Students and admirers of José Ignacio Cabezón pay tribute with this collection of thirty diverse essays on the study of religion. Centered on Buddhism and Tibet, contributors also uncover insights about missionaries, Muslims, and Mongolia.
As the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Chair of Buddhist Studies at the University of California at Santa Barbara, a past president of the American Academy of Religion, and a prolific author of watershed books, José Cabezón has left an indelible mark on the discipline of religious studies. A refugee from Cuba who was brought to the US as a child, he trained both as a monk in the Tibetan Buddhist system and as a scholar at the University of Wisconsin. From his earliest publications, he has demonstrated the breadth of his interests and expertise, from philosophy, exegesis, and translation, to history, sexuality, and comparative religion, spanning centuries and sects, and interrogating hidden assumptions within the field.
The present volume honors that broad legacy in similarly diverse fashion. Thirty fellow scholars, both peers and former students, explore a rich array of topics inspired by Cabezón’s seminal contributions and scholarly collegiality. Whether it is the intersection of queer theory with Madhyamaka philosophy, Jesuit engagement with Tibetan scholasticism, shifting mores around selling religious objects in Tibet, the religious identity of Tibetan women who travel beyond death, or the fate of Tibetan Muslims in exile, the articles collected here will intrigue even as they expand our knowledge of the diverse ways that Tibetan religion and Buddhist practice has manifested, both historically and in the present day.
Buddhist Minds and Bodies: Essays in Honor of José Ignacio Cabezón, Rory Lindsay, Vesna A. Wallace (Editors), Wisdom Publications, Paperback, 2026, 640 Pages, $64.95
