Berthe Jansen - Curriculum Vitae

Fields of interest

My fields of interest include Tibetan language, literature, religion, and history and how these affected and still affect Tibetan societies. My interests range widely from Tibetan oral traditions and folk culture to Buddhist philosophy, social and legal history, and heritage studies. I wrote my MPhil thesis on Tibetan wedding recitations, which is entitled: ‘A Tibetan Nuptial Oratory Tradition: the Molla from Dingri.’ (2010) My dissertation (submission date: November, 2014; date of defence: February 24, 2015), The Monastery Rules: Buddhist Monastic Organization in Pre-modern Tibet, focuses on pre-modern Tibetan monastic institutions and issues of social justice. This research concentrates on textual sources but is complemented by oral history based on fieldwork. I currently work as a post-doc within the VICI project Buddhism and Social Justice (January 2015- June 2015). This project is called ‘Law and Order during the Great Prayer Festival (sMon lam chen mo)’ and looks at the legal status and activities of monks in Lhasa during a festival in Lhasa in the 17th and 18th centuries. Together with Jonathan Silk I am in the process of editing the proceedings of the conference ‘Buddhism and Social Justice’.

Education

• 2015 (Jan.)- present: post-doc in the VICI project Buddhism and Social Justice

• 2010-2014: PhD candidate in the VICI project Buddhism and Social Justice (buddhismandsocialjustice.com)

• 2008-2010: MPhil (with distinction) in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at Oxford University

• 2005-2008: BA in Languages and Cultures of India and Tibet at Leiden University (average grade equivalent to ‘distinction’)

• 2003-2005: Tibetan language and interpreting (with distinction) at the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Programme, India

• 2000-2003: Courses in Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan language at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, India

Relevant employment and teaching experience

• 2012: Instructor of the course ‘Monasticism in World Religions’ at Leiden University

• 2012: Instructor second year Classical Tibetan at Leiden University

• 2012: Teaching-assistant for the course ‘Culture of Tibet’ at Leiden University

• 2011: Assistant instructor for the one month Colloquial Tibetan Summer intensive at Heidelberg University

• 2007-2008: Tibetan language instructor at the Maitreya Instituut (FPMT)

• 2006- present: Tibetan language expert in linguistic counter-expertise for immigration lawyers

• 2005-2008: Interpreter and translator of Tibetan at the Maitreya Instituut (FPMT)

• 2004- present: Freelance interpreter of Tibetan for among others: Buddhist teachers (among whom the Dalai Lama), Amnesty International, lawyers and courthouses, Dutch television, and the documentaries ‘The Only Son’ (2012, Simonka de Jong) and ‘Carnot Straat 17’ (2015, Klara van Es).

Grants and awards

•  Shortlisted for the George Staunton Prize (for an article by a young scholar).

• 2012: Shortlisted for the Professor Mary Boyce Prize (for an article relating to the study of religion in Asia).

• 2010: Conference grant from Wolfson College (approx. EUR 200)

• 2009: Grant from Stichting Talent Support (approx. EUR 1000, declined)

• 2009: Research grant from the Oriental Institute, Oxford University (approx. EUR 900)

• 2009: Travel grant from Wolfson College, Oxford (approx. EUR 200)

• 2008-2010: HSP Talent-Scholarship, awarded by the Dutch Ministry of Education and Culture to cover a two year Masters-program at Oxford University (EUR 38070)

• 2006: Caland Prize of Encouragement, awarded to the best first year student in ‘Languages and Culture of India and Tibet’ at Leiden University (EUR 125)

• 2003-2005: Sponsorship by the Maitreya Instituut (FPMT) to pursue the interpreter’s course at the Lotsawa Rinchen Zangpo Translator Programme (approx. EUR 5500)

Publications

• In preparation: “A Preliminary Investigation into Monk-tax: grwa khral/ btsun khral/ ban khral and its Meanings.” In When the Taxman Cometh: Tax, Corvée and Community Obligations in Tibetan Societies. Charles Ramble, Peter Schwieger and Alice Travers, eds. Leiden: Brill.

• Forthcoming (submitted): Review of Jane Caple’s Seeing beyond the state? The negotiation of moral boundaries in the revival and development of Tibetan Buddhist monasticism in contemporary China (Leeds University 2011). http://dissertationreviews.org/

• In press: “Monastic Guidelines (bCa’ yig): Tibetan Social History from a Buddhist Studies Perspective.” In Social Regulation: Case Studies from Tibetan History (Proceedings of the International Association of Tibetan Studies Conference, Ulan Baatar, 2013). Jeannine Bischoff and Saul Mullard, eds. Leiden: Brill.

