Gyurme Dorje

Gyurme Dorje (1950 – 5 February 2020) was a Scottish Tibetologist, translator, and writer.

Early life In Edinburgh he studied classics at George Watson's College and developed an early interest in Buddhist philosophy. He held a PhD in Tibetan Literature (SOAS) and an MA in Sanskrit with Oriental Studies (Edinburgh).

Career In the 1970s he spent a decade living in Tibetan communities in India and Nepal where he received extensive teachings from Kangyur Rinpoche, Dudjom Rinpoche, Chatral Rinpoche, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. In 1971 Dudjom Rinpoche encouraged him to begin translating his recently completed History of the Nyingma School and in 1980 his Fundamentals of the Nyingma School - together this was an undertaking that was to take twenty years, only reaching completion in 1991.

In the 1980s Gyurme returned to the UK and in 1987 completed his 3 volume doctoral dissertation on the Guhyagarbhatantra and Longchenpa's commentary on this text at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London.

Published works

(3 vols) Gyurme Dorje (1991) Dudjom Rinpoche's The Nyingma School of Tibetan Buddhism: Its Fundamentals and History. Boston, Wisdom Publications. 1st edition (2 vols), 1991; 2nd edition (1 vol), 2002. Tibetan Medical Paintings. Serindia Publications, London (2 Vols). 1992. Tibet Handbook. Footprint Handbooks, Bath. 1st edition, 1996; 2nd edition 1999; 3rd edition 2004; See Footprintbooks Bhutan Handbook. Footprint Handbooks, Bath. 1st edition, 2004. Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings Eskenazi & Fogg, London. 2001. See Whiteberyl An Encyclopaedic Tibetan-English Dictionary (Nationalities Publishing House/ SOAS, Beijing. Vol. 1 (2001), Vols 2 & ). "A Rare Series of Tibetan Banners", in Pearls of the Orient, Serindia, 2003.

The Great Temple of Lhasa, Thames & Hudson, 2005 A Buddhist response to the climate emergency, 2009, (co-edited with John Stanley and David R. Loy) The Guhyagarbha Tantra: Dispelling the Darkness of the Ten Directions (Snowlion)