Jim Rheingans

Jim Rheingans

Contact:
E-Mail: jim.rheingans@univie.ac.at

Jim Rheingans is Professor for Tibetology at the University of Vienna. He studied Tibetan Studies, Indian Studies, and Cultural Anthropology at the Universities of Heidelberg and Hamburg (M.A. Tibetan Studies, Hamburg) and completed his doctorate in 2008 at Bristol/Bath Spa, U.K. Next to postdoctoral research projects (among others, DFG funded) in Hamburg, he worked as Visiting Professor in Copenhagen and as Acting Professor at the University of Bonn. From 2017 to 2023, as Senior Lecturer for Tibetan Buddhism, he contributed to building up Tibetan Studies at the University of Sydney (since 2022 as Khyentse-Macready Senior Lecturer). Recent publications include the monographs The Eighth Karmapa’s Life and His Interpretation of the Great Seal (2017) and The Life and Works of Karma ’phrin las pa (1456–1539) (2021).

Research focus

Prof. Rheingans’ research concerns the religious history of the Tibetan plateau with a focus Buddhist meditative traditions and Tibetan literary genres; he is also interested in interdisciplinary collaborations and teaching projects. He is member of various research networks, such as being a key researcher in the FWF funded Cluster of Excellence Eurasian Transformations.

Religious, cultural, and intellectual history of the Tibetan cultural sphere (focus on meditation traditions of the 12th-17th century)
Tibetan and Indo-Tibetan literature, especially narrative and poetic texts
Reception of Tibetan literature/Buddhism in Europe
Contributions to interdisciplinary meditation research

All activities

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Univ.-Prof. Dr. Jim Rheingans, M.A.

$Jim Rheingans$

T: +43-1-4277-43555

jim.rheingans@univie.ac.at

Winter term 2024

142018 UE Depictions of the lives of religious virtuosos from the roof of the world

142204 VO Cultural history of Tibet: Kings, Demons, Dakinis

142211 UE Mahamudra, Tantra, Abhidharma - Exploring Key Doctrines of Mi bskyod rdo rje in Context

142504 KO Colloquium in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies for Advanced Students

420006 SE New Perspectives on working with manuscript-transmitted texts - Basic Methods and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Summer term 2024

142052 PS Tibetan history and stories: Methods, themes, texts

142261 SE Invoking Tibet’s Main Deity: Avalokiteshvara Practice Manuals in Context

142262 KO Colloquium in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies for Advanced Students

420012 SE EurAsian Transformations Doctoral Seminar - New Perspectives in the Philological, Historical and Cultural Studies of EuraAsia: Basic Methods and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Winter term 2023

142211 UE Understanding Tibetan Poetry: - Indo-Tibetan Tantric Poems, Songs of Realisation, and Folk Songs

142504 KO Colloquium in Tibetan and Buddhist Studies for Advanced Students

Rheingans, J. (2024). The early days of Tibetan Studies in Europe: Some textual and historical considerations regarding I.J. Schmidt (1779–1843) and his German translation of The Wise and the Foolish. Intellectual History Review, 34(3), 653-675. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496977.2024.2360247

Rheingans, J. (2021). A Propos the System of Reincarnate Lamas in Tibetan Societies: The Dalai Lama and the Emperor of China by P. Schwieger. Journal of Religious History, 45(2), 59-71.

Rheingans, J. (2021). Experience and Instruction: The Songs of the First Karma ’phrin las pa Phyogs las rnam rgyal (1456–1539). In V. Caumanns, J. Heimbel, K. Kano, & A. Schiller (Eds.), Gateways to Tibetan Studies: A Collection of Essays in Honour of David P. Jackson on the Occasion of his 70th Birthday (Vol. 2, pp. 747–778). Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Universität Hamburg.

Rheingans, J. (2021). The Life and Works of Karma ’phrin las pa (1456–1539): Non-sectarian Scholar Mystic of Southern Tibet. Reichert Verlag. Contributions to Tibetan studies Vol. 14

Rheingans, J. (2020). De-Imagining Tibet: Beyond Orientalism, Reverse-Orientalism and Other Traps in the Study of Himalayan Histories. Journal of the Society for Asian Humanities, 52, 126–134.

Rheingans, J. (2020). Heinrich A. Jäschkes deutschsprachige Pionierarbeiten zu den Gesängen des Milarepa: Tibetische Poesie und deren Auswirkung in Wissenschaft und Literatur. In G. Lauer, & Y. Lu (Eds.), West-Östliche Wahlverwandschaft: Hans Bethge und die historischen und ästhetischen Konstellationen um 1900 (pp. 121–139). Königshausen & Neumann.

