Langelaar studied Religious Studies at the University of Leiden and received his MA in Central Asian Studies from the Humboldt University in Berlin. His dissertation focused on historical clan genealogies and ancestor cults, and was written within the framework of the interdisciplinary comparative project “Visions of Community” (VISCOM). At present, he is PI of the ERC-funded project “The Narrative Foundations of Tibetan Buddhist Culture” (FOUNT, 2026-31) (ERC-StG-101222259). Using new and otherwise unstudied manuscript evidence, this project studies the rise of a ‘national’ Buddhist historiography of Tibet between the 11th and 14th c. CE. Langelaar is also a member in the Cluster of Excellence “EurAsian Transformations.” Previously, he was the main researcher in the FWF project “Buddhist Narratives and ‘Tibetan’ Ethnogenesis.” His research interests include Tibetan historiography and origin narratives, textual history, the history of religion, notions of ethnicity and kingship, as well as kinship.

2025, w/ Joanna Bialek. "Translating ‘Tibet’: The Geographic Extent of Bod in Tibetan Historiographies." In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society.  https://doi.org/10.1017/S1356186325000069 

2024a. "Replacing a Pillar of Tibetan Buddhist Historiography: On the Redactions of the So-called Pillar Testament (bKa'-chems-ka-khol-ma)." In: Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies 87(3): 489–517. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0041977X24000363

2024b. "Avalokiteśvara in Dunhuang and Tibet: The Development of the Bodhisattva’s Tibetan Cult (with a Study of the History of the Ma ṇi bka’ ’bum)." BuddhistRoad 7.4: 1–57. https://doi.org/10.46586/rub.br.326

2022a. "Buried Bones and Buddhas Beyond: Ancestor Cults, Buddhism and the Transcendentalisation of Tibetan Religion. " In: G. Hazod, M. Fermer & C. Jahoda, eds. The Social and the Religious in the Making of Tibetan Societies. Vienna: Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, pp. 283–308.

2022b. "Biography and Hierarchy: The Tibetan Ruling House of Phag-mo-gru and the Singular Volume of the Rlangs (Rlangs-kyi-po-ti-bse-ru)." In: Medieval Biographical Collections: Perspectives from Buddhist, Christian and Islamic Worlds. Special issue of Medieval Worlds. Comparative & Interdisciplinary Studies 15: 75–94. 10.1553/medievalworlds_no15si_2022

2019. "Historical Social Organisation on the Eastern Tibetan Plateau: The Territorial Origins and Etymology of tsho-ba." In: Inner Asia, vol. 21(1): 7–37. https://doi.org/10.1163/22105018-12340114

2018. "Chasing the Colours of the Rainbow: Tibetan Ethnogenealogies in Flux." In: The Medieval History Journal, vol 21(2): 328–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/0971945818775455

2017. "Descent and Houses in Reb gong (Reb-gong): Group Formation and Rules of Recruitment Among Eastern Tibetan tsho ba." In: Archiv Orientální, supplementa x. Mapping Amdo: Dynamics of Change, ed. by J. Ptáčková and A. Zenz. Prague: Oriental Institute: 155–83.