Student unlocks mysteries of Norlins Tibetan Buddhist texts

[rug]

Eben Yonnetti, a master’s student in religious studies, focuses on the contemporary transmission and translation of Tibetan Buddhism. His primary research interests include the contemporary trans-national and trans-linguistic dissemination of Tibetan Buddhism, as well as translation and ritual studies more broadly. CU Boulder photo by Patrick Campbell.

By Kenna Bruner
Published: April 17, 2017

How did a fruit farmer’s son in New York’s Hudson Valley come to be a graduate student in University of Colorado Boulder’s Religious Studies Department, studying Tibetan Buddhist texts?

As an undergraduate at Siena College, Eben Yonnetti, on a whim, went on a study abroad trip to Nepal to study in the Tibetan and Himalayan Peoples program. Yonnetti lived with a Tibetan exile family who helped him assimilate among the people and learn about their religious community.

Yonnetti eventually became so engaged with Tibetans and Tibetan culture that he decided to study Tibetan language and religious practices and ideas. He is working on a graduate degree in religious studies with a specialization in Tibetan Buddhism—specifically, how Tibetan Buddhism has spread to different parts of the world in the past 50 years.

“I was a lost student floating around in a sea of ideas,” Yonnetti said. “A typical rebel without a cause. That experience started me off, and now here I am.”

http://www.colorado.edu/asmagazine/2017/04/17/student-unlocks-mysteries-norlins-tibetan-buddhist-texts