Rheingans, J. (2017). The Eighth Karmapa’s Life and his Interpretation of The Great Seal: A Religious Life and Instructional Texts in Historical and Doctrinal Contexts. projektverlag. Hamburg Buddhist Studies Vol. 7

Rheingans, J., (TRANS.) (2015). Maṇi ba Shes rab rgyal mtshan, Phags mchog spyan ras gzigs sgom bzlas dmigs rim mdor bsdus ’gro don char rgyun: A commentary on an Avalokiteśvara sādhana composed by Zhabs dkar Tshogs drug rang grol (1781–1851).

Rheingans, J. (Ed.) (2015). Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types: From Genre Classification to Transformation . Brill. Brill's Tibetan Studies Library Vol. 37

Rheingans, J. (2015). Typologies in Tibetan Literature: Genre or Text Type? Reflections on Previous Approaches and Future Perspectives. In J. Rheingans (Ed.), Tibetan Literary Genres, Texts, and Text Types: From Genre Classification to Transformation (pp. 1-28). Brill.

Rheingans, J. (2015). U. Roesler, Frühe Quellen zum Buddhistischen Stufenweg in Tibet. Indische und tibetische Traditionen im dPe chos des Po-to-ba Rin-chen-gsal. Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag 2011. Orientalistische Literaturzeitung : Zeitschrift für die Wissenschaft vom ganzen Orient und seinen Beziehungen zu den angrenzenden Kulturkreisen, 110(1), 1-4.

Conermann, S., & Rheingans, J. (Eds.) (2014). Narrative Pattern and Genre in Hagiographic Life Writing: Comparative Perspectives from Asia to Europe. EB-Verlag. Narratio Aliena? Vol. 7

Rheingans, J., & Conermann, S. (2014). Narrative Pattern and Genre in Hagiographic Life Writing: an Introduction. In S. Conermann, & J. Rheingans (Eds.), Narrative Pattern and Genre in Hagiographic Life Writing: Comparative Perspectives from Asia to Europe (pp. 7-19). EB-Verlag.

Rheingans, J., & Conermann, S. (2014). Narrative Pattern and Genre in Hagiographic Life Writing: an Outlook. In S. Conermann, & J. Rheingans (Eds.), Narrative Pattern and Genre in Hagiographic Life Writing: Comparative Perspectives from Asia to Europe (pp. 305-309). EB-Verlag.

Rheingans, J. (2014). Narratology in Buddhist Studies: Dialogues about Meditation in a Tibetan Hagiography. In S. Conermann, & J. Rheingans (Eds.), Narrative Pattern and Genre in Hagiographic Life Writing: Comparative Perspectives from Asia to Europe (pp. 69-112). EB-Verlag.

Rheingans, J. (2012). Communicating the Innate: Observations on Teacher-Student Interaction in the Tibetan Mahāmudrā Instructions. In P. de Silva, & S. Shaw (Eds.), Buddhist Philosophy and Meditation Practice: Academic Papers presented at the 2nd IABU Conference Mahachulalongkornarajavidyalaya University, Ayutthaya, Thailand (pp. 177-202) https://archive.org/details/buddhist-philosophy-and-meditation-practice/page/n9/mode/2up

Rheingans, J. (2011). Das Verschenken der ganzen Welt: Mandala-Meditation. In B. Scherer (Ed.), Mögen alle Wesen glücklich sein: Meditationstexte des Buddhismus (pp. 98–108). Herder.

Rheingans, J. (2011). Die Meditation auf den Lehrer. In B. Scherer (Ed.), Mögen alle Wesen glücklich sein: Meditationstexte des Buddhismus (pp. 110–127). Herder.

Rheingans, J. (2011). The Eighth Karmapa’s Answer to Gling drung pa: A Case Study. In M. T. Kapstein, & R. R. Jackson (Eds.), Mahāmudrā and the bKa´-brgyud Tradition: PIATS 2006: Proceedings of the 11th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies. Königswinter 2006 (pp. 345–386). IITBS GmbH.

Rheingans, J. (2010). Narratives of Reincarnation, Politics of Power and the Emergence of a Scholar: the Very Early Years of Mi bskyod rdo rje and its Sources. In L. Covill, U. Roessler, & S. Shaw (Eds.), Lives Lived, Lives Imagined: Biography in the Buddhist Traditions (pp. 241–299). Wisdom Publications.