Light of Kailash Lecture 25 | The history of the Northern Treasures Tradition of Tibetan Buddhism

With Dr. Jay Holt Valentine

Saturday July 12th

 ⏰ 02:00 pm UK 

Tune in for a conversation with Dr. Jay Holt Valentine as we discuss his experience as a researcher within the general field of Tibetan studies as well as his work on the history of the Northern Treasures Tradition, which, as can be gleamed from the following opening passage of his forthcoming book, began in dramatic fashion in the fourteenth century: “As the band of devotees travelled together toward an ominous peak resembling a heap of poisonous snakes high in the mountains of western Tibet in 1366, the young Buddhist master known as Rigdzin Gödem (1337–ca. 1401), who was named Ngödrub Gyaltsen at birth, prayed fervently. The spirits of his beleaguered group were stayed by the constant presence of rainbows, foreshadowing the success of their expedition. After two long days of fruitless searching, the earth itself finally answered his prayers, quaking to indicate that he had arrived at his destination. Surrounded by the light of butter lamps at midnight, Rigdzin Gödem unlocked the treasure cave and extracted a cache of encoded scrolls, ritual daggers, and precious gems, and thus began the Northern Treasures Tradition.”

About the Speaker

Dr. Jay Holt Valentine is an associate professor of Philosophy and Religion at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, where he has been teaching since 2015. He earned his PhD from the University of Virginia (2013). 

Dr. Valentine’s dissertation, “The Lords of the Northern Treasures: The Development of the Institution of Rule by Successive Incarnations,” examines the biographies and autobiographies of the patriarchs of one particular Tibetan Buddhist tradition (The Northern Treasures Tradition, i.e., Byang gter) as it developed from a community guided by charismatic revealers of scriptures and artifacts to one that was led by a series of (re)incarnations. The dissertation sheds light on the ubiquitous Tibetan social institution of “rule by incarnation” or “incarnation lineages” by way of a case study of this colorful tradition. Since then, Valentine has published numerous articles focusing on the history of the Northern Treasures Tradition. He has completed a forthcoming book entitled The Clarifying Ray of Sunlight: The Life of Rigdzin Gödem (1337–c. 1401), which features a translation of a 15th century biography of the founder of the tradition. Valentine is also a member of the research group known as FCHNT (For a Critical History of the Northern Treasures: https://fchnt.hypotheses.org/) that is based in Paris, France. Over the next year, the research group intends to publish two volumes of their research findings as well as a third special edition of Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines that presents a collection of papers by various scholars that focus on the Northern Treasures Tradition.