Martin Brauen


Martin Brauen is a cultural anthropologist from Bern, Switzerland who specialises in Tibet, the Himalayas and history of religions.

Biography

Martin Brauen studied ethnology and religious history at the University of Zurich and Buddhology at the University of Delhi. He earned a doctorate after defending a thesis in Zurich on Holidays and ceremonies in Ladakh and a degree of Privatdozent. Since 1975 he has had several positions at the EthnographicMuseum of the University of Zurich, as well as becoming a lecturer. From 2008 to 2012 he was chief curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City.
Since then he is working as an independent curator: Kosmos – Rätsel der Menschheit ; Yak, Yetis, Yogis – Tibet im Comic ; Bill Viola: Passions ; Cesar Ritz.
Brauen is the author of several books and many exhibitions on Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh, and Japan. Among his books, Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism is best known to the general public and has been translated into six languages. Well known is also his book Dreamworld Tibet – Western Illusions.
Martin Brauen has also produced several films and documentaries on Tibet and the Himalayas, and has worked in the areas of aid and development policy in a Swiss NGO.
He met Tibetans for the first time in 1965 and the 14th Dalai Lama in 1970 during an interview, and has since been committed to the Tibetan cause.
He is married to the Tibetan artist Sonam Dolma Brauen, with whom he had two children, actress and writer Yangzom Brauen and Tashi Brauen, artist.
The great-grandfather of Martin Brauen, Élie Ducommun who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1902, was a notable pacifist.

Publications

  • 2014: Bill Viola: Passions, Kunstmuseum Bern/Cathedral of Berne
  • 2014: Kosmos – Weltentwürfe im Vergleich, Museum Rietberg Zürich/Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess AG, Zürich,
  • 2011: Quentin Roosevelt's China – Ancestral Realms of the Naxi, Rubin Museum of Art, New York / Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart
  • 2010: Grain of Emptiness – Buddhism-inspired contemporary art Rubin Museum of Art, New York,
  • 2009: Mandala – Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism Arnoldsche /Rubin Museum of Art, Stuttgart/New York,
  • 2005: The Virtual Mandala – The Tibetan Book of the Dead/ Das tibetische Totenbuch, Art Adventures, Zürich,,
  • 2005: Die Dalai Lamas – Tibets Reinkarnationen des Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart,
  • 2005: The Dalai Lamas – A Visual History, Serindia, Publications, Chicago,
  • 2005: Les Dalaï-Lamas – Les 14 réincarnations du bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Favre, Lausanne,
  • 2004: Mandala – Cercle sacré du bouddhisme tibétain, Favre, Lausanne,
  • 2004: Dreamworld Tibet – Western Illusions, Weatherhill, Trumbull,
  • 2003: Bambus im alten Japan / Bamboo in Old Japan, Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart,
  • 2002: Peter Aufschnaiter's Eight Years in Tibet, Orchid Press, Bangkok,
  • 2000: Traumwelt Tibet – Westliche Trugbilder, Haupt, Bern-Stuttgart-Wien,
  • 2000: Deities of Tibetan Buddhism – The Zürich Paintings of the Icons Worthwhile to See, Wisdom Publications, Boston,
  • 1999: Mandala – Il cercio sacro del buddhismo tibetano, Sovera editore,
  • 1998: Mandala – Posvatny kruh tibetského buddhismu, Volvox Globator, Praha,
  • 1998: De Mandala – De heilige cirkel van het Tibetaans boeddhisme, Asoka,
  • 1997: The Mandala – Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism, Shambhala, Boston,
  • 1994: Irgendwo in Bhutan – Wo Frauen das Sagen haben, Verlag im Waldgut, Frauenfeld,
  • 1992: Das Mandala: Der Heilige Kreis im tantrischen Buddhismus, DuMont, Köln,
  • 1993: Anthropology of Tibet and the Himalaya, Ethnologische Schriften Zürich, ESZ 12, Ethnological Museum of the University of Zurich,
  • 1984: Nepal – Leben und Überleben, Ethnologische Schriften Zürich, ESZ 2, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich
  • 1983: Peter Aufschnaiter – Sein Leben in Tibet, Steiger Verlag, Innsbruck,
  • 1982: Junge Tibeter in der Schweiz – Studien zum Prozess kultureller Identifikation, Verlag Rüegger, Diessenhofen,
  • 1982: Fremden-Bilder, Ethnologische Schriften Zürich, ESZ 1, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich
  • 1980: Feste in Ladakh, Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, Graz,
  • 1978: Tibetan Studies, presented at the International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich
  • 1974: Heinrich Harrer's Impressionen aus Tibet, Pinguin Verlag, Innsbruck
  • 1969: Tibetische Kunst, Tibeta 69, Bern