A Brief Introduction


Overview

  Centre of Buddhist Studies, the National Taiwan University (Hereafter abbreviated as NTU) was established in 1994, with the aim of gathering experts and scholars who have engaged in Buddhist studies on and outside campus to study all aspects of Buddhism in-depth such as its distinguishing characteristics, evolutions, potential values and modern significances from new academic research perspectives. The Centre’s mission is to promote integrated collaboration in Taiwan, publish an academic journal dedicated to Buddhist studies, set up a network database on Buddhist studies and advance international academic communication.

History

  • 1994 Ven. Heng-ching, Prof. of Department of Philosophy, NTU along with 24 full-time professors engaging in Buddhist Studies in College of Liberal Arts, NTU to put forth a plan to launch a centre of Buddhist Studies in NTU.
  • 1996-1998 Prof. Ven. Heng-ching was appointed the first director of the Centre. She started on constructing a Buddhist database and publishing the 1st & 2nd issue of Journal of the Center for Buddhist Studies. Moreover, she also held several workshops to promote Buddhist activities such as Workshop on Buddhist Electronics Resources and Workshops on Characters-created of Buddhist Sutra as well. The Centre also initiated a project of Chinese Buddhist Electronic Text Association (CBETA) to digitize the whole Taisho and connected it with our Buddhist database. In 1998, Dr. Yang, Hui-nan, Professor of Department of Philosophy, NTU took up the post of editor-in-chief of the journal and published the 3rd issue.
  • 1999-2000 Dr. Lin, Yih-jing also professor of Department of Philosophy, NTU, was appointed the second director of the Centre. Entrusted by the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, the centre hosted a conference on gelungma legacy in Tibetan Buddhism. And co-organized by the Association for Modern Buddhist Studies, we held the Conference on Ven. Yinshun Thoughts. Furthermore, our Buddhist database was renamed officially as Digital Library & Museum of Buddhist Studies. As for our journal, Prof. Chou, Po-kan from Department of History, NTU and Prof Lin, Yih-jing took the editor-in-chief post and published the 4th and 5th issue respectively.
  • 2001 Prof. Chang, Ching-erh from Department of Foreign Language and Literature took the post of 3rd centre director. Also the editor-in-chief of the journal, Prof. Chang published the 6th issue journal. Meanwhile, co-organized by Tibet Religious Foundation of H.H. The Dalai Lama, we invited Samdhong Rinpoche to give a speech here.
  • 2002-2003 Prof. Hsiao, Li-hua from Department of Chinese Literature took the post of 4th director and published the 7th and 8th issue. July, 2002, the centre provided help to International Association of Buddhist Women to hold its Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Taiwan.
  • 2004-2005 Prof Lin, Yih-jing and Prof. Tsai, Yao-ming both from Department of Philosophy, NTU, assumed the position of 5th and 6th director respectively. Both of them published the 9th to 13th issue.
  • The Center’s journal became a biannual journal that published on June and December from 2006.
  • July 7-12, 2007 several professors from our center visited Ulaanbaata, Mongolia and attended the Domestication of Buddhism International Scientific Conference co-organized by NTU and University of Mongolia. Based on our common idea in Buddhist Studies, we tried to reinforce our mutual understanding in academics and humanities disciplines that aimed to broaden our perspective in Buddhist Studies.
  • July 2007 our 7th director, Prof. Chou, Po-kan from Department of History, NTU published the 14th issue of our Journal of the Center for Buddhist Studies but it was renamed Taiwan Journal of Buddhist Studies. Fortunately, it has been honored as the 1st degree journal by the Center for Humanistic Research.
  • January 2008 Prof. Chou, Po-kan retired from his job and Prof. Tsai, Yao-ming from Department of Philosophy occupied the acting director in February. He published the 15th issue of our center journal.
  • September 2008 to February 2011 Law Yan, Professor of Department of Chinese Literature served as the 8th director. She implemented an academic meeting in our centre on a regular basis, invited specialized scholar on or outside campus to give lecture sharing his research experience with our committee members. The invited speakers included Prof. Tsai, Yao-ming, Prof. Wang, Mei-xiu and Prof. Hsu Sheng-hsin, and the lectures were widely attended by many scholars and students in and outside NTU.
  • November 22-23, 2008 Co-organised by Mongolia University, NTU Library, Sheng Yen Education Foundation and Fo Guan University, we hosted the International Symposium on Thought and Literature in Buddhism. Seven Mongolia scholars were invited.
  • September 2008 to June 2011 Prof. Tsai, Chen-feng from Department of Chinese Literature took on the publication of the 15th to 21st issue of our journal.
  • July 18, 2010 Leading by Prof. Yeh, Kuo-liang, Dean of College of Liberal Arts, NTU, our member included Prof. Lin, Li-chen, Prof. Tsai, Yao-ming, Prof. Horng, Shu-ling, Prof. Duh, Bau-ruei and Prof. Hsu, Sheng-hsin flied to Mongolia to partake in a 5-day field-trip on Sino-Mongolia historical and cultural investigation.
  • February 2011 Dr. Duh, Bau-ruei, Professor of Department of Philosophy, NTU was elected as our 9th director. Dr. Chou, Po-kan, the former Professor of Department of History, NTU occupied the editor-in-chief of our center’s journal. Being patronized by Center for Teaching and Learning Development, NTU, Dr. Duh managed to set up a Buddhist Studies growth group among our committee members. Each participant was requested to give a verbal report (one member per month) and discuss it with other group members. This growth group aims to promote our member’s teaching abilities.
  • With a favorable review of our 2010 courses in School of Professional and Continuing Studies, NTU, we currently plan to offer an Introduction to Buddhist Sutra—the Zen Buddhism course in 2011 for extramural students to understand the essence of Buddhist and to learn the living wisdom of Buddhism in our modern society.

