Robert E. Buswell

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Robert E. Buswell Jr., is professor of Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and founding director of the Center for Buddhist Studies and Center for Korean Studies at UCLA. He has published fourteen books and forty articles on various aspects of the Chinese, Korean, and Indian traditions of Buddhism, including Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wŏnhyo’s Exposition of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra,  Tracing Back the Radiance: Chinul’s Korean Way of Zen, The Formation of Ch’an Ideology in China and Korea, and The Zen Monastic Experience: Buddhist Practice in Contemporary Korea. He is widely considered to be the premier Western scholar on Korean Buddhism and one of the top specialists on the East Asian Zen tradition. Buswell also served as editor-in-chief of the two-volume Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Macmillan Reference, 2004), editor of Religions of Korea in Practice (Princeton, 2007), and coeditor (with Donald S. Lopez, Jr.) of the forthcoming one-million word Dictionary of Buddhism (Doubleday). Before returning to academe, Buswell spent seven years as a Buddhist monk in Thailand, China, and Korea. He was recently elected vice-president/president-elect of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS) and will serve as President of the AAS in 2008-2009.

Courses Taught at UCLA:

  • Asian 60
  • Asian 162
  • Chinese 160
  • Chinese 165
  • Korean 160
  • Korean 165

    Reference Project:

  • The UCLA Guide to East Asian Buddhist Studies: Reference Works

    Mailing Address:

    Campus Address:

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