72th Dhammachai Fellowship for Gāndhārī Studies
at the University of Washington
Description of the Fellowship
The Department of Asian Languages and Literature, University of Washington, announces the inception of the 72th Dhammachai Fellowship, sponsored by the Dhammachai International Research Institute. This fellowship will be offered to a qualified applicant to the graduate program in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature whose studies will focus on research on Buddhist texts in Gāndhārī under the auspices of the department's Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project. The fellowship will offer a guarantee of three years of full support, plus two further years conditional on satisfactory progress.
The Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project
The Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project was founded in 1996 to promote the study and publication of newly discovered Buddhist manuscripts in the Gāndhārī language, dating from the first century b.c.e. to the third century c.e. The manuscripts contain a wide variety of Buddhist texts and genres including sūtra, avadāna, commentaries and abhidharma or scholastic treatises.
Prerequisites for the Fellowship
The holder of the 72th Dhammachai Fellowship will be expected to pursue original research on one or more Gāndhārī manuscripts. The holder will need to have an appropriate background in Buddhist Studies and knowledge of at least one of the relevant languages, including Sanskrit, Pali, and Chinese. Previous knowledge of the Gāndhārī language is not required, but will be a focus of the awardee's studies in the first few years in the program.
Application procedure
Applicants for the fellowship will submit a standard application to the GraduateSchool of the University of Washington (due December 15, 2014), designating the graduate program in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature. In addition, they must separately fill in the application for the 72th Dhammachai Fellowship, due on January 15, 2015.