Dr. Volker Caumanns

Research Fellow

Anschrift

Numata Zentrum für Buddhismuskunde

Volker Caumanns studied Tibetology and Indology at the University of Hamburg, where he obtained his Magister Artium in 2006. From 2006 until 2012 he was working as a research associate (“Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter“) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität of Munich. He received his PhD in Tibetology and Buddhist Studies from the same university in 2012 with the doctoral thesis “The Mahapandita of the Monastery of gSer mdog can: Life and Works of the Sa skya Master Shakya mchog ldan (1428-1507)“. From 2012 until 2015 he was a research fellow at the Lumbini International Research Institute (LIRI) with a project on “The History of rGya ma from the 12th to 15th Centuries“. From 2015 until 2016 he was a fellowship holder of the German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) doing research on an installation ritual in the Tibetan monastery of Sa skya. Currently he has a teaching assignment for Classical Tibetan at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen.

His research interests include the religious and cultural history of Tibet (in particular the period from the late 14th to the middle of the 17th cent.), the history and doctrine of the Sa skya school of Tibetan Buddhism, and the Tibetan narrative literature (rnam thars, chos ʼbyungs etc.).

Publications

In Preparation. (together with Marta Sernesi) (eds.). Towards a History of 15th Century Tibet: Cultural Blossoming, Religious Fervour, and Political Unrest. LIRI Seminar Proceedings Series. Lumbini International Research Institute.
In Preparation. “Shakya mchog ldan’s Collected Writings: The History of a 15th Century Literary Corpus“.
In Preparation. “Installation as the Lord(s) of the Teaching: Remarks on an Enthronement Ceremony in Sa skya“.
2015. Review of Helmut Eimer, Sa skya Legs bshad: Die Strophen zur Lebensklugheit von Sa skya Pandita Kun dgaʼ rgyal mtshan (1182-1251). Zentralasiatische Studien, 44, pp. 226-232.
2015. Shakya-mchog-ldan, Mahapandita des Klosters gSer-mdog-can: Leben und Werk nach den tibetischen Quellen. Contributions to Tibetan Studies, 11. Wiesbaden: Reichert.
2013. “Pan chen Shakya mchog ldan’s Monastic Residence Thub bstan gSer mdog can (Part I): History of its Foundation“. In: Franz-Karl Ehrhard & Petra Maurer (eds.), Nepalica-Tibetica: Festgabe für Christoph Cüppers. Andiast: International Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, vol. 1, pp. 65-88.
2013. Review of Michael Hahn, Vom rechten Leben: Buddhistische Lehren aus Indien und Tibet. Münchener Indologische Zeitschrift, 2, pp. 160-162.
2010. “Milarepa“. In: Claudius Müller (ed.). Tibet: Religion, Kunst, Mythos. Knauf-Museum Iphofen, pp. 83-90.
2010. “Tibetan Sources on the Life of Serdog Panchen Shakya Chogden (1428-1507)“. In: Linda Covill, Ulrike Roesler & Sarah Shaw (eds.), Lives Lived, Lives Imagined: Biography in the Buddhist Traditions. Boston: Wisdom, pp. 205-240.
2005. “Vier gedruckte tibetische Rollbilder“. In: Wulf Köpke & Bernd Schmelz (eds.), Die Welt des tibetischen Buddhismus. Mitteilungen aus dem Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg. Neue Folge, 3, pp. 763-779.

Papers Presented

2016. “Rekindling the (Institutional) Flame: sNgags ʼchang Kun dga‘ rin chen’s Restoration of Sa skya in the 16th Century“. XIVth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Bergen, Norway.
2016. “Die Inauguration der Herren der Lehre: Beschreibung und Analyse eines Einsetzungsrituals im tibetischen Kloster Sa-skya“. Tibet- und Himalaya-Colloquium, Abteilung für Mongolistik und Tibetstudien der Universität Bonn.
2016. “Das alljährliche Döchen-Ritual in Sakya: Überblick über Geschichte, Ablauf und Funktionen“. 65. Öffentliche Vortragsveranstaltung der Deutsch-Tibetischen Kulturgesellschaft, Bonn.
2016. “Symbolische Landschaften: Zur religiösen Topographie der Klosterresidenz Sakya im 16. und frühen 17. Jahrhundert“. Audition lecture, Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften der Universität Leipzig.
2015. “Die Einsetzung der Herren der Lehre in Sa-skya: Symbolische Kommunikation in einem Ritual im Tibet des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts“. Guest lecture, Institut für Indologie und Zentralasienwissenschaften der Universität Leipzig.
2015. “Remembering a 15th Century Life: Kun dgaʼ grol mchog’s rnam thar of Pan chen Shakya mchog ldan as a Historical Source“. Towards a History of 15th Century Tibet: Cultural Blossoming, Religious Fervour, and Political Unrest. Lumbini International Research Institute, Nepal.
2014. “The Installation as the Lord(s) of the Teaching: Remarks on an Enthronement Rite in Sa skya“. XVIIth Congress of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Wien.
2013. “The Compilation of Shakya mchog ldan’s Works: Genesis and Structure“. XIIIth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia.
2010. “dKar chags or Colophons? The Use of Generic Terms in the Collected Works of Shakya mchog ldan (1428-1507)“. XIIth Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Vancouver, Canada.
2007. “The Transformation of Life into Religious Biography: The Tibetan Scholar-Saint Shakya Chogden (1428-1507) Seen through the Eyes of his Biographers“. Lives Lived, Lives Imagined: Biography in the Buddhist Traditions, Balliol College, Oxford.