Robert Thurman

Early life and education

Thurman was born in New York City, the son of Elizabeth Dean Farrar (1907–1973), a stage actress, and Beverly Reid Thurman, Jr. (1909–1962), an Associated Press editor and U.N. translator (French and English). He is of English, German, Scottish, and Scots-Irish/Northern Irish descent.

On June 7, 1960, he married Marie-Christophe de Menil, daughter of Dominique de Menil and John de Menil and heiress to the Schlumberger Limited oil-equipment fortune. Their daughter Taya Thurman was born on March 5, 1961.

Career

In 1961 Thurman lost his left eye in an accident "involving a racecar and a car jack", and the eye was replaced with a glass eye. After the accident, Thurman says, he decided to refocus his life, divorcing de Menil and traveling from 1961 to 1966 in Turkey, Iran and India. In India he taught English to exiled tulkus (Tibetan lamas). After his father's death in 1962, Thurman came back to the United States and in New Jersey met Geshe Wangyal, a Kalmyk Buddhist monk from Mongolia who became his first guru. Thurman became a Buddhist and went back to India where, due to Wangyal's introduction, Thurman studied with Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama. Thurman was ordained by the Dalai Lama in 1965, the first American Buddhist monk of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, and the two became close friends.

In 1967, Thurman returned to the United States and renounced his monk status (which required celibacy) to marry the German-Swedish model and psychotherapist Nena von Schlebrügge, who was divorced from Timothy Leary.

Thurman then worked towards his Ph.D. in Sanskrit Indian Studies from Harvard, which he obtained in 1972. He went on to become professor of religion at Amherst College from 1973 to 1988, then the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, retiring in 2020.

In 1986, at the request of the Dalai Lama, Thurman created Tibet House US along with his wife Nena, Richard Gere and Philip Glass. Tibet House US is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to help preserve Tibetan Culture in exile. In 2001, the Pathwork Center, a 320 acre retreat center on Panther Mountain in Phoenicia, New York, was donated to Tibet House US. Thurman and von Schlebrügge renamed the center Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa. Menla (the Tibetan name for the Medicine Buddha) was developed into a state-of-the-art healing arts center grounded in the Tibetan Medical tradition in conjunction with other holistic paradigms. In 2009, Thurman starred in Rosa von Praunheim's film History of Hell - Rosas Höllenfahrt.

Ideas

Recognition and awards

Time named Thurman one of the 25 most influential Americans of 1997. In 2003 he received the Light of Truth Award, a human rights award from the International Campaign for Tibet. New York Magazine named him as one of the "Influentials" in religion in 2006. In 2020 he was a recipient of India's prestigious Padma Shri Award for literature and education.

Thurman is considered a pioneering, creative and talented translator of Buddhist literature by many of his English-speaking peers. Speaking of Thurman's translation of Tsongkhapa's Essence of Eloquence (Legs bshad snying po), Matthew Kapstein (professor at the University of Chicago and Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes in Paris) has written that "the Essence of Eloquence is famed in learned Tibetan circles as a text of unparalleled difficulty. ... To have translated it into English at all must be reckoned an intellectual accomplishment of a very high order. To have translated it to all intents and purposes correctly is a staggering achievement." Similarly, prominent Buddhologist Jan Nattier has praised the style of Thurman's translation of the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, praising it as among the very best of translations of that important Indian Buddhist scripture.

Personal life

Twice married, Robert Thurman is the father of five children and grandfather to eight grandchildren. With Marie-Christophe de Menil, he has one daughter, Taya; their grandson was the artist Dash Snow. He also has a great-granddaughter through Snow. Robert and Nena Thurman have four children, including Ganden, who is executive director of Tibet House US, actress Uma Thurman, Dechen, and Mipam. Robert and Nena's children grew up in Woodstock, NY, where the Thurmans had bought nine acres of land with a small inheritance Nena had received. The Thurmans built their own house there.

