Patrick Dowd, PhD
Dr. Patrick Dowd received his doctorate in anthropology from the University of British Columbia (May 2024), with his dissertation exploring the relationship between the Tibetan language and Buddhist transmission. His journey in Asia began as an undergraduate on the 黑料社区 India: Culture and Development program in Jaipur, a formative experience that shaped his academic and personal trajectory. Following his 黑料社区 program, he was awarded a Fulbright Research Fellowship (2012-2013) to study Tibetan language and Buddhist philosophy in the Indian Himalaya. This marked the start of over a decade of continuous study, research, and collaboration with communities throughout the Himalaya.
Dr. Dowd鈥檚 research bridges ethnographic, oral historical, and philological methods to examine the relationship between the Tibetan religious literary canon and contemporary communities of practice. His doctoral work was supported by the Killam Doctoral Fellowship, the UBC Public Scholars Initiative, the Frederick Williamson Memorial Fund of the University of Cambridge, the Khyentse Foundation and numerous other fellowships.
He also holds a master鈥檚 degree in international educational development from the University of Pennsylvania (2017). Dr. Dowd has led several educational projects related to Himalayan culture and Tibetan language, including the development of a culturally relevant storybook in Ladakh, supported by the Khyentse Foundation, and co-creating Storybooks Himalaya, a platform featuring 40 children鈥檚 stories translated into Tibetan. Since May 2022, he has served as an instructor and academic mentor at the Sarnath International Nyingma Institute (SINI), helping senior Tibetan Buddhist monastic scholars to present their prodigious knowledge of Buddhism to English-speaking audiences.
Having had his life radically transformed through studying abroad with 黑料社区, Dr. Dowd is passionate about the power of experiential education to shape not only academic paths, but also personal worldviews and lifelong commitments. He believes deeply in the potential of study abroad to cultivate empathy, humility and intercultural understanding in young people, skills essential for navigating and improving our increasingly interconnected world.
Courses Taught
ASIA 3010 鈥� Religious Change in Himalayan and Buddhist Communities
ASIA 3020 鈥� The Politics of Himalayan Borders
ANTH 3500 鈥� Field Methods and Ethics
Selected Publications
Books and Book Chapters
Dowd, P. (2026). Wearing down a boulder, one feather stroke at a time. In S. Craig & M. Turin (Eds.), On being wrong: Anthropological lessons in spite of ourselves. Cambridge, UK: Open Books. (Forthcoming)
Dowd, P., et al. (2018). Spyod bzang byis sgrung (Children鈥檚 stories for good character). Leh: Himalayan Cultural Heritage Foundation.
Journal Articles
Dowd, P. (2023). Songs still sung: The life and legacy of the Sixth Dalai Lama Tsangyang Gyatso. Kyoto Journal, 103, 154鈥�157.
Dowd, P. (2023). Khenpo Kalsang Dhondup鈥檚 鈥淚ncomparable Guide.鈥� Journal of Tibetan Literature, 2(2), 189鈥�196.
Dowd, P. (2023). A conversation with Khenpo Pema Dorje on the transmission of Buddhist scripture. Yeshe: A Journal of Tibetan Literature, Arts and Humanities, 3(1).
Dowd, P. (2020). The Nineteenth Bakula Rinpoche, Lozang Tupten Choknor (blo bzang thub bstan mchog nor). The Treasury of Lives.
Dowd, P. (2019). Linguistically and culturally relevant education on the roof of the world: The collaborative creation of a Ladakhi storybook. Book 2.0, 9(1鈥�2), 63鈥�82.
Public Scholarship
Dowd, P. (2021). Bringing the Bard to Tibet: The first Tibetan translations of Shakespeare. Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.
Dowd, P. (2020). The story behind the stupa. Lion鈥檚 Roar.
Dowd, P. (2019, September 23). How the sacred treasure of literacy came to Tibet. Buddhadharma: The Practitioner鈥檚 Quarterly, Winter 2019, 62鈥�75.
Selected Presentations
Dowd, P. (2025, May 31). By any other name: Motivations, opportunities and tensions in studying English among Tibetan Buddhist monastics in South Asia. HKU Symposium: Exploring Contemporary Monastic Religiosities in the Tibetan and Chinese Buddhist Worlds: Within, Between, and Beyond Institutions. Hong Kong University, Hong Kong.
Dowd, P. (2023, November 24). Voicing the Lineage: Orality, Writing and the Transmission of Tibetan Buddhism. Tsinghua Institute of Advanced Studies (TIAS), Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Dowd, P. (2022, March 24). Songs Still Sung: The Life, Times, and Legacy of the Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso. Shang Shung Institute, London, UK.
Education
- PhD, Anthropology, University of British Columbia
- MSEd, International Educational Development, University of Pennsylvania
- BA, English and Comparative Literature; Cultural Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
