In November 2016, the University of Michigan had the honor to host Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche, a Tibetan/Bhutanese lama, filmmaker, and writer. This visit was the foundation for establishing the Khyentse Gendun Chopel Professorship of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan (UM). UM will be the second Khyentse chair in all of North America, the first being at the University of California, Berkeley.

This gift will further our Buddhist studies program which is already one of the leading centers in Buddhist studies in the United States with a distinguished 40-year history. In Fall 2019, an international search will begin to fill the new endowed professorship. This new faculty member will teach courses for the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures as well as conduct research on Tibetan Buddhism.

Professor Donald Lopez, former chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures and the Arthur E. Link Distinguished Professor of Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, expressed his gratitude to the Khyentse Foundation stating that "this historic gift will allow us to expand both our undergraduate and our graduate programs in new directions."

Read more about the new Chair in Tibetan Buddhist Studies on the Khyentse Foundation's website.