Prof. Dr. Harunaga Isaacson

Born in Kuma, Japan, in 1965, Harunaga Isaacson studied philosophy and Indology at the University of Groningen (MA 1990), and was awarded a PhD in Sanskrit by the University of Leiden (1995). 

After holding teaching positions at Hamburg University and the University of Pennsylvania, he was appointed Professor of Classical Indology in the Department of Indian and Tibetan Studies, Asien-Afrika-Institut, Hamburg University, in April 2006.

His main research areas are: tantric traditions in pre-13th century South Asia, especially Vajrayāna Buddhism; classical Sanskrit poetry; classical Indian philosophy; and Purāṇic literature.

He received major honours, including in 2015 the Ratnākara Grant of the Khyentse Foundation (a newly initiated grant aimed at supporting the academic development of Buddhist Studies in Thailand); in 2011 elected ordentliches Mitglied (full member) of the Akademie der Wissenschaften in Hamburg; in 2010 elected member of the Istituto Italiano per l’Africa e l’Oriente (IsIAO), Rome, Italy.

Prof. Isaacson is a member of the Board of Advisors of the International PhD Programme in Buddhist Studies, Mahidol University; member of the Editorial Advisory Board of Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism; Chief Editor, together with Dramdul and Helmut Krasser, of Sanskrit Texts from the Tibetan Autonomous Region; external consultant of the AHRC funded project “The intellectual and religious traditions of South Asia as seen through the Sanskrit manuscript collections of the University Library, Cambridge”, 2011–2014; member of the Vorstand (Board of Directors) of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures = Sonderforschungsbereich 950, Manuskriptkulturen in Asien, Afrika und Europa, July 2011–June 2015; Chief Editor, together with Prof. Michael Friedrich and Prof. Jörg Quenzer, of the Encyclopedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa (forthcoming from de Gruyter); Editor, together with Prof. Michael Friedrich and Prof. Jörg Quenzer, of Studies in Manuscript Cultures (published by de Gruyter; first volume released in 2011, three volumes released to date); Co-Editor, with Prof. Francesco Sferra, of Manuscripta Buddhica, a new subseries of the Serie Orientale Roma (first volume appeared in 2009); Editor of the Publications of the Nepal Research Centre; Director of the Nepal Research Centre, 2006–2014; General Director of the Nepalese-German Manuscript Cataloguing Project (longterm project funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), 2006–2014; Contributor to the Tāntrikābhidhānakośa, ‘A Hindu Tantric Dictionary’, a project of the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften (Wien); Member of the Editorial Board of the Groningen Oriental Studies; Member of the Advisory Board of Indo-Iranian Journal; Reader for Princeton University Press, the Journal of the American Oriental Society, the Journal of Indian Philosophy, the Journal of Indian and Buddhist Studies/Indogaku Bukkyōgaku Kenkyū, the Verlag der österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, and others; President of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, 2003‒200⒋