
Jeffrey Hopkins (1940-2024)
Jeffrey Hopkins was Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia where he taught Tibetan Buddhist Studies and Tibetan language for thirty-two years beginning in 1973. He received a B. A. magna cum laude from Harvard University in 1963, trained for five years at the Lamaist Buddhist Monastery of America in Freewood Acres in New Jersey, USA (now the Tibetan Buddhist Learning Center in Washington, New Jersey), and received a Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin in 1973.
He served as His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s chief English interpreter on lecture tours from 1979 to 1989. At the University of Virginia he founded programs in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies and he served as Director of the Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. He wrote, translated, and/or edited more than fifty books, which have been tranlated into more than twenty-two languages, and authored numerous articles.
Jeffrey Hopkins passed away at the beginning of July, 2024. He had continued teaching Abbey monastics (and others) online, up until the prior week.
Read Jeffrey Hopkins’ thoughts on the Abbey.