Members

Committee Member

TitleNameIntroduction
DirectorDUH,
Bau-ruei
Current Post:A/P, Department of Philosophy, NTU
Specialty:Neo-Confucianism, Research Methods of Chinese Philosophy
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Philosophy, NTU
Committee memberCHOU,
Po-kan
Current Post:Dean, College of Buddhist Studies in Fo Guang University
Specialty:Intellectual History of Medieval China and History of Religion in Medieval China
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in History of Culture, The University of Chicago
Committee memberHSIAO,
Li-hua
Current Post:Prof., Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Studies of Chinese Poetry, Buddhist Studies, Literary Theory and Education
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Chinese Literature, NTU
Committee memberLIN,
Yih-jing
Current Post:Prof., Department of Philosophy, NTU
Specialty:History of Chinese Philosophy, Confucianism, Legalism and Zen Buddhism
Highest Degree:MA in philosophy, NTU
Committee memberTSAI,
Yao-ming
Current Post:A/P, Department of Philosophy, NTU
Specialty:Indian Philosophy, Mahayana Buddhism, Philosophy of Religion, Sanskrit, Tibetan, Philosophy of Life
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Buddhist studies, UC Berkeley
Committee memberTSAI,
Chen-feng
Current Post:Prof., Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Wei and Jin Dynasty Metaphysics, Wei and Jin Dynasty Buddhist Studies, and History of Chinese Philosophy
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Chinese Literature, NTU
Committee memberHSU,
Sheng-hsin
Current Post:Prof., Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Zhuangzi, Pre-Qin Confucianism, and Late Ming Dynasty Buddhism
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Chinese Literature, NTU
Committee memberCHEN,
Ming-tsu
Current Post:Prof., Department of Japanese Language and Literature
Specialty:Japanese Literature of the Heian Period, Sino-Japanese Comparative Literature and The Modern and Contemporary Literature of Japan
Highest Degree:Ph.D., Tohoku University
Committee memberSHYU,
Shing-ching
Current Post:Prof., Department of Japanese Language and Literature
Specialty:History of Sino-Japan Communication、History of Modern
Japan and History of Japanese Culture
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Literature, Kyushu University
Committee memberLAW, Yan
Current Post:A/P, Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Zhuangzi, Wei and Jin Dynasty Metaphysics and Buddhist Studies
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Chinese Literature, NTU
Committee memberCHAO,
Fei-pang
Current Post:A/P, Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Studies on Library Documents and Materials, Chinese Semantics and Buddhist Thoughts
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Chinese Literature, NTU
Committee memberTSAU,
Jing-huei
Current Post:Assistant Professor, Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Japanese Literature in Middle Age, Comparative of Chinese and Japanese Literature
Highest Degree:Ph.D., Okayama University

Advisory Committee Member

TitleNameIntroduction
Founder
and
member
Ven.
Heng-ching
Current Post:Former Professor, Department of Philosophy, NTU
Specialty:Buddhist Studies, Sanskrit Buddhism, Research Methodology
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, U.S.A.
memberKO,
Ching-ming
Current Post:Prof., Department of Chinese Literature, NTU
Specialty:Literary History, Literary Theory, Aesthetics, Literary Criticism and Taiwanese Literature
Highest Degree:BA in Chinese Literature, NTU
memberLIN,
Chen-kuo
Current Post:Prof., Department of Philosophy, National Chengchi University
Specialty:Buddhist Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Religion, Temple University, U.S.A.
memberVen.
Che-ding
Current Post:President, Yuan-Heng Institute of Buddhist Studies
Specialty:Comparative Religion、Life and Death Studies, Indian Philosophy and Buddhism, Zen Buddhism and Monastery Management & Operation
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Religious Studies, Occidental College, U.S.A.
memberLIU,
Kuo-wei
Current Post:Assistant Professor, Department of Buddhist Studies, Fo Guang University
Specialty:Tibetan Buddhism, Buddhism in India, Sanskrit, Tibetan
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Sanskrit and Indian Studies, Harvard University, U.S.A.
Advisory
Committee
Member
YO,
Hsiang-chou
Current Post:A/P, Department of Life and Religious Studies, Fo Guang University
Specialty:Prajnaparamita Philosophy、Philosophy of Religion, Religion and Globalization
Highest Degree:Ph.D. in Philosophy, Chinese Culture University


