Geoffrey Barstow

Geoffrey Francis Barstow is an American religious historian and Buddhist scholar whose research focuses on Tibetan Buddhist ideas about animal ethics and vegetarianism.

Biography

Barstow was educated in Buddhist studies at Hampshire College and Kathmandu University where he obtained his B.A. He obtained his PhD in religious studies from University of Virginia in 2013.

In 2017, Barstow authored Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism and the Limits of Buddhism in Tibet, which has been positively reviewed. It is the first academic book to significantly explore vegetarianism in Tibet in its cultural and religious context. Barstow has given online courses on Buddhism and animal welfare.

Selected publications

Buddhism Between Abstinence and Indulgence: Vegetarianism in the Life and Works of Jigme Lingpa, Journal of Buddhist Ethics, 2013 Food of Sinful Demons: Meat, Vegetarianism, and the Limits of Buddhism in Tibet, Columbia University Press, 2017 The Hidden Vegetarians of Tibet, Tricycle, 2018 Monastic Meat: The Question of Meat Eating and Vegetarianism in Tibetan Buddhist Monastic Guidelines (bca’ yig), Religions, 2019 The Faults of Meat: Tibetan Buddhist Writings on Vegetarianism, Wisdom Publications, 2019