ORIGINS

In 1987, Professor Richard Gombrich was in Tokyo. He visited the BDK headquarters. The need to establish Buddhist Studies in Oxford University has formed the basis of a continuing conversation from that point onwards.

In 1988, the BDK expressed their wish to start an endowment fund. The plan was to begin with a series of short-term visiting Professorships, and meanwhile to build up a fund towards endowing a permanent post.

THE NUMATA VISITING LECTURERSHIPS (FROM 1990)

Richard Gombrich went with the Chair of the Oriental Studies Faculty Board to present this generous proposal to the University authorities. The Academic Registrar did not see how visiting Professorships could fit in to the University scheme, so recommended that this should be organised through a college.

So, in 1990, Balliol College signed a contract with the BDK. This established the Numata Fund at Balliol with the purpose of

a. inviting a Numata Visitor each year to help with the teaching of Buddhist Studies in the University and
b. building up a fund sufficient, eventually, to endow a University Lectureship.

On the 5th of June 1990, the Chancellor of the University, Lord Jenkins, was present at a ceremony in Balliol, at which Mr Yehan Numata presented his benefaction. The University issued a Press Release about this. Thereafter, an annual succession of Numata Visitors came and taught in the University.

THE COLLEGE LECTURERSHIP PROPOSAL (FROM 1999)

In the late 1990s, the BDK asked for a progress report. It became clear that on current form it would take a century before there was sufficient money for a permanent post.

Still, the BDK were heartened to hear of the success of the visiting lecturerships to date, and of the expansion of Buddhist Studies activity in Oxford, which had more or less coincided with the Numata Lecturership. In contrast, the prospects for the period after Richard Gombrich’s retirement were shocking. Buddhist Studies was about to die at Oxford.

On that basis, they indicated to a willingness to fund a permanent post in Buddhist Studies at Oxford. They wanted it to be a professorial Chair. That seemed unattainable. Reluctantly, they agreed that, as Richard Gombrich put it, “What matters is to have some Buddhist Studies going on, not none.”

In 1999 an agreement was signed between the BDK, in the person of Mr Yehan Numata himself, and Balliol. It provided for:

a) funds to be transferred from the BDK to Balliol gradually;
b) a visiting lecturer to be appointed for three months annually until such time as the sum accumulated was sufficient for a permanent post;
c) such a post — a College Lectureship — to be set up by 2004;
d) if not, the funds to revert to the BDK.

THE CURRENT SCHEME (FROM 2004)

In early 2004, the fund stood at something under £900,000. The amount necessary to endow a Lecturership was at least £1.3m and rising.

By this point, some things had changed.

• The Society for the Wider Understanding of the Buddhist Tradition (‘So-Wide’) was established in February of that year. Its purpose was to raise funds, principally and at first solely to form and develop the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (‘OCBS’).
  • The OCBS was initially constituted as an operating unit of So-Wide. A fundraising brochure was prepared. Prominent people were enlisted as patrons: Mr Toshihide Numata, the Dalai Lama, the Crown Princess of Thailand and others.
  • So-Wide opened discussions with the University with a view to clarifying the OCBS’ status in relation to the University.
• In Balliol, an existing member must take responsibility for any incomer. The 1999 agreement had assumed that this would be Richard Gombrich — the Lecturer was expected to be in post before he retired. In the upshot, this proved impossible; and Richard Gombrich’s successor as Boden Professor of Sanskrit was unlikely to be involved in Buddhist Studies.

It had also been assumed in 1999 that the Numata Lecturer would be in line for a College Fellowship, which would provide him or her with a room in College, the right to dine in Hall and other necessary benefits. Since that time, the financial position of the College had deteriorated.

Accordingly, it was necessary to find a new approach:

• Balliol wondered whether to bring in the OCBS more prominently:
  • The donation, it suggested, had initially been made to Richard Gombrich. He had moved on to the OCBS. That would now be a natural home for the new post-holder.
  • So, the funds could be transferred to the OCBS. Once the sum necessary for a Lecturership was available, that post would be created in the OCBS.
• The OCBS recalled the original proposal to fund a professorial Chair. That had been abandoned; but now circumstances had changed. The OCBS was operational; its Development Programme would determine the context in which the Numata appointee would work. The aim was to create a substantial endowed faculty. Someone would have to lead that academic team — presumably a Professor. Would it therefore make sense to revisit the option of a Numata Professor?
• The BDK responded positively. It was prepared to appeal in its own name to leading Buddhist institutions in Japan for additional funds to raise the endowment to an amount (£2.35m) sufficient for a full University Chair.
• By this time it had become clear that any Numata Chair of Buddhist Studies would be subject of complex negotiations with the University — and that Balliol was in a position to conduct these, whereas the OCBS was not.
  • The University considers the OCBS in relation to a group of superficially similar Centres, principally the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies (OCHJS). No such Centre had ever sought to establish a professorial Chair.
  • Soundings revealed some resistance to the idea of a Chair, whose incumbent would be attached to an entity not wholly part of the University.
  • Moreover, the OCBS had as yet no formal status. The request to be recognised as equivalent to the OCHJS, submitted early in 2004, received a response only in November 2005.
  • Finally, Balliol could show a precedent: the Chair of Internet Studies. This is a full University post organised by, and within, Balliol; the College holds the endowment fund

So it was decided that the Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies should follow the same pattern. On that basis, the OCBS sought support within the University. This was forthcoming. The Oriental Studies Faculty, for instance, was keen that the OCBS Development Programme be realised, which would obviously be much easier once the Chair was in place. Accordingly, the Faculty indicated its willingness to form a Buddhist Studies Unit.?

STATUS

SUMMARY

The position now is, therefore:

• The Numata Chair in Buddhist Studies is a full University Chair.
• The Numata Professor:
  • belongs to, and has a prominent place in, the OCBS academic team;
  • is attached to Balliol College.
• The Fund that supports the Numata Chair is held at Balliol.

Going on from there, the key requirement is to secure a satisfactory appointment by the beginning of the next academic year (in October ’07). The OCBS has been working to that end, with some success.

The first issue concerns the Electoral Board that will appoint to the Chair. In earlier discussions, Balliol and the OCBS together had indicated to the BDK that:

• A direct BDK involvement in the appointment process would go against long-established University policy.
• Nonetheless, the OCBS would have an input and would undertake to consult with the BDK.

The task of formalising the OCBS role in the Electoral Board proved a little challenging. As the letter reproduced overleaf shows, the necessary commitment was secured (from the chair of the Humanities Divisional Board) last month.

The next requirement is to ensure that the Numata Professor is in place as soon as possible and preferably by the beginning of the next academic year (i.e. in October ’07). There have, alas, been some unfortunate bureaucratic delays (it had been envisaged that the job would have been advertised by this stage). But it has been possible to arrange for the issue of a University Press Release, reproduced below. This is now circulating round the internet to all potentially interested parties. So the job is virtually advertised.