Prospect

  Our prospect is to promote Buddhist studies around the world and to take up human resources training programs in our centre. Specifically, it could be divided into two aspects: One is to promote the Buddhist courses (on-campus human resources development and community outreach programs), the other is to advocate the Buddhist studies (that include the publication of our journal). We currently hope to integrate with Department of Philosophy, History, Chinese Literature, Anthropology and Art History to carry out interdisciplinary research in Buddhism. If distinguished results are in evidence, we would push on to have cooperative research with other researchers in Taiwan or all over the world.

1)Programs

  1. On-campus human resources development
  2. Up until now, our committee members have offered Buddhist courses such as Buddhism and Life Explosion, Introduction to Buddhism, Sanskrit, Research on Buddhist Philosophy, Special Topic on Madhyamika, Introduction to Buddhist Sutra, and Buddhist Research and the application of digital resources successively. Our medium-term goal is to set up a four to five year Buddhist program in our centre. Hence, to establish a Buddhist department in NTU so as to achieve our long-term objective in nurturing master and doctorate specialists who are devoted to Buddhist Studies.

  3. Integration of resources
  4. Our centre tends to cooperate with other academic institutions to facilitate the learning of Buddhist among community. In 2001, co-organized by Tibet Religious Foundation of H.H. The Dalai Lama, we had invited Samdhong Rinpoche to give a speech here. We also held a workshop on Buddhist Research and the application of digital resources in the weekend or holiday, and a given lecture on Contemporary digitized Buddhist resources: A case study on NTU Digital Library & Museum of Buddhist Studies in other universities. And we plan to promote our Buddhist education in a long-term and semester basis workshop to our community. The above-mentioned project is aim to promote inter-institutional and inter-country integrated collaboration and to popularize our centre achievements so as to accomplish the global sharing of Buddhist resources—our long-term objective.

  5. Extension Course
  6. The value of an academic research is finding the truth. Hence, all the efforts must be resulted to our society and life as a way to attain its value and meanings. Buddhism is primarily a living knowledge and a hidden treasure belonging to all human beings. Started from 2010, our center’s committee members have offered courses on Buddhism and Life, Introduction to Buddhist Sutra, Introduction to Buddhist Sutra—the Zen Buddhism successively in School of Professional and Continuing Studies, National Taiwan University. With their solid foundation in academic researches, they put a lot of efforts to dumb down the Buddhist sutra for the audience, and thus make Buddhism not the knowledge in an ivory tower, but a living wisdom in our real life.

2)Academic Studies

Up until now, the centre has hold the following conferences and published the following Journals:
  1. Conferences

    • 1999
      Entrusted by the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet to host a conference on gelungma legacy in Tibetan Buddhism.

    • July, 2002
      To assist in holding the Sakyadhita International Conference on Buddhist Women in Taiwan.

    • September, 2005
      Co-organized with National Taiwan University Library and Center for the Study of East Asian Civilizations, NTU, to hold the Symposium on Buddhist Studies in the Digital Age: Application and Perspective.

    • 7-12 July, 2007
      To visit Ulaanbaata, Mongolia and attend the Domestication of Buddhism International Scientific Conference co-organized by NTU and Mongolia University and pay an academic visit as well.

    • 22-23 November, 2008
      Co-organised by Mongolia University, NTU Library, Sheng Yen Education Foundation and Fo Guan University to host the International Symposium on Thought and Literature in Buddhism.

  2. Publications

  3. Prof. Ven. Heng-ching planned to publish Journal of the Center for Buddhist Studies n 1994 and the very first issue was iofficially published in 1996.

    • The 1st to 13th issue under the name of Journal of the Center for Buddhist Studies was published since 1996 to 2006.

    • Journal of the Center for Buddhist Studies was renamed Taiwan Journal of Buddhist Studies in 14th issue which was published in 2007, and it has been published 20 issues up until 2010. Furthermore, it has been honored the 1st degree journal by the Center for Humanistic Research.

Our Centre will continue to strive toward to a globalized Buddhist Centre in the world. As for the international Buddhist academic exchange, our short-term goal is to communicate with North East Asia country such as Japan and Korea. The two parties could sign a reciprocal treaty to facilitate the exchange visits, sponsor of lecture and conference, teacher exchange etc. Our medium-term would turn to South East Asia to set up a long-term partnership with relevant research institutions of all universities and all sects in Big East Asia. After that, we would proceed to our long-term goal in forming an alliance with academic units in Europe and America so as to strengthen our worldwide status in the Buddhist studies.