Gray Tuttle

Gray Tuttle is the Leila Hadley Luce Professor of Modern Tibetan Studies in the Department of East Asian Languages & Cultures at Columbia University, based at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. His office is located at 913 International Affairs Building, Mail Code: 3333.

His educational background includes:

• BA from Princeton University (1991)
• MA from Harvard University (1996)
• PhD from Harvard University (2002)

Professor Tuttle specializes in Tibetan history, Tibetan religion, and Qing history, with particular focus on twentieth century Sino-Tibetan relations and Tibet's historical relationship with the Manchu Qing Empire. His research centers on the role of Tibetan Buddhism in these historical dynamics. He teaches courses including Introduction to East Asian Civilizations: Tibet, Life Writing in Tibetan Buddhism, and 20th Century Tibetan History.

His scholarly work examines how nationalism and race-based ideology failed to maintain Tibetan territories within the Chinese nation-state, arguing instead that pan-Asian Buddhism was critical to Chinese efforts to retain control over Tibetan regions (which constitute one quarter of China's current territory).

His publication Tibetan Buddhists in the Making of Modern China (2005) represents significant scholarship in this field, analyzing the intersection of religion, nationalism, and territorial claims in modern Chinese history.

Professor Tuttle is currently working on "Amdo Tibet, Middle Ground between Lhasa and Beijing (1578-1865)," a historical analysis of economic and cultural relations between China and Tibet during the early modern period when Tibet's intellectual centers shifted eastward to Amdo. This project examines how contact between Tibetan and Chinese civilizations led to three key developments: mass monastic education, bureaucratization of reincarnate lamas' charisma, and modern conceptions of geography that reshaped Tibetan identity.