The Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library’s Tibetan pechas (Image credit: Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library)

With the University of Toronto hosting Canada’s most prominent Tibetan Studies program, and Toronto itself hosting the world’s largest Tibetan community outside of Asia, in 2013, the UTL undertook a partnership with Columbia University Libraries to develop our Tibetan Studies collection. As a result of this partnership, the University of Toronto’s Cheng Yu Tung East Asian Library now holds the largest Tibetan collection in Canada, making it the country’s principal resource for knowledge about this important region.

Given the successful outcomes of the Tibetan Studies partnership since 2013, the University of Toronto Libraries has now renewed this cooperation agreement. The new collection development and service agreement is for a further three years, and includes jointly sponsored acquisition trips to enhance the Tibetan collections of both universities, a shared point of service for research consultations, original cataloguing of Tibetan materials acquired by both institutions, as well as a newly expanded addition to the agreement, original cataloguing of unique titles acquired only by the University of Toronto Libraries. 

The faculties and students of both institutions will continue to enjoy the benefits of the innovative service model created by this partnership.

Libbie Mills was recently featured in an Arts & Science article on her introductory Sanskrit class, where she talks about how her interdisciplinary student body includes a lot of computer science students. You can read more at “‘It’s good coding’: Computer science students drawn to classes on Sanskrit, a 3,500-year-old language“.

Congratulations to two of our graduate students for their contributions to an edited volume published this month, Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History: Transformations of sbas yul through Time, in Brill’s Tibetan Studies Library. Annie Heckman‘s chapter is on “Early Echoes of sbas yul Padma bkod in the Lifestory of Thang stong rgyal po,” and Barbara Hazelton contributed a chapter on “Padma bkod through the Lens of Two Pilgrimage Guidebooks: Walking the Body of Rdo rje phag mo” as well as two translations, “’Ja’ tshon snying po’s Guidebook to the Hidden Land of Padma bkod” and “Bdud ’joms gling pa’s Hidden Sacred Land of Padma bkod.” There’s also an article by Frances Garrett, called “Healing Mountains and Hidden Lands.” This book had its origins in the Himalayan Borderlands research project, which organized a conference several years ago, co-sponsored by the Ho Centre and Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai Yehan Numata Program in Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto.

Congratulations to Dr. Sarah Richardson for winning the UTM Teaching Excellence Award for 2020! Dr. Richardson was recognized as an innovative teacher for her work on scaffolded learning, experiential learning, and trauma-informed pedagogy. Both students and colleagues commended Dr. Richardson’s efforts to make classes that are built around forming community (often getting students to work together); to cultivate opportunities for students to learn actively through doing things (she regularly takes students to museums and temples); and making sure that everyone is also having fun (she has organized art-making workshops and even an Odissi dance workshop).

Dr. Richardson also works to develop discipline-specific conversations around teaching through her work with the Ho Centre for Buddhist Studies at the University of Toronto, where she is the host for a new teaching related podcast, called The Circled Square.  For this podcast she interviews colleagues from other Universities, Colleges and disciplines, about their Buddhism related teaching (see http://teachingbuddhism.net/).

See more at https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/historical-studies/news/2020-utm-teaching-excellence-award-winner-sessional-instructors-dr-sarah-richardson

Khenpo Kunga Sherab was selected as the Senior Doctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto’s Buddhism, Psychology and Mental Health program at New College.  Since 2009 he has served as academic advisor for a number of professors and graduate students in Canada and the United States. His doctoral research focuses on the long cultural history of practices invented by Tibetans between the 13-20th centuries to identify incarnate enlightened minds among children as the basis of the trülku (sprul sku) institution. You may have seen him on the UToronto Classical Tibetan YouTube channel. Congratulations, Khenpo!