Kurtis Schaeffer: "Poetry in Tibet: Pushing Boundaries of Buddhist Language and Thought"

Abstract:

Tibetan writers of kāvya-style poetry exploited the structured flexibility of the medium to praise the heroes and ideals of Buddhist tradition, to innovate in both literary form and practices of thought, and at times even to transgress the strictures implicit in other genres of Buddhist literature. This talk explores the popular genre of single verses intended to illustrate the poetic features described in Daṇḍin's Mirror of Poetry, and suggests that kāvya poetry was an important space in elite literature where pre-modern Tibetan writers could openly push the boundaries of Buddhist language, thought, and feeling.

Bio:

Kurtis Schaeffer is a student of Buddhist literature in Tibet and the Himalayas. He is the translator of The Life of the Buddha (2014) and Buddhist Meditation: Classic Teachings from Tibet (2024), both from Penguin Classics, and the author of Himalayan Hermitess (2004), The Culture of the Book in Tibet (2009), and other books. He is the Frances Myers Ball Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia.