Prof. Wangchuk Dorjee Negi serves as the Vice Chancellor of the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies in Sarnath, Varanasi. He received his Acharya (MA) in Buddhist Philosophy with a Gold Medal from the same institute and went on to complete his PhD in Buddhist Philosophy at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University, Varanasi. At CIHTS, Sarnath, he is Professor of Indian Buddhist Philosophy in the Department of Mool Shastra, Faculty of Hetu Evam Adhyatma Vidya. He has also served as Dean of the Faculty of Hetu Evam Adhyatman Vidya and as Director of the Institute’s R&D Cell.
His teaching covers the four major Indian Buddhist philosophical schools: Madhyamaka, Yogacara, Sautrantika, and Vaibhashika, together with Buddhist Pramana and Buddhist Ethics. His research interests also extend to Buddhist Tantra and Buddhist hermeneutical texts.
Prof. Negi held the additional charge of Vice Chancellor at CIHTS, Sarnath from 2-12-2021 to 12-04-2022, and again from 13-04-2023 to 03-12-2023. He also served as Director of the Central Institute of Buddhist Studies, Leh, Ladakh, from 2010 to 2015. Through academic exchange programs, he has taught as a Visiting Professor at the University of Tasmania in Australia, as well as at Smith College and Hampshire College in Massachusetts, USA. He has further worked as a Research Guide at Taisho University in Japan and as Visiting Faculty for the Survey of Sanskrit Buddhist Manuscripts in Okayama, Japan. In addition, he has represented India, as nominated by the Government of India, at the SAARC Regional & Cultural Seminar in Sri Lanka and the ICCR Seminar in Cambodia. As a Resource Person and Dharma Teacher, he has also visited universities and Dharma centers in Chile, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Burma.
As an Indian Advisor, he has supported several Fulbright Research Scholars from the USA, Europe, and other regions through USIEF and AIIS, New Delhi.
His published works include several books, among them What is Buddhism (English, 2016), which was also translated into Spanish and Chinese; Commentary on Dhammapada (Hindi, 2010), later translated into Tibetan in 2014 and Bengali in 2012; Commentary on Dhammapada in the Context of Modern Time (English, 2013); Vajrayana Darshan Evam Sadhana (Hindi, 1998); Vajrayana Darshan Mimansa (Sanskrit, 2009); and Prajnaparamita-Hrdaya-Sutra-Sputartha-Bhashya – Commentary on Heart Sutra (Hindi, 2019). He has also translated and edited works in Hindi and Sanskrit, and authored numerous papers and chapters in journals and anthologies.