Wikipedia:Sandbox

Tavivat Puntarigvivat: An Academic Biography

Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat is currently the Chair of the External Examination Board of the graduate program on Buddhist Studies at International Buddhist College in Thailand. He is also the advisor of the Center for China and Globalizing Asia Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Mahidol University in Thailand. Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat was a member of the subcommittee on Ethic of the Thai Senate, and Director of the Institute of Research and Development at the World Buddhist University in Bangkok. He was the Secretary General of the Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards Committee, which has been awarding prominent Buddhist women from around the world each year, in honor of the United Nations International Women’s Day in Bangkok for 10 years (2001-2011). He was the Editor-in-Chief of the WFB Review—an international academic journal on Buddhism—published by the World Fellowship of Buddhists during 2002-2008.

Academic Works in Buddhism and Comparative Religion

Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat was born on March 2, 1950 and has taught at the graduate program in Comparative Religion at Humanities Department, Mahidol University in Thailand for more than three decades (between 1976 and 2010), and served as chairman of the program for three terms: 1995-1997, 1999-2001, and 2007-2010. He has been invited to be a guest lecturer at universities and academic institutions in Thailand at Thammasat University, Chulalongkorn University, Ramkhamheang University and the Police Cadet Academy. He specializes in such subjects as: Methodology in Religious Studies, History of Religions in China, Tibet, and Japan, and Buddhism in Thai Society. His current research includes such areas as: Buddhism and Transnational Capitalism, Buddhism and Philosophy of Science, and Buddhism and Contemporary Thai Society. Coming from a broad academic background, Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat received his B.A. in Economics from Thammasat University in Thailand in 1972, his M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Hawaii with a Rockefeller Fellowship in 1975, and his Ph.D. in Religion from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., with a Temple University Scholarship in 1994. He was also a researcher on “Zen Buddhism” at Kyoto University in Japan, with a Japanese Ministry of Education (Monbusho) scholarship during 1984-1986. Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat has researched and published extensively, both nationally and internationally, on issues of religion and social ethics—especially from cross-cultural and socio-political perspectives. He has been invited to join research projects in the United States, such as What Men Owe to Women: Resources from the World Religions led by Dr. John C. Raines and Dr. Daniel C. Maguire (published by SUNY in 2000), in which he contributed a chapter from Theravada Buddhist perspective, and The Hope of Liberation in World Religions led by Dr. Miguel A. De La Torre (published by Baylor University Press in 2008), in which he contributed a chapter entitled “Buddhist Liberation Theology.” Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat has been invited to attend international conferences, such as the UNESCO conference on Religions in Peace and Conflict held in Melbourne, Australia, and the 19th World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religion, held in Tokyo, Japan in 2005. He was also invited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to join the diplomatic cultural delegation from Thailand for official visits to Nepal, Bhutan, India, and Sri Lanka, in the project called “Getting to Know the New BIMSTEC Members” and to attend the 5th ASEM Interfaith Dialogue in Seoul, Korea, in 2009. He was again invited to attend the First Meeting of the High Panel on Peace and Dialogue among Cultures at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in 2010. He was invited to attend an International Seminar on Academic Exchange and Co-operation in Buddhist Studies at Derby University, London, United Kingdom in 2012.

Practitioner and Teacher of Dynamic Meditation

As is the custom in Thailand, Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat was a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) for a phansa (a monastic retreat of three months during the Thai rainy season) in 1980 and practiced Dynamic Meditation under Luangpor Teean’s guidance. This monastic experience was of significant importance in refining his intellectual understanding of religious scholarship and practice—especially as embodied in contemporary movements of Thai Theravada Buddhism and the Buddhist world. In 1989, Tavivat Puntarigvivat introduced Dynamic Meditation to a group of interested people at Chuang Yen Monastery in New York. In 1990 when the number of the group increased, he invited Kovit Khemananda, a lay Dynamic Meditation teacher, to be resident teacher at Chuang Yen Monastery for a few months. Consequently Tavivat has invited a number of Dynamic Meditation teachers from Thailand to teach and lead Dynamic Meditation at Chuang Yen Monastery, including Achan Thong Abhakaro (1992), Achan Da Sammakhato (1993), and Achan Khamkhien Suvanno (1994). Under the leadership of Michael Bresnan, two permanent centers for Mahasati Insight Meditation (previously Dynamic Meditation) were established at Redding in Connecticut and Boston in Massachusetts in the U.S.

Secretary General of Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards Committee

In 2000, Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat, Director of the Institute of Research and Development, the World Buddhist University, was invited by Bhikkhuni Dr. Lee and Bhikkhuni Rattanavali to cofound the “Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards” (OWBA), in honor of the UN International Women’s Day (8th March). Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat has served as the Secretary General for the first 10 years (2001-2011) of the OWBA committee with the idea that a male Secretary General would send a stronger message to the Thai Buddhist society and the world. The year 2004 marked a historic year when the Outstanding Women in Buddhism Awards was recognized by the United Nations and held at the UN office in Bangkok. Upasika Bongkot Sitthiphol, mother of the Dhamma Land, was among the first to receive this OWBA prize at the United Nations in Bangkok, witnessed by hundreds of distinguished guests including her disciples who attended the award ceremony. In 2007, Ashi Tshering Yangdon Wangchuck, the Princess from Bhutan, and Madam Shiranthi Wickramasingha Rajapaksa, the First Lady from Sri Lanka, were awarded the OWBA prize at the United Nations in Bangkok. During the last 23 years, numerous Bhikkhuni, Maechee, Upasika, and laywomen were awarded for their outstanding works to promote Buddhism, and the status of women and children in Asia and beyond. The awards have not only brought the pride and encouragement for the awardees, but also empowered them for the good works they have been doing. Since 2016 the OWBA has been moved to Taiwan, with the leadership of Taiwanese Bhikkhuni, including Bhiksuni Ming Yu, Bhiksuni Pu Huei and Bhiksuni Cheng Yen, along with Bhikkhuni Dr. Lee and Bhikkhuni Rattanavali. This fruitful OWBA award ceremony has been continued and will be transmitted to the generations to come for the perpetuation of Buddhism, the equality and the higher status of women and children in Asia and the rest of the world.

Organizer of ASEAN Buddhist Conferences

Buddhism in Asia, particularly in South and Southeast Asia, has been facing the threats from inside and outside of the religion. The inside threats are from the misbehavior of a number of monks who have not followed the Buddhist disciplines. They are also from the spread of “supernaturalism” (saiyasāt), “magic spell” (vetmon-khāthā), and the sale of “merit” (puñña) or other forms of Buddhistic commercialized activities by some monastery in Buddhist countries in Asia, including Thailand. The outside threats are from the expansion of other religions which have been trying to undermine Buddhism since the colonial period. Some other faith has been trying to influence the key persons in the government and the parliament, by money and sexual attractions, so that they could use political and legal powers for the expansion of their faith. Sometime they use military action, including terrorism, to establish a state of their faith. They ultimately want to convert Buddhist countries in Asia to countries of their faith. Recognizing the urgent problems facing Buddhism in contemporary Asia, Dr. Tavivat Puntarigvivat has organized the series of Buddhist Conference in ASEAN (Association of South East Asia Nations) starting in Pattaya, Thailand (2014) and continuing in Penang (2015), Phnom Penh (2016), Mandalay (2017), and again in Bangkok (2018). The purpose is the ASEAN Buddhist Conferences is to create a network and cooperation among Buddhist scholars, who are aware of these problems, for the future of Buddhism in Asia and beyond.