Center for Buddhist Studies

The Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies are pleased to announce that Ziling Wan is the 2026 recipient of the Khyentse Foundation Best Graduate Student Award. An award ceremony took place in conjunction with the East Asian Studies ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2026.

Ziling Wan is completing her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona after successfully defending her dissertation in April 2026. She received her M.S. in Geographic Information Systems Technology from the University of Arizona in May 2026. Her dissertation, “Writing Miracle Tales in Early Modern China: Chan Master Huishan Jiexian’s (1610–1672) Representation of the Supernatural World,” examines the unexpected roles of ritualism and supernaturalism in early modern Chan monastic life by focusing on the Xianguo suilu 現果隨錄 (Record of Present-Life Karmic Retribution), the first miracle tale collection compiled by a Chan master. It argues that miracle narratives functioned as textual representations of speech acts through which Chan monks articulated karmic discourse, promoted moral exhortation, and constructed religious authority within the competitive religious environment of early modern China. Her research has been supported by major fellowships from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and the Khyentse Foundation. Her work has also been recognized by the China Times Cultural Foundation’s Young Scholar Award and Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council’s Taiwanese Overseas Pioneers Grant. Ziling's personal website: zilingwan.com

The Khyentse Foundation Student Award was set in 2018 at the Center for Buddhist Studies to encourage the University of Arizona graduate and undergraduate students to study Buddhism and its related subjects. Since 2001, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and a team of volunteers have been committed to providing funding for individuals and organizations seeking to make the dharma available to the world. For more information, visit cbs.arizona.edu/programs/student-awards

The Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies are pleased to announce that Miles McDonald and Quinn Veno are 2026 Winners of the Khyentse Foundation Best Undergraduate Student Award. John Han receives the Khyentse Foundation Best Undergraduate Student Award—Honorably Mention. An award ceremony took place in conjunction with the East Asian Studies ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2026.

Miles McDonald is a first generation college student from rural Louisiana and Georgia. They worked hard all throughout school and eventually came to the University of Arizona to pursue a degree in Anthropology and East Asian Studies. Later on, they plan to attend graduate school and become a researcher in linguistic anthropology at a university. They graduate in Fall 2026 and plan to look for jobs abroad shortly after.

As a Junior in the Religious Studies program, Quinn Veno has been deeply absorbed in Buddhist studies. His ultimate goal is to work as a Buddhist Chaplain in healthcare or hospice, drawing on the compassionate wisdom of Buddhist teachings to provide spiritual care for people in difficult circumstances. He is grateful for his support network and all of his professors.

John Han is a junior Physiology major intending to go to medical school once he graduates. In his free time, he boxes, plays guitar for a death metal band, and plays Dungeons and Dragons.

The Khyentse Foundation Student Award was set in 2018 at the Center for Buddhist Studies to encourage the University of Arizona graduate and undergraduate students to study Buddhism and its related subjects. Since 2001, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and a team of volunteers have been committed to providing funding for individuals and organizations seeking to make the dharma available to the world. For more information of the award, visit cbs.arizona.edu/programs/student-awards

The Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies are pleased to announce the recipients of the 2026 Khyentse Foundation Doctoral Fellowship, Yuyu Zhang and Tianyao Feng. An award ceremony was taken place in conjunction with the East Asian Studies ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2026.

Yuyu Zhang is a Ph.D. candidate in Chinese Buddhism in the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona. She holds an LL.M. from Shanghai University and an M.A. in Asian Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research focuses on Chan Buddhism from the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, with particular attention to Chan literature, visual culture, and the relationship between textual practices and image-making.
Her dissertation, "Within the Cloister: Painting and Practice in Chan Monasteries in Song China," examines how Song-dynasty Chan monks understood, engaged with, and used images in monastic life. She is also interested in narratives surrounding Chan practitioners’ itinerant training, enlightenment experiences, and deathbed accounts in Song-dynasty sources, as well as the roles of women in Buddhist history across East Asia. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Chinese Buddhist Studies, Critical Review for Buddhist Studies, and Religions. Website: https://eas.arizona.edu/people/yuyuzhang

Tianyao Feng is an incoming Ph.D. student in the East Asian Studies program at the University of Arizona. Holding an M.A. in History from the National University of Singapore and a B.A. from the City University of Hong Kong , Tianyao's research investigates the transregional evolution of the Navasaṃjñā (Nine Contemplations) in Buddhist visual culture. By examining early Central Asian cave environments, such as the Kizil and Toyok Grottoes , alongside later East Asian developments , Tianyao explores how visual and spatial practices shaped practitioners' embodied understandings of impermanence. Recently, Tianyao's work has been accepted for presentation at the Mechademia Conference. Tianyao is deeply honored to receive the Khyentse Foundation Graduate Fellowship, which will be instrumental in supporting this transregional research.

Thanks to the generous support of the Khyentse Foundation, the Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies established a doctoral fellowship, which awards $25,000 each year to support one or more students. For more information: Student Awards | Center for Buddhist Studies | University of Arizona.

