Bharatwiki Socrates at 02:55, 26 November 2023

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{{Short description|British Indologist and researcher (born 1946)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
'''Geoffrey Samuel''' (born 22 November 1946) is an emeritus professor of religious studies at [[Cardiff University]]. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as [[yoga]], [[tantra]], and the [[