Lecturer and Researcher in Buddhism
PhD (Philosophy & Religious Studies), Monash University; MA (Hons), Western Sydney University
email: i.sinclair@nantien.edu.au
phone: +61 (2) 4258 0771
Dr Iain Sinclair
Dr Sinclair studies the history of religion in Asia using primary sources in languages such as Sanskrit, Tibetan and Chinese. Before joining NTI he held two research positions related to Buddhist studies. He has also worked as an academic editor and a professional translator of Buddhist texts. His publications focus on classical Buddhist texts and art, Buddhist tantra, Sanskrit manuscripts, and the Buddhism of the Himalayas and the Malay Archipelago.
Roles
- Research Associate, Humanistic Buddhism Centre of Nan Tien Institute
Grants and Awards
- 2019 Käte Hamburger College Fellow, Centre for Religious Studies (CERES), Ruhr University Bochum
- 2018 Visiting Fellowship, Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute, Singapore
- 2014, 2017 – 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, translator grant (jointly awarded)
- 2010 Australian Postgraduate Award
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Selected Papers and Publications
Sinclair, I 2021, ‘Dharmakīrti of Kedah: His Life, Work and Troubled Times,’ Temasek History Research Centre Working Paper, Temasek History Research Centre, Singapore.
Sinclair, I 2019, ‘Sanskritic Buddhism as an Asian universalism,’ in A Acri, K Ghani, MK Jha and S Mukherjee (eds.), Imagining Asia(s): Networks, Actors, Sites, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 275–333, DOI 10.1355/9789814818865-012
Sinclair, I 2016, ‘Coronation and liberation according to a Javanese monk in China: Bianhong’s manual on the abhiṣeka of a cakravartin,’ in A Acri (ed.), Esoteric Buddhism in Mediaeval Maritime Asia: Networks of Masters, Texts, Icons, ISEAS Publishing, Singapore, pp. 29–66, DOI 10.1355/9789814695091-005
Sinclair, I 2015, ‘The creation of theism personified: A conceptual history of the God-Maker Avalokiteśvara,’ in AA Di Castro & D Templeman (eds.), Asian Horizons: Giuseppe Tucci’s Buddhist, Indian, Himalayan and Central Asian Studies, Monash University Publishing, Melbourne, pp. 431–478.
Sinclair, I, 2014, ‘Envisioning Durjayacandra’s Saptākṣarasādhana. On the sources and sponsors of a twelfth-century painting of Seven-Syllabled Saṃvara,’ in B Bogin & A Quintman (eds.), Himalayan Passages: Tibetan and Newar studies in honor of Hubert Decleer, Wisdom, Boston, pp. 205–250.
Sinclair, I 2014, ‘Just War and War Magic in Indian Tantric Buddhism’, Social Analysis, vol. 58, no. 1, pp. 149-166, DOI 10.3167/sa.2014.580108