• 2014a: “The Monastic Guidelines (bCa’ yig) by Sidkeong Tulku: Monasteries, Sex and Reform in Sikkim.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 24/4: 597-622.

• 2014b: “Monastic Organizational Guidelines.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism vol 1: Preview. Jonathan Silk, ed. Leiden: Brill: 29-34.

• 2013a: “Selection at the Gate: Access to the Monkhood and Social Mobility in Traditional Tibet.” In The Proceedings of the International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, 2012, Kobe. Tsuguhito Takeuchi, Kazushi Iwao, Ai Nishida, Seiji Kumagai, and Meishi Yamamoto eds., Current Issues and Progress in Tibetan Studies: Proceedings of the Third International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, Kobe 2012 (Journal of Research Institute, vol. 51), Kobe: Kobe City University of Foreign Studies: 111-39.

• 2013b: “How to Tame a Wild Monastic Elephant: Drepung Monastery According to the Great Fifth.” In The Tibetans that Escaped the Historian’s Net. Charles Ramble, Peter Schwieger, and Alice Travers, eds. Kathmandu: Vajra Books: 109-39.

• 2013c: “Zelfverbrandingen gericht op ommekeer Chinees overheidsbeleid” (Self-immolations for policy-change in China). China Nu 38/2: 18-22.

• 2013d: “Belgische jongen mag naar India om Boeddhistisch monnik te worden” (Belgian boy is allowed to become a Buddhist monk in India). http://www.leidenreligieblog.nl/

• 2012: Review of Tibet: a History by Sam van Schaik. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 2: 255-58.

• Forthcoming: De Soetra van het Gouden Licht. A translation of the Suvarṇaprabhasottama sūtra into Dutch, to be published as an in house publication by the Maitreya Instituut.

• Forthcoming: A translation of the Vajracchedikā sūtra into Dutch, to be published as an in house publication by the Maitreya Instituut.

Presentations, lectures and papers

• March 2015. ‘Crime and Punishment in Buddhist Monasteries in Pre-modern Tibet.’ Lecture Ghent University. (invited)

• March 2015. De waarde en waarden van de boeddhistische kloostergemeenschap (the value and values of the Buddhist monastic community). Lecture at museum Volkenkunde Leiden during the ‘Buddhism weekend’. (invited)

• December 2014. ‘On the Monastic Payroll? Tibetan Monks and their Income.’ Conference of the Franco-German Project Social History in Tibetan Societies (SHTS): ‘Property in Tibetan Societies: Ownership, Transfer, Confiscation.’ Paris. (invited)

• December 2014. ‘Are They Ever Just Gifts? Donations to and by Monks in Pre-modern Tibet.’ Conference ‘Just Monks? Monasticism and Issues of Hierarchy, Freedom, and Fairness in Buddhist Asia.’ SOAS, London. (invited)

• December 2014. ‘Monastic Economic Policy according to the Tibetan Monastic Guidelines and the Vinaya.’ Conference on Monastic Economy in Buddhism, EPHE, Paris. (invited)

• November 2014. ‘Where Buddhism Touches Social Policy: the Monastic Guidelines (bca’ yig) in Pre-modern Tibet.’ Oxford University, Tibetan Studies Seminar. (invited)

• August 2014: ‘Annoying Lay-people: Public opinion and Vinayic concerns in Tibetan monasteries (12th to 20th century)’. Conference of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vienna. (invited)

• May 2014: ‘Trading Buddhism: the Business of the Individual and the Corporation in Pre-modern Tibetan Monasticism’ at Bonn University. Conference of the Franco-German Project SHTS ‘Commerce and Communities: Social Status and the Exchange of Goods in Tibetan Societies’. (invited)

• April 2014: ‘The Impact of the Monastic Institution on Society and Social Justice in Pre-modern Tibet’ at Leiden University. Conference of the VICI project ‘Buddhism and Social Justice’.

• April 2014: ‘The Impact of Buddhist Monasticism on Tibetan Society and Culture.’ Hoorneboeg. Huizinga Instituut Promovendisymposium.

• December 2013: ‘Monk-tax? Three Different Meanings of Grwa khral’ at Fontainebleau. Conference of the Franco-German Project SHTS ‘When the Taxman Cometh: Tax, Corvée and Community Obligations in Tibetan Societies’. (invited)

• July 2013: ‘Tibetan Social History from a Buddhist Studies Perspective’ at the International Association of Tibetan Studies, Ulan Baatar.

