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It is with great sadness that I share the news of the passing away of Min Bahadur Shakya from Nepal at the beginning of this week. Mr. Shakya was a widely respected and energetic leader of the local Newar Buddhist community of the Kathmandu Valley, as well as the driving force behind the Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon <http://www.dsbcproject.org/> and related initiatives dedicated to the preservation and spread of the Indian Buddhist literary heritage. He was particularly active in publishing Newar and Nepali translations of basic Buddhist texts from the original Sanskrit. These texts would otherwise have remained inaccessible to the vast majority of people in Nepal. Though by training and university employment a mathematician, Mr. Shakya was also a prolific scholar of Buddhism himself. Besides editing a number of journals, he authored dozens of articles and monographs dedicated to particular aspects of Newar Buddhism (its history, arts, pantheon, Sanskrit literary heritage, scholars and masters, etc.) and to Indo-Tibetan Mahayana Buddhism more generally. Mr. Shakya spearheaded numerous activities and initiatives dedicated to the strengthening of Newar Buddhism. This included various programs developed to raising the level of learnedness among the Buddhists population, the schooling of ritual priests, and teaching in the Buddhist Studies program at Tribhuvan University. He also felt passionate about opening Newar Buddhism up to the outside world and fostering the exchange with other Buddhist traditions, including the Tibetan Buddhist schools present in the Kathmandu Valley. Important for the scholarly community, he also reached out to western scholars, for whom he was the natural first point of contact in Nepal, and whom he supported generously with his advice, his contacts and his enthusiasm. A member of Hiraṇyavarṇa Mahāvihāra in Patan, Min Bahadu Shakya was also a devoted Buddhist practitioner himself and embodied and lived many of the Buddhist virtues to the spread of which he dedicated his life. ---------------- Alexander von Rospatt Professor in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies Director of the Group in Buddhist Studies University of California 7233 Dwinelle Hall # 2540 Berkeley, CA 94720-2540 USA Phone: +1-510-6421610 Fax: +1-510-6432959 Email: rospatt@berkeley.edu URL: http://sseas.berkeley.edu/people/faculty/alexander-von-rospatt --------------------------- H-Buddhism (Buddhist Scholars Information Network) Web Site: <http://www.h-net.org/~buddhism/> Posting Guidelines: <http://www.h-net.org/~buddhism/posting_guidelines.html> Handling Your Account: <http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=h-buddhism>
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