Re: Mahidol University's Buddhist Studies Programme

Firstly, so that this is situated in the relentless charm of semi-urban Yunnan:

In the time that elapsed since my last e-mail to the group, I rode my
bicycle to the market.  Having purchased fresh bread, hot from the
tandoor-oven of the local Uighur muslim minority (@ 2 kway each), I
proceeded to the vegetable market, where I did my best to use the
local system of hand-signals to barter my purchase of a set of mangoes
--likely imported from Thailand.  (e.g., one thumb and the smallest
finger indicates "6 kway")

I then purchased Han-Chinese bread as well, presenting "my
credentials" (viz., holding up a card with the Chinese phrase "I am
devoutly vegetarian" written on it, allowing them to read it while I
attempt to pronounce it at the same time) --allowing myself to be
"flirted" with, despite my near-zero comprehension of the language, by
offering a raised eyebrow and a comical frown as a riposte to the
salesgirls' well-honed "come on" lines.  (Note: I've been there with a
translator before, so this is not purely my middle-aged imagination
run wild; they don't have much else to do but flirt with those of us
in the bread queue).

And now, I write this while drinking genuine, locally grown Yunnan-ese
coffee --the taste of which is similar to chewing on a paper napkin.

And now, to offer a few comments that might be more useful than merely
grovelling (and beating myself on the head with a slipper) for mixing
up Hundius and Hinuber so late last night (and with a bad head-cold!
my familiar excuse!):

A large part of my concern with this kind of "staff listing" comes
from my own experience in Canadian academia, rather than in Thailand.

The list has already received a few very long reports with praise for
a few Thai institutions that I have visited --and that seemed to be
doing good and important work in a transparent and laudable way.

In Canada, however, the university I attended really did defraud its
students so far as offering courses in Buddhism, Sanskrit, etc.
--something that I published a carefully-worded article on at the
time, sparking a series of tense meetings within that academic
establishment.  They were rather more pleased when my activism proved
to stir up a huge lump sum of money from the local Chinese community:
with my article in hand, Chris Ng "beat the drum" for donations, and
so my critique came with a promise of new funding, as the strange
circumstances dictated.

There are two sides to this issue:

On the one hand, it is rather shameful when (e.g.) an institution like
Nalanda College (an independent "school" that is located on U. of
Toronto campus, but not formally affiliated with the latter) attempts
to list the likes of A.K. Warder among its staff.  When I asked Warder
about this directly, he was astonished, and at first (I infer) thought
that I was lying to him when I said that it was advertised that he was
more-or-less teaching Pali at "Nalanda" for a small fee (obviously, I
was interested in becoming his student, were it possible to do so).
It became clear, although with some indecipherable sputtering
prolonging the question, that he was absolutely not teaching, not
lecturing, and not co-operating with Nalanda College in any way
whatsoever --but that they were listing his name just about everywhere
that they could, on the basis of some past conversation they'd had
with him.

At some point thereafter, they ceased to do this --perhaps Warder
contacted them to request his name be removed from such lists?  I
don't know.  In any case, Warder's reputation will hardly suffer from
this dubious listing.

Now, on the other hand, there is the real harm that such "misleading
boasts" made by academic institutions entails for the students --many
of whom will spend tens of thousands of dollars, and several years of
their lives, based on such simple claims made on paper.

When I was there, the U. of Toronto was listing many courses related
to Buddhism that simply did not exist; they would appear "on paper"
right up to the moment the term started, and then it would be
announced that they were not on offer after all.  The reality was that
the three key professors were all "on the edge of retirement", and the
departments involved had, in a sense, never recovered from the
dramatic implosion of the department that had formerly been led by
A.K. Warder, and that was so vitiated with controversy by J.M. Mason
(the latter is now more famous for his work on Freud and his books on
cats than his early career as a Sanskritist).

The fact that it was impossible for a student to actually take "intro
to Sanskrit" for a long period (during which time we students were
enrolling and paying our fees in response to the false promise that we
could take such a course) was a case in point --and an issue that had
ramifications for myself, personally.

A particularly pathetic instance, known to me, was a Palestinian
immigrant, whose family was Muslim, and who enrolled at UofT with a
then-passionate interest in studying Buddhism; she put down her money,
and committed four years of her life, based on the promise that there
was this robust programme of courses available to her, that would
allow her to develop a Buddhist studies specialization, or at least do
some reasonably profound reading in this genre.

What she ended up with was a degree in "Religious studies", almost all
of which was in the Judeo-Christian tradition, with just one course in
Buddhist philosophy to her name --everything else "on offer" proved to
be chimerical.  Indeed, as I have mentioned, the physical presence of
professors listed as staff can also prove to be chimerical.  This was
especially painful for her, given her cultural and family background,
I might say; but she'll never have another opportunity to study
Buddhism --and certainly never another opportunity to study Sanskrit,
etc.

This is not the only example known to me, and the article containing
the whole sad story of the collapse of UofT's Sanskrit/Buddhist
Studies department is still available on-line (although I still chafe
at certain changes to the wording that were made without my permission
... such as the use of the verb "rivals" ... grr...).

In any case, when I read such lists (even if they be "pro forma",
etc.) I do indeed rankle at the possibility of false listings.

One way or another, it will do no harm to the reputation of Hinuber if
he is listed (but, in fact, the professors do not even have his e-mail
address, as mentioned!) --but it will do real harm to certain of their
students if they enroll thinking they will be able to see Hinuber "in
the flesh", and this is not so.

For myself, I would need to investigate very carefully how many of
their professors actually live within walking distance of the campus
before I would enroll in such a thing.

And, as you all know, they would not accept me unless I passed the
9th-level monastic Pali exams anyway --so it is a moot point.

Back to my napkin-flavoured coffee.

E.M.