E. Gene Smith (August 10, 1936 – December 16, 2010) was a scholar of Tibetology, specifically

Tibetan literature Tibetan literature generally refers to literature written in the Tibetan language or arising out of Tibetan culture. Historically, Tibetan has served as a trans-regional literary language that has been used, at different times, from Tibet to Mongoli ...

and

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

Life and career

Ellis Gene Smith was born in

Ogden, Utah Ogden is a city in and the county seat of Weber County, Utah, United States, approximately east of the Great Salt Lake and north of Salt Lake City. The population was 87,321 in 2020, according to the US Census Bureau, making it Utah's eighth ...

to a traditional

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into several ...

family. He studied at a variety of institutions of higher education in the U.S.:

Adelphi College Adelphi University is a private university in Garden City, New York. Adelphi also has centers in Manhattan, Hudson Valley, and Suffolk County. There is also a virtual, online campus for remote students. It is the oldest institution of higher ed ...

, Hobart College,

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...

, and the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. At Seattle, he was able to study with

Dezhung Rinpoche Dezhung Rinpoche Kunga Tenpai Nyima (), born Kunchok Lhundrup (February 26, 1906–1987), was a Tibetan lama of the Sakya school. Sakya is one of four major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, the others being the Nyingma, Kagyu, and Gelug. In 1960 he ...

and members of the Sakya Phuntso Phodrang family who had been brought to Seattle under the auspices of the

Rockefeller Foundation The Rockefeller Foundation is an American private foundation and philanthropic medical research and arts funding organization based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The second-oldest major philanthropic institution in America, after the Carneg ...

grant to the Far Eastern and Russian Institute. He studied

Tibetan culture Tibet developed a distinct culture due to its geographic and climatic conditions. While influenced by neighboring cultures from China, India, and Nepal, the Himalayan region's remoteness and inaccessibility have preserved distinct local i ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

with Dezhung Rinpoche from 1960 to 1964 and spent the summer of 1962 traveling to the other Rockefeller centers in Europe to meet with other Tibetan savants. In 1964 he completed his Ph.D. qualifying exams and traveled to

Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...

for advanced studies in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

and

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...

. In 1965 he went to India under a Foreign Area Fellowship Program ( Ford Foundation) grant to study with living exponents of all of the Tibetan Buddhist and

Bönpo ''Bon'', also spelled Bön () and also known as Yungdrung Bon (, "eternal Bon"), is a Tibetan religious tradition with many similarities to Tibetan Buddhism and also many unique features.Samuel 2012, pp. 220-221. Bon initially developed in t ...

traditions. He began his studies with Geshe Lobsang Lungtok (Ganden Changtse), Drukpa Thoosay Rinpoche and Khenpo Noryang, and Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche. He decided to remain in India to continue serious studies of

Tibetan Buddhism Tibetan Buddhism (also referred to as Indo-Tibetan Buddhism, Lamaism, Lamaistic Buddhism, Himalayan Buddhism, and Northern Buddhism) is the form of Buddhism practiced in Tibet and Bhutan, where it is the dominant religion. It is also in majo ...

and culture. He traveled extensively in the borderlands of India and Nepal. In 1968 he joined the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

New Delhi Field Office. He then began a project which was to last over the next two and a half decades, the reprinting of the Tibetan books which had been brought by the exile community or were with members of the Tibetan-speaking communities in Sikkim, Bhutan, India, and Nepal. He became field director of the Library of Congress Field Office in India in 1980 and served there until 1985 when he was transferred to Indonesia. He stayed in Jakarta running the Southeast Asian programs until 1994 when he was assigned to the Library of Congress Middle Eastern Office in Cairo. In 1997 he retired from the Library of Congress. He briefly worked as a consultant for Trace Foundation for the establishment of the Himalayan and Inner Asian Resources in New York, an organisation dedicated to the preservation and dissemination of Tibetan literature. In 1999, Smith founded the

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center The Buddhist Digital Resource Center (BDRC), formerly Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC), is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to seeking out, preserving, organizing, and disseminating Buddhist literature. Joining digital technology ...

(TBRC), together with

Leonard van der Kuijp Leonard W.J. van der Kuijp (born September 23, 1952) is a Dutch professor of Tibetan and Himalayan Studies and former chair of the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies (now the Department of South Asian Studies) at Harvard University. Leonar ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and friends to digitize the 12,000 volume corpus of Tibetan literature. This digital library is the largest collection of Tibetan literature outside of Tibet. TBRC continues to acquire, preserve, organize and make available Tibetan texts. In 2001,

Wisdom Publications The Foundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT) was founded in 1975 by Lamas Thubten Yeshe and Thubten Zopa Rinpoche, who began teaching Mahayana Buddhism to Western students in Nepal. The FPMT has grown to encompass over 1 ...

published ''Among Tibetan Texts'', a collection of essays that Smith wrote back in his Delhi times, as introductions to Library of Congress reprints of Tibetan texts. As introductions to Tibetan literature, culture and history, these had circulated since the early 1980s amongst students and researchers, and had acquired a sort of cult status. A chapter is also devoted to Smith in David Jackson's biography of Dezhung Rinpoche, " A Saint in Seattle."David Jackson, A Saint in Seattle: The Life of the Tibetan Mystic Dezhing Rinpoche, Wisdom Publications, Boston, 2003 He is the subject of the award-winning documentary ''

Digital Dharma ''Digital Dharma: One Man's Mission to Save a Culture'' is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Dafna Yachin. The film depicts the 50-year journey by E. Gene Smith to hunt down and digitize over 20,000 missing volumes of ancient Tibetan ...

''. '' Variety'' called the film "an affectionate tribute to the late E. Gene Smith, the scholar, librarian and ex-Mormon who waged a 50-year struggle to save the endangered texts of Tibetan Buddhism." It received a theatrical release and was invited to qualify for Academy Award consideration by the

International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Filmm ...

through the 2012 ''DocuWeeks'' program.

Publications

References

Sources

* Schaeffer, Kurtis R. ''Introduction'' p. 1-9 in E. Gene Smith, ''Among Tibetan Texts'', Wisdom Publications, 2001.
Obituary in the Washington Post

External links

One Man's Mission to Save a Culture , Digital Dharma

Tibetan Buddhist Resource Center (TBRC)

Tibetan Culture Finds Digital Saviour - BBC Article
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, E. Gene Tibetologists 1936 births 2010 deaths American Buddhists Former Latter Day Saints Tibetan Buddhists from the United States Writers from Ogden, Utah University of Washington alumni Adelphi University alumni University of Utah alumni Converts to Buddhism from Christianity American former Christians