Written by Geoffrey Bamford and Sin-ming Shaw 

The Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies (OCBS) is pleased to announce the establishment of the Khyentse Visitorship for Distinguished Scholar Monks and Nuns.  It will bring pre-eminent Buddhist teachers to Oxford University, one of the world’s most ancient and distinguished.

This represents a major step forward for Buddhist Studies at Oxford and should lead the way for other academic insitutions to establish similar programmes around the world.

• Leading scholar monks or nuns from across the entire spectrum of Buddhist thought and from all around the world will be invited to Oxford on a regular basis. They will share their wisdom and scholarship with members of the University, and with the broader community.

• Oxford students read the great Buddhist texts in the languages they were written in — just like in monastic universities.  Our students will benefit from contact with the best traditional scholars.

• There is great interest across the West in applying practices drawn from the Buddhist tradition in psychiatry and professional development.  The OCBS’ sister institution, the Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC), is at the forefront of this work.  The Khyentse Visitors should make a great contribution in this area.
• The academic community around the world will come to appreciate more fully the importance of Buddhist thinking and practice from the work of the Khyentse Visitors at Oxford.
• Oxford will provide an ideal forum for Buddhist scholars and practitioners from different schools and from different corners of the world.  They will gain an opportunity to meet and exchange views with each other that until now has not been readily available.

The initial pledged endowment is 250,000 sterling; the eventual goal is 1 million sterling.  Sin-ming Shaw, a former Visiting Fellow at Oxford University, leads a group of friends and students of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche which has provided the initial funding.  

Khyentse Rinpoche is a leading non-sectarian Buddhist lama.  As well as the Khyentse Foundation, he has established the global network Siddhartha's Intent, the DeerPark Institute of Buddhist Philosophy and Lotus Outreach, which is dedicated to helping vulnerable children through education and healthcare. 

Khyentse Rinpoche and the OCBS are agreed that the Visitorship programme will be non-sectarian. Appointments of Visitors will be announced in official Oxford University publications.  Lectures, seminars and talks by the Visitors will be posted on Internet for a global audience.

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When Professor Richard Gombrich (OCBS Chair) retired three years ago, he had supervised more than half the United Kingdom’s post-war doctorates in Buddhist Studies.  The OCBS is dedicated to ensuring that Oxford remains a premier global centre of Buddhist scholarship.  The Khyentse Visitorship is a major contribution to that cause.

If you wish to support this unique initiative, please feel free to contact the OCBS for more information or send your donation directly to: