Jim Rheingans
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).
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
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).
PhD theses:
- Tashi Bhutia: The Seventh Karmapa (1454–1506): Life, Institutions, and Scholarship
- Jan Dolensky: The Four Yoga Stages in the light of the lCe btsun snying thig and dGongs pa zang thal in the Lam bzang ye shes snying po by A 'dzom 'drug pa 'gro 'dul dpa' bo rdo rje (1842-1924)