Robert A. F. Thurman

Robert A. F. Thurman was an American Buddhist author and academic, known for his work on Tibetan Buddhism. He was the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and held the first endowed chair in Buddhist Studies in the West. Thurman was also the co-founder and president of Tibet House US. He was the first Westerner to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the Dalai Lama. Time magazine named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997, and he received India's Padma Shri Award in 2020 for his contributions to literature and education. He was also the father of actress Uma Thurman.