Alexander von Rospatt
- B.A. School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 1985
- M.A., Ph.D and Habilitation, all University of Hamburg, 1988, 1993 and 2001 respectively
347b Dwinelle Hall
Alexander von Rospatt is Professor for Buddhist and South Asian Studies. He specializes in the doctrinal history of Indian Buddhism, and in Newar Buddhism, the only Indic Mahayana tradition that continues to persist in its original South Asian setting (in the Kathmandu Valley) right to the present. His first book (Stuttgart, 1995) sets forth the development and early history of the Buddhist doctrine of momentariness. His new, forthcoming book "The Svayambhu Caitya and its Renovations" deals with the historical renovations of the Svayambhū Stupa of Kathmandu. Based on Newar manuscripts and several years of fieldwork in Nepal, he reconstructs the ritual history of these renovations and their social contexts. Prof. von Rospatt has also authored numerous essays dedicated to various aspects of Newar Buddhism, including its rituals and their origins and evolution. His current research focusses on Newar Buddhist narrative literature and on life-cycle rituals of old age among the Newars. Prof. von Rospatt was trained in Germany and England, and taught at the universities of Leipzig, Vienna and Oxford before joining UC Berkeley in January 2004.
