Sam van Schaik

Sam Julius van Schaik is an English tibetologist.

Education

He obtained a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist literature at the University of Manchester in 2000, with a dissertation on the translations of Dzogchen texts by Jigme Lingpa.

Since 1999 van Schaik has worked at the British Library in London, where he is currently the Head of the Endangered Archives Programme a position to which he was appointed in February 2019. He was previously a project manager for the International Dunhuang Project, specialising in the study of Tibetan Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang. He has also taught occasional courses at SOAS, University of London.
From 2003 to 2005 van Schaik worked on a project to catalogue Tibetan Tantric manuscripts in the Stein Collection of the British Library, and from 2005 to 2008 he worked on a project to study the palaeography of Tibetan manuscripts from Dunhang, in an attempt to identify individual scribes.

Van Schaik is the author or co-author of:

Approaching the Great Perfection: Simultaneous and Gradual Approaches to Dzogchen Practice in the Longchen Nyingtig.
Tibetan Tantric Manuscripts from Dunhuang: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Stein Collection at the British Library, co-authored with Jacob Dalton.
Tibet: A History.
Manuscripts and Travellers: The Sino-Tibetan Documents of a Tenth-Century Buddhist Pilgrim, coauthored with Imre Galambos.
Tibetan Zen: Discovering a Lost Tradition.
The Spirit of Zen, winner of the 2019 Tianzhu Book Prize for Excellence in Chan Studies
Buddhist Magic: Divination, Healing, and Enchantment Through the Ages

His edited volumes include:

Esoteric Buddhism at Dunhuang: Rites and Teachings for this Life and Beyond, co-edited with Matthew Kapstein.

He is also the translator of:

Dhongthog Rinpoche, The Sakya School of Tibetan Buddhism: A History, Translated by Sam van Schaik.