Rae Erin Dachille

Biography

Dr. Rae Erin Dachille (Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies, University of California at Berkeley) specializes in the religious and artistic traditions of Himalayan Buddhism. Her research focuses upon representations of the body in art, ritual, philosophy, and medicine in Tibetan and Sanskrit sources.  Dr. Dachille’s book project, entitled Searching for the Body: The Body Mandala Debate in Fifteenth-Century Tibet, explores the variety of attitudes toward the body reflected in a heated scholastic exchange between two prominent Tibetan monks.  Dr. Dachille’s work reflects her enduring interest in revealing the many ways in which Tibetan Buddhist sources may enrich our approach to studying the body as an object of knowledge as well as to formulating new theories of representation. She teaches courses in Himalayan Buddhism, South Asian religions, theories and methods for the study of religion, and religion in the medical humanities.

Degrees

• Ph.D. Buddhist Studies
• University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California
• The Body Mandala Debate: Knowing the Body through a Network of Fifteenth-Century Tibetan Buddhist Texts
• M.A. Languages & Cultures of Asia
• University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States
• Modes of Representation and Meanings in the Blue Beryl Paintings of Desi Sangye Gyatso
• M.A. Art History
• University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States
• Containers of Love, Containers of Wisdom: Composing a Poetics of Pahari Miniature Painting
• B.A. Liberal Arts
• Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, New York, United States