Dear Colleagues,

Please bring the attached announcement of the new Dhammachai Scholarship for Gandhari Studies at the University of Washington to the attention of your students or other interested parties.

Please also note that to be eligible for the scholarship next year, students must apply to the graduate program in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature, University of Washington, by December 15, 2011.

Thanks,

Richard Salomon 

70^th Dhammachai Scholarship for Gāndhārī Studies

at the University of Washington

Description of the Fellowship

The Department of Asian Languages and Literature, University of Washington (Seattle WA) announces the inception of the 70^th Dhammachai Scholarship, sponsored by the Dhammachai International Research Institute. This scholarship 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 scholarship will offer up to five years of full support, conditional on satisfactory annual 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, abhidharma, avadāna, commentaries and scholastic treatises. For further information, please see the project's website at http://ebmp.org/.

Prerequisites for the Scholarship

The holder of the 70^th Dhammachai Scholarship will be expected to pursue research on one or more of the unpublished Gāndhārī manuscripts, with a view to preparing a scholarly edition and translation. The holder will need to have a suitable background in Buddhist Studies and one or more of the relevant languages, including Sanskrit, Pāli, 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 scholarship will submit a standard application to the Graduate School of the University of Washington (due December 15, 2011), designating the graduate program in Buddhist Studies in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature (http://depts.washington.edu/asianll/home/prospective_grad.html#app). In addition, they must separately submit an application for the 70^th Dhammachai Scholarship, due on January 15, 2012. Application forms will be found at: http://depts.washington.edu/asianll/downloads/Application%20form%20EBMP.docx