Indian and Tibetan Studies

Degree: Master of Arts in Indian and Tibetan Studies
Mode of Study: Full-time
Duration: 1 year
Start date: September, February
Language of instruction: English
Share |

The MA in Indian and Tibetan Studies is run by the Kern Institute at Leiden University. Tapping into the Institute’s specialist peer-knowledge on South Asian languages, literary theory, historical studies the programme provides you with a comprehensive study of the Indian and Tibetan cultural world.

The information about this programme is available in the following languages:

The programme favours a highly individual approach to learning. In seminars and tutorials, students work together intensively under the personal supervision of internationally renowned scholars in the fields of South Asian art and material culture, (Tibetan) Buddhism and history. The staff has detailed knowledge of an extensive range of relevant languages both within and beyond the subcontinent such as Sanskrit and Hindi, but also Vedic and Pali, besides Tibetan, Persian (for medieval India) and Japanese (for Buddhism).

You will have access to a library which is unique in north-western Europe, containing rare Sanskrit palm-leaf manuscripts and Tibetan block prints. The collection also contains unique photo-collections of the Archaeological Survey of the former Dutch East Indies and the visual archives of the former Institute of South Asian Archaeology in Amsterdam.
The Indian and Tibetan Studies Master offers unique specialisations of high repute:

  1. Buddhism and Tibet
  2. History of India and Tibet
  3. Sanskrit
  4. Indian and Tibetan Art and Material Culture
  5. Hindi

Prof. Silk

“This university has incredible strenghts which make it possible to study Buddhism across all of Asia.”

“As a third-year undergraduate, I went to Japan for the first time as an exchange student. There I met Professor Gadjin Nagao, who inspired me to devote myself to the academic study of Buddhism. I stayed an extra year in Japan to study more Japanese, and begin the study of Chinese and Sanskrit, so that I would be able to read Buddhist texts in their original languages. After returning to the US, I went to the University of Michigan to do a PhD in Buddhist Studies. I have been teaching and doing research about various aspects of Buddhism ever since, at universities throughout the United States, including Yale and UCLA; I still go to Japan regularly.

I came to Leiden excited about the opportunity to build a great master’s programme. This university has incredible strengths which make it possible to study Buddhism across all of Asia: there are scholars and teachers here specialising in Indonesia, India, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan! Moreover, students can choose to focus not only on religious aspects of Buddhist traditions, but also philosophical, literary, linguistic or (art) historical angles. The library of our Kern Institute is famous around the world for its excellent resources on South Asia and Tibet, while the Sinological Institute library is second to none in Europe for the depth and breadth of its collections.

I teach introductory courses on Buddhism, and advanced thematic seminars on various topics. And of course, I always love to read Buddhist texts with students, in original languages as well as in translation. The study of Buddhism should be a dynamic synthesis of factual knowledge and critical perspectives, and the Leiden master’s programme is designed to train students in just this approach.”