Gedun Rabsal

Phone:

(812) 856-2960

Email:

grabsal@indiana.edu

Department:

Current Faculty

Campus:

IU Bloomington

Personal Statement

Under the current political climate, Tibetan language and literature are gradually becoming endangered species. My life’s goal has been to contribute to the preservation and advancement of Tibetan literature and language. Therefore, I have chosen to devote my career to teaching, writing, researching, editing and translating Tibetan (contemporary, classical, dialectal) so that Tibetan language can flourish in today’s world.

Courses Recently Taught

• Introductory Tibetan

• Intermediate Tibetan

• Advanced Tibetan

• Practical Tibetan

• Additional Courses offered: Tibetan Poetry, History of Tibetan Literature

Publication Highlights

Rig pa’i khye’u (Birth of the Arts): Papers on the Arrival of Literary Field of Knowledge in Tibet During the 13th Century & Beyond (Dharamsala: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 2017), 348pg.

Bod kyi rtsom rig byung ba brjod pa rab gsal me long [Comprehensive History of Tibetan literature] (Varanasi: Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies, 2001 and Lanzhou: Gansu People's Publishing House, 2003), 259pg.

Current Research Projects

Investigating the conceptual underpinnings of the “five minor fields of knowledge,” pioneered by Sa skya Paṇḍita in the 13th century and developed in the 14th century. The five fields include 1) Poetics (Tib. snyan ngag); 2) Composition (Tib. sdeb sbyor); 3) Synonymics (Tib. mngon brjod); 4) Drama (Tib. zlos gar), and 5) Astrology (Tib. skar rtsis).