The Integrative Well-Being Prize Award Ceremony and Presentations was held on May 1, 2026, at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona.

The event celebrated the 2025 awardees and their innovative work connecting health sciences, medical humanities, Buddhist studies, digital technologies, and community-based practice, and contemplative perspectives.

All videos are now available on the CBS YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLTMHRQ5ArSWoE0jK2-cdn6W1GtW0tRNTK

We are grateful to all awardees, presenters, discussants, committee members, faculty, students, and community participants who made this event such a meaningful success.

The Reception and Celebration for Professor Albert Welter’s retirement, hosted jointly by the Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona and the Center for Buddhist Studies, was a warm and memorable evening honoring his distinguished career, scholarly legacy, and many years of dedication to the University of Arizona.

Held on April 24 at 5:00 pm on the 4th Floor Student Union Terrace, the event brought together faculty, students, colleagues, and friends to celebrate Professor Welter’s lasting contributions to our academic community. As former Head of the Department of East Asian Studies and a core faculty member of the Center for Buddhist Studies, Professor Welter has provided invaluable leadership, mentorship, and service.

Faculty and students from the Department of East Asian Studies offered remarks expressing deep gratitude for his contributions and extending their heartfelt wishes for his retirement. Many distinguished scholars from outside the university also shared their congratulations and best wishes through video messages, which were collected and beautifully produced by Professor Welter’s student, Yuyu Zhang, and screened during the reception.

The celebration also took place alongside the international symposium “A Buddhist Heaven on Earth: Hangzhou Buddhism and Its Historical Significance,” which honored Professor Welter’s pioneering scholarship on Chinese Buddhism and the religious and cultural worlds of Hangzhou.

Congratulations, Professor Welter, and best wishes for this new chapter!

Thank you to everyone who joined our international symposium, “A Buddhist Heaven on Earth: Hangzhou Buddhism and Its Historical Significance,” and helped make the conference such a success.

Over two days, the symposium brought together seven panels and 30 papers, exploring Hangzhou Buddhist culture from multiple perspectives: Buddhist art, grottoes, pagodas, and doctrinal imagery; urban Buddhism and everyday life; sacred landscapes, water, tea, and religious authority; texts, canon, and Buddhist knowledge production; transregional Chan networks connecting Hangzhou with Japan and East Asia; transformations of Hangzhou Buddhism through gender, media, and diaspora; and new directions in digital humanities and international dialogue.

The symposium also celebrated the publication of the Encyclopedia of Hangzhou Buddhist Culture, with the editorial team presenting the project’s development process and next steps. At the closing session, participants engaged in lively discussions about the possibility of developing the symposium papers into an edited volume.

We hope you will continue to support and follow the next stages of this collaborative Hangzhou project.

We are deeply grateful to all presenters, chairs, discussants, participants, and organizers for their contributions. Special thanks to our sponsors: UArizona College of Humanities at The University of Arizona, Department of East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona, College of Arts & Sciences of The University of South Dakota, and University of South Dakota History Department.

This is a reminder that the Center for Buddhist Studies (CBS) at the University of Arizona cordially holds the Integrative Well-Being Prize Award Ceremony and Presentations today on May 1st.

This event honors pioneering work that advances integrative approaches to well-being across disciplines. The 2025 awardees bring together perspectives from health sciences, medical humanities, Buddhist studies, digital technologies, and community-based practice—collectively redefining healing as a multidimensional and deeply human process.

https://mailchi.mp/email/symposium-for-hangzhou-16591559?e=5784008cca

This is a friendly reminder that the opening ceremony of the international symposium, “A Buddhist Heaven on Earth: Hangzhou Buddhism and Its Historical Significance,” will begin in one hour, at 9:30 a.m. (Arizona Time), on April 24.

If you are going to attend online, please check the Zoom link in our reminder email. If you registered for in-person attendance, breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided during the conference (please check conference agenda in this email).

This is a friendly reminder that the Center for Buddhist Studies (CBS) at the University of Arizona will host the international symposium, “A Buddhist Heaven on Earth: Hangzhou Buddhism and Its Historical Significance,” on April 24–25, 2026, in Tucson, Arizona.

If you recently signed up for our email list, please note that the Zoom link included in the welcome email is outdated. Please check our reminder email and use the updated link instead to join the symposium.

In-person registration is now closed. If you registered for in-person attendance, breakfast, lunch, and dinner will be provided during the conference (please check conference agenda at https://sites.arizona.edu/hangzhou-culture/agenda/).

The Reception and Celebration for Albert’s Retirement will begin at 5:00 pm on April 24 at the 4th Floor Student Union Terrace, marked by the red box on the map.

See the full post at https://cbs.arizona.edu/news/hangzhou-symposium-reminder

🌿Integrative Well-Being Prize Award Ceremony and Presentations - https://mailchi.mp/email/symposium-for-hangzhou-16591492

The Center for Buddhist Studies (CBS) at the University of Arizona cordially invites faculty, students, and the broader community to attend the Integrative Well-Being Prize Award Ceremony and Presentations.