Selected publications

• The Central Philosophy of Tibet: A Study and Translation of Jey Tsong Khapa's Essence of True Eloquence, Princeton University Press, 1991
• The Tibetan Book of the Dead: The Natural Liberation Through Understanding in the Between Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1994 (translations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Russian)
• Essential Tibetan Buddhism, Castle Books, 1995
• Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, with Marilyn Rhie Abrams, 1996
• Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment, with Denise P. Leidy, Shambhala Publications, 1997 ,
• World of Transformation: Masterpieces of Tibetan Sacred Art in the Donald Rubin Collection, with Marilyn Rhie, Tibet House US/Abrams, 1999
• Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness, Penguin, 1999
• Circling the Sacred Mountain: A Spiritual Adventure Through the Himalayas with Tad Wise, Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1999
• The Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti: A Mahayana Scripture, Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000,
• Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well, Riverhead Books, 2004,
• The Universal Vehicle Discourse Literature (with Lozang Jamspal, et al.), Columbia University Press, 2005
• The Jewel Tree of Tibet: The Enlightenment Engine of Tibetan Buddhism, Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2005
• Visions of Tibet: Outer, Inner, Secret, photographs by Brian Kistler, introduction by Robert Thurman, ed. Thomas Yarnell, Overlook Duckworth, 2005,
• Anger: of the Seven Deadly Sins, Oxford University Press, 2005,
• Life and Teachings of Tsongkhapa, Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2006,
• Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet and the World, Atria Books/Beyond Words, 2008,
• A Shrine for Tibet: The Alice Kandell Collection with Marylin Rhie, Overlook, 2010 ,
• Tsong Khapa’s Extremely Brilliant Lamp, Robert Thurman, 2010,
• Brilliant Illumination of the Lamp of the Five Stages, Columbia University Press, 2011,
• Love Your Enemies: How To Break the Anger Habit & Be a Whole Lot Happier with Sharon Salzberg, Hay House, 2013
• My Appeal to the World, 14th Dalai Lama, Sofia Stril-Rever, compiler, Robert Thurman, foreword, Tibet House US, Hay House, 2015,
• Man of Peace: The Illustrated Life Story of the Dalai Lama of Tibet, graphic novel, William Meyers, Robert Thurman, Michael G. Burbank, initiated artistically by Rabkar Wangchuk, art a team effort of five artists coordinated by Steve Buccellato and Michael Burbank, Tibet House US,
• The Treasury of Buddhist Sciences, series, editors, Robert Thurman, Thomas Yarnall and The Treasury of Indic Sciences, series, editors Robert Thurman, Gary Tubb and Thomas Yarnall, are copublished with the American institute of Buddhist Studies and the Columbia University Center for Buddhist Studies; distributed by the Columbia University Press:

References

References

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7. (2009). "Freeing Tibet: 50 years of struggle, resilience, and hope". AMACOM Div American MGMT Assn.
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12. (1 June 2010). "Why We Need Monasticism". [[Lion's Roar (magazine).
13. Lilly Greenblatt, [https://www.lionsroar.com/celebrating-robert-thurman/ "Celebrating Robert A. F. Thurman on his 82nd birthday"], lionsroar.com, 3 August 2023,
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15. Robert Alexander Farrar Thurman. ''Contemporary Authors Online'', [[Thomson Gale. Gale]], 2007.
16. [https://web.archive.org/web/20061110051647/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,986206-5,00.html Time's 25 most influential Americans]. ''[[Time (magazine). Time]]'', 21 April 1997
17. (May 15, 2006). "The Influentials: Religion". New York Magazine.
18. "Padma Awards 2020 Announced".
19. The Hindu Net Desk. (26 January 2020). "Full list of 2020 Padma awardees". The Hindu.
20. "Review of Robert Thurman, ''Tsong Khapa's Speech of Gold in the Essence of True Eloquence'' in ''Philosophy East and West'' XXXVI.2 (1986): 184
21. “The Teaching of Vimalakīrti (Vimalakīrtinirdeśa): A Review of Four English Translations” by Jan Nattier in Buddhist Literature 2 (2000), pg. 234-258
22. (24 July 2009). "Terrible End for an Enfant Terrible". [[The New York Times]].
23. Green, Penelope. (20 May 2017). "50 Years of Marriage and Mindfulness With Nena and Robert Thurman". [[The New York Times]].