Collaboration and Credits

Hosting Institution

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB)

Director and Principal Investigator

José Ignacio Cabezón (UCSB)

Collaborating Institutions

Faculty Collaborators

David Germano (UVA)
Buchung (TASS)
Tsewang Rinchen (TASS)

Chief THDL Research Assistant for the Sera Project

David Newman (2001-2005)
Dan Haig (2005-)

THDL Staff Assistants

Drolkar
Than Garson
Travis McCauley
Will Rourk
Eric Woelfel
R. Kirk Moore
Steven Weinberger
Michael Ryan

Student Assistants

Alex Catanese (UCSB)
Wilson Chen (UCSB)
David Cooper (UCSB)
Michael Cox (UCSB)
Ezra Goldman
Taline Goorjian (UCSB)
Zoran Lasovic (UCSB)
Thomas Nguyen (UCSB)
Alyson Prude (UCSB)
Michael Ryan (UVA)
Phil Smith (UCSB)
Kyle Stephens (UCSB)
Vanessa Turner (UCSB)
Chris Walker (University of Chicago)
Emily Yeh (UC, Berkeley; presently Asst. Prof., University of Colorado)

Financial Support

University of California, Santa Barbara

The director of the Sera Project would like to especially acknowledge the contributions of Prof. David Germano to this initiative. He has dedicated extraordinary intellectual energy, time and resources to the Sera Project, and without his help it would never have come to fruition. Mr. David Newman, a member of the THDL staff, has from the outset been involved at almost every turn. In Tibet (2002) he acted as photographer, videographer, and chief research assistant. He was also responsible for all of the technical aspects of the construction of the interactive map Of course, none of this work would have been possible without the incredible cooperation and assistance the research team has received, and continues to receive, from the monks of Sera in Tibet, in India, and elsewhere in the world.

Credits for the Sera Panoramas (2007).
Seeing the power of QTVR (QuickTime Virtual Reality) panorama technology to provide an immersive experience of a site, we became convinced of the need to create a body of these for Sera Monastery. In the summer of 2004, Alex Catanese (and in one instance, Will Rourk) photographed various sites at Sera and surrounding areas in Lhasa under the direction of Josè Cabezòn. Alex Catanese and Josè Cabezòn were funded on this 2004 trip by a grant from UC Santa Barbara’s Academic Senate, Committee on Research. Thanks to Will Rourk and David Germano of THDL, to Buchung of the Tibetan Academy of Social Sciences, and to Dan Haig of THDL, who was responsible for the web-page design.

 

 

 

 

Participants in the Sera Monastery Project

José Cabezón
José Cabezón

José Ignacio Cabezón

José Ignacio Cabezón, the director and principal investigator of the Sera Project, is Professor of Tibetan Buddhism and Cultural Studies in the Religious Studies Department of the University of California, Santa Barbara. He received a Bachelor of Science Degree with an emphasis in Physics from the California Institute of Technology, and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He was a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition from 1978 to 1986, and was a monk of Sera-India, living and engaging in the traditional curriculum of studies there from 1980 to 1985. He has taught at Carleton and Trinity Colleges, at Ohio State, and at the Iliff School of Theology. His major publications are in the area of Tibetan Buddhist philosophical thought. His books (edited, translated or authored) include:

Besides directing the Sera Project, Prof. Cabezón is currently working on a book on Buddhism and sexuality.

 

David Newman
David Newman filming a burnt-offering ritual at the Tantric College, Sera-Tibet, 2002.

David Newman

David Newman studied at Oberlin College and moved to Nepal in 1993 to edit an anthology of Tibetan stories. He continued to work there as a teacher and tour guide for five years. In 1998 Mr. Newman joined the THDL staff, where he has held a variety of important posts. From 2001 to 2005 Mr. Newman served as the Chief THDL laison to the Sera Project; among other things, during this time he was responsible for the technical aspects of the creation of Sera interactive map. Mr. Newman has been responsible for all of the technical aspects of the creation of the Sera interactive map, one of the most innovative aspects of the Sera Project. He is fluent in Tibetan, Nepali and Chinese.


 

Dan Haig

Dan Haig studied Tibetan Buddhism under Geshe Lhundrup Sopa at the University of Wisconsin before heading off into the dotcom wilderness in 1994. He has since built and/or hosted many significant Web sites concerning Tibet and trained many Tibetans and Tibetan organizations in the ways of information technology and communications, while fending off a long string of nefarious day jobs. Since enthusiastically accepting his position at the THDL he has done his best to try to fill David Newman's shoes, and is happy to report that his Tibetan, Chinese and Sanskrit skills are slowly reviving now that he is back in academia.