Religion professor adds Guggenheim to earlier NEH fellowship
It’s turning out to be quite a year for Bryan J. Cuevas.
A Florida State University scholar in Asian religious traditions, Cuevas learned early in 2013 that he would be the recipient of a prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) fellowship. This month, his fortunes have doubled after he was awarded a highly competitive John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship.
Utilizing the two fellowships, Cuevas plans to complete the first-ever full translation of the biography of a major figure in Tibetan history.
Cuevas, the John F. Priest Professor of Religion in the Department of Religion, will use the grant money provided by his NEH Fellowship for University Teachers, as well as the funds that accompany the Guggenheim fellowship in humanities, to translate from Tibetan into English the biography of one of Tibet’s most controversial Buddhist saints, Ra Lotsawa Dorje Drak (often referred to simply as Ralo). Ralo’s life story, formally titled “The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat,” was compiled in the 12th century A.D. and is one of the oldest surviving narratives of the Buddhist saints of Tibet. It has never been translated into any other language from its original Tibetan.
“Bryan has capped a spectacular year by adding a Guggenheim Fellow award to his NEH Fellowship,” said Sam Huckaba, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, which includes the religion department. “These national honors are representative of the excellence taking place in our Department of Religion and reflect emphatically the very high quality of Bryan's research contributions.”
High praise also was forthcoming from John Kelsay, the university’s Richard L. Rubenstein Professor of Religion and Bristol Distinguished Professor of Ethics, who also serves as chairman of the department.
“Those of us in the Department of Religion are very pleased to see our colleague receive these prestigious awards in support of his work,” said Kelsay, who received his own Guggenheim fellowship in humanities in 2002. “Bryan Cuevas has made a number of noteworthy contributions to scholarship through the years. Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and now from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, indicate that the excellence of Bryan’s work is recognized by scholars around the world. As well, he is an integral part of the departmental program, particularly in the area of Buddhist studies. His translation of the biography of Ralo will only strengthen an already excellent record of achievement.”
Cuevas was one of only 175 Guggenheim applicants from the United States and Canada to be selected from a group of almost 3,000 applicants — meaning just under 6 percent of all who applied were named fellows. The success rate for NEH fellowship applicants, meanwhile, is around 7 percent per year. Cuevas becomes the 13th faculty member at Florida State to receive a Guggenheim fellowship since 1993, as well as the 18th to receive an NEH fellowship since 1992.
His translated biography of Ralo will be published by Penguin Classics in late 2014 or early 2015.
“Among the most illustrious Buddhist saints of Tibet, Ralo stands tall as one of the most notorious figures in the history of Tibetan Buddhist culture, equal in celebrity to Tibet’s beloved poet Milarepa (1040-1123 A.D.),” Cuevas said. “But whereas Milarepa is viewed as Tibet’s ideal Buddhist contemplative yogin(a master of yoga), who in a single lifetime transformed himself from great sinner to great saint, Ralo is his shadow double.”
Was Ralo, who was born in 1016 and died around 1100 A.D., an enlightened saint or a murderous villain? Nearly 1,000 years later, the answer to that question is still somewhat ambiguous. According to legend, he killed more than a dozen Tibetan lamas, or Buddhist high priests — many of them famous and with large numbers of followers of their own. But according to texts of the Yamāntaka and Vajrabhairava traditions of Buddhist practice that he brought from India and Nepal, translated and then popularized in Tibet, Ralo was compelled to “liberate” those who were on the wrong path so that they could eventually reach a state of enlightenment.
Faithful supporters viewed Ralo’s actions as heroically virtuous, both because they served to promulgate a “truer” Buddhism and to subjugate his enemies.
“He is the paradigmatic sinister yogin, Tibetan Buddhist antihero and wonder-worker, who deployed his magical abilities to defeat his competitors and to gain abundant riches, worldly power and spiritual influence,” Cuevas said. “His achievements, however, were not confined to the promotion of hostile practices in defense of Buddhism but included translations from Sanskrit of major Indian Tantric Buddhist scriptures — hence the name ‘Lotsawa,’ the Tibetan term for ‘translator,’ which was reserved for only the most learned of Buddhist linguistic scholars.”
Cuevas says his translation of “The All-Pervading Melodious Drumbeat” will challenge popular and overly romantic conceptions of Buddhism as a thoroughly pacifist and non-violent religion.
“The topic of Buddhist violence has been attracting a growing audience in recent years, and a few excellent books on the topic have now appeared,” he said. “To date, however, there have been no sustained scholarly studies on the history of Buddhist sorcery and ritual magic. Buddhist sorcery has been a legitimate expression of religious and political action throughout Buddhist history. In Tibet, magic and spiritual warfare have been inextricably tied to conventional Buddhist forms of ritual action and deeply embedded in Tibetan religious ideology.”
Readers of Ralo’s translated biography, Cuevas said, will discover “extravagant accounts of Ralo’s magical exploits, as well as the more conventional episodes in the life of a Buddhist saint — wondrous birth, remarkable childhood, quest for the guru, enlightenment, meritorious works and expansive preaching career.”
Cuevas says his scholarly research into Asian religious traditions actually had its genesis in high school and college, when he developed a keen interest in foreign languages. First came Latin, Greek, French and German before he ventured into Sanskrit and Tibetan as a graduate student. His academic research has taken him to Tibet a number of times, and he lived in India during graduate school.
For those who wonder why the study of Asian religious traditions, particularly those of Tibet, are worth such intensive study, Cuevas has a ready reply.
“Tibet is in a very strategic position in the world, located right between Russia, China and India,” he said. “Therefore, it’s important that we develop a more three-dimensional picture of the history and cultures of the region. A significant part of that involves placing a greater value on Asian literature and religions, which is what I’m seeking to do.”