Organizational Structure of the Centre for Buddhist Studies

Leadership:
Prof. Dr. Imre Hamar, Director of the Institute of East Asian Studies
Email: hamar.imre@btk.elte.hu

Staff:
Dr. Masanori Yamaji, retired Associate Professor, Senior Scientific Advisor
Email: yamaji.masanori@btk.elte.hu

Gergely Orosz, Research Fellow, Khyentse Fellow
Email: orosz.gergely@btk.elte.hu

Dr. Mónika Kiss, Assistant
Email: kiss.monika@btk.elte.hu

Address:
1088 Budapest, Múzeum krt. 4/B, Ground Floor, Room 124
Email: bcbs@btk.elte.hu

At the initiative of the Institute of East Asian Studies at Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), the ELTE Senate approved the establishment of the Centre for Buddhist Studies (English name: Budapest Centre for Buddhist Studies) in December 2012.

The centre was founded to support Buddhist studies conducted across various departments at ELTE, to coordinate educational programs related to Buddhism, to organize domestic and international conferences, and to strengthen international cooperation in the field of Buddhist research.

Hungarian researchers have been involved in Buddhist studies from an early stage, often pioneering important work. Among them, Sándor Kőrösi Csoma (1784–1842) stands out. While searching for the ancient homeland of the Hungarians, he spent several years in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries in northern India, mastered the Tibetan language, and mapped out Tibetan Buddhist literature. Thanks to his incredible dedication, he read through the entire Buddhist canon and produced studies about it. With his Tibetan-English dictionary and Tibetan grammar, he laid the foundations of Tibetology. Another great scholar, Aurél Stein (1862–1943), during his Central Asian excavations, uncovered once thriving city-states along the Silk Road, which were vibrant centers of Buddhism. His discovery of the Dunhuang cave library opened an unparalleled source for Buddhist researchers; the processing of the discovered Buddhist texts is still ongoing.

At ELTE, Buddhist teaching and research began with Lajos Ligeti in 1936. After studying in Paris under the renowned sinologist Paul Pelliot, he returned home and founded the Department of Inner Asian Studies, where he taught Mongolian and Tibetology. Ligeti was the world’s first researcher to compile a catalogue of the Mongolian Buddhist canon; during his travels in China, he spent much time in Mongolian Buddhist monasteries and collected Buddhist texts. Ligeti’s student, György Kara, continued his teacher’s work, processing numerous Buddhist sources and producing a translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead under the title Books of the Intermediate State. At the Department of Chinese Studies, Pál Miklós regularly taught courses on Chinese Buddhism and Chinese Buddhist art during the 1980s.

Currently, several lecturers at the Institute of East Asian Studies conduct research on Buddhism: Imre Hamar focuses on the Huayan school and Khotan; Melinda Pap studies the Tiantai school; Gábor Kósa researches the relationship between Manichaeism and Buddhism; Beatrix Mecsi studies Buddhist art; Balázs Szabó explores the connection between martial arts and Buddhism; Ágnes Birtalan investigates Mongolian shamanism and Buddhism; Krisztina Teleki works on Mongolian and Tibetan Buddhism; Péter Dániel Szántó, Mónika Szegedi, Dávid Jónás, and Gergely Orosz focus on Tibetan Buddhism.

Buddhism has already been included as a two-year program in the undivided (integrated) degree track, and continued as a minor in the divided degree program. Currently, the institute’s lecturers are developing an English-language MA program in Buddhism, which is expected to attract students from neighboring countries as well. The program’s success may be supported by cooperation with Japan’s Otani University. For the past four years, Otani University has sent a guest lecturer each academic year to teach Japanese Buddhism as an intensive course within the minor program.

Since 2013, the Khyentse Foundation has funded a Tibetologist position at the Centre for Buddhist Studies and supports the organization of lectures and conferences.

Since 2013, the Komatsu Chiko Foundation has also supported the guest lecturer from Otani University.