 Geshe Thupten Dorjee, a faculty member
in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, won the
2008 Outstanding Faculty Award from the Arkansas Alumni Association.
He is currently the only Tibetan holding a Geshe Lharampa degree
to be teaching full-time at an American university. The Geshe Lharampa
degree, the highest Tibetan Buddhist doctorate, is equivalent to
the doctor of philosophy degree.
Geshe Thupten Dorjee was born in Tibet during the Chinese Communist
invasion of 1959. He and his family escaped occupied Tibet and
headed over the Himalayan mountains to Bhutan when he was three.
Much of Geshe's early life was spent in a refugee camp in Bhutan
with other Tibetan exiles. Unfortunately, most members of his family
died while there due to the poor living conditions and lack of
medical care.
At the age of 13, Geshe entered Drepung Loseling Monastery in
Karmataka, South India. Over the next 22 years, Geshe made a thorough
study of the vast scriptures, principally the five foremost Buddhist
philosophical subjects: Valid Cognition, Perfection of Wisdom,
Middle Way Philosophy, Buddhist Ethics, and Buddhist metaphysics.
Geshe was ordained a Buddhist monk by His Holiness the Dalai Lama
in 1986. In 1994, Geshe received the degree of Geshe Lhatampa.
He has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Arkansas
campus since fall of 2006.
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