Tshe Ring Thar (才让太) (1958–)

Tshe Ring Thar (才让太), born in 1958 in Guide County, Qinghai, is a Tibetan scholar specialising in Bon religion and Zhang Zhung civilization. He received a master’s degree from Qinghai Nationalities Institute in 1985 and a doctorate from the Graduate University for Advanced Studies in Japan in 2004. His academic career has included teaching and research at the Hainan Prefecture Nationalities Normal School, Qinghai Nationalities Institute, the China Tibetology Research Centre and Minzu University of China.

His research examines early Bon, the formation and transmission of the Bon canon, the historical relationship between Bon and Buddhism, monasteries and religious communities, and the place of Zhang Zhung and Bon in Tibetan cultural history. He has undertaken extensive field research across Tibetan regions and has published scholarship in Tibetan, Chinese, English and Italian, combining textual study with documentation of living Bon institutions.