• May 2013: ‘How to Tame a Wild Monastic Elephant: Drepung Monastery according to the Great Fifth’ at Bonn University. Conference of the Franco-German Project SHTS ‘The Tibetans who Escaped the Historian’s Net’. (invited)

• May 2013: ‘Monastic Guidelines (bca’ yig) by an Oxford incarnation: Sidkeong Tulku on Monasteries, Sex and Reform in Sikkim’ at Oxford University, Tibetan Studies Seminar. (invited)

• January 2013: ‘Tensions in Tibet’ at SIB (Student association for International Relations), Groningen. (invited)

• September 2012: ‘Monastic Guidelines (bca’ yig) as Sources for Social History’ at the Third International Seminar for Young Tibetologists, Kobe.

• June 2012: ‘A Historical Perspective on Buddhism and Economics’ at the conference ‘Buddhism and Economics’, Erasmus University, Rotterdam. (invited)

• June 2012: ‘The Monastic Guidelines (bca’ yig) by Sidkeong Tulku: a Buddhist Modernist (?) on Monasteries, Sex and Reform in Sikkim’ at the conference ‘Buddhism and the Dynamics of Transculturality’, hosted by the Cluster of Excellence: Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows at Heidelberg University. (invited)

• May 2012: ‘Translationese: the Pretence of Sense in Buddhist Studies’ at the LIAS PhD Conference ‘Content or Discontent: Dealing with your Academic Tradition’, Leiden University.

• May 2012: ‘Sangha Inc.: Monks, Corporate Identity, and Society in Pre-Modern Tibet’ at the LIAS PhD seminar, Leiden University.

• May 2011: ‘De Verbeelding van Tibet’ (Tibet in the Imagination) lecture at the Studium Generale series: “Tibet, de ander anders bezien” (Tibet: the other viewed in another light), Leiden University. (invited)

• July 2010: ‘Buddhist and non-Buddhist themes contained in Tibetan wedding recitations’ at the UKABS (United Kingdom Association of Buddhist Studies) conference, University of Leeds.

• February 2010: ‘Wedding Recitations from Dingri: Approaching Tibetan Oral Literature’ at the Tibetan Studies Graduate Seminar, Oxford University
  

Fieldwork

July, August 2012: Fieldwork in Northern India
March 2011: Fieldwork in Kham, Sichuan
July, August 2009: Fieldwork in Nepal and Northern India
July, August 2008: Fieldwork in Northern India

Relevant Coursework

• January -June 2013: Cultural History course, at the Huizinga Institute Graduate School

• February 2012: Course ‘Didactics for PhD Students and Teaching Assistants’, at ICLON, Leiden University

• 2011-2012: Course ‘Oral History and Life Stories’ at the Huizinga Institute, Research Institute and Graduate School for Cultural History

• February, March 2011: Course ‘Interviewing and Data-processing’, at ICLON, Leiden University

Ancillary Positions

2012 - present: Board member of the International Seminar for Young Tibetologists
2011- present: Member of the LIAS Advisory Council
2011-2012: Chair of the LIAS PhD council
2010-2011: Secretary of the LIAS PhD council

Other relevant experience

• June 2015: Co-organizer of the conference ‘Perspectives on women and women’s perspectives in Tibetan Buddhist societies (17th to the 20th centuries)’, Leiden University

• February 2015: Convener of the workshop ‘Between Tibetan Monasticism and Society’, Leiden University

• April 2014: Co-organizer of the conference ‘Buddhism and Social Justice’, Leiden University

• May 2012: Co-organizer of the LIAS PhD conference ‘Content or Discontent? Dealing with Your Academic Ancestors’, Leiden University

• September- October 2011: Co-organizer of the Leiden University Studium Generale ‘Just how? Defining and Contextualizing Social Justice’

Language Competence

	Speaking	Reading	Writing
Dutch	Native language
English	Near Native Fluency	Very Competent	Very Competent
Tibetan	Very Competent	Very Competent	Good
French	Fair	Good	Competent
German	Fair	Good	Competent
Mandarin	Beginner	Beginner	Beginner
Hindi	Working knowledge	Working knowledge	Working knowledge
Latin		Fair
Greek		Fair
Sanskrit		Good
Classical Chinese		Working Knowledge