Please note: This page reflects information from September 2023. It serves as a record and is no longer being updated.

Short bio

After completing her Master’s degree in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies, Rachael Griffiths received her PhD in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford. In her doctoral thesis, she analysed the autobiography of the Tibetan polymath Sumpa Khenpo Yeshe Paljor (Sum pa mkhan po ye shes dpal 'byor, 1704–1788), focusing in particular on the autobiographical description of the various social, religious, and political roles that Sumpa Khenpo played, and how these enabled him to move across cultural boundaries to build networks throughout Central Asia. Her research interests include (auto-)biographical literature (“life writing”), intellectual networks in Central Asia, and prosopography.

Griffiths is currently a post-doctoral research fellow in the ERC-funded project “The Dawn of Tibetan Buddhist Scholasticism (11th–13th c.)” (TibSchol) at the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (IKGA) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences.