recent research projects: Prof. Dorji Wangchuk gave a presentation on “A Brief History of the Collection of Transmitted Ancient Treatises/Teachings” (rNying ma bka’ ma’i lo rgyus mdorbsdus); Dr. Orna Almogi presented the history of the “Corpus of Ancient Tantric Scriptures” (rNying ma rgyud ’bum); and Mr. Eric Werner offered some observations regarding the history of composition of the “Treasury of Doxography” (Grub mtha’mdzod) by Longchen Rabjam. The faculty members, teachers, and students of NNI and the Ngagyur Nyingma Nunnery Institute (NNNI) who attended these talks were fascinated and inspired by the academic nature, form and content of the presentations. On Sunday (July 26), the four PhD students of the Ngagyur Nyingma Research Centre (NNRC), namely, Khenpo Tashi Dorje, Khenpo Urgyen Rigzin, Lopon Pasang Dargye and Loponma Karma Yangchen, presented the outcome of their collective research project on Rongzompa’s “Establishing Appearances as Divine” (sNangba lharsgrub), which was followed by progress reports of their individual research projects. The audience was impressed and inspired by these reports. Through witnessing these presentations, the audience was able to get an idea of what modern research is all about and came to fully appreciate its value and outcome. They also realized that the four research scholars have invested a tremendous amount of hard work and that they were, after a relatively short period of one year and three months, already able to demonstrate an impressive research output.
One of the important highlights of the workshop was a meeting―including the representatives of monastic seminaries from South Asia, Prof. Wangchuk and Dr. Almogi of Universität Hamburg, the President of NNI, and the Secretary of NNRC―that was held to discuss the promotion of modern research in the Buddhist monastic seminaries of Bhutan, Nepal and India. Khenpo Choying confirmed the setting up of an NNRC-like research centre at Dzongsar Institute and also offered to host a research workshop in the summer of 2016. Similar plans for setting up research centres were also expressed by representatives from Bhutan. The workshop was, in short, a great success in all respects.
Reported by Khenpo Sonam Tsewang
Secretary of NNRC
4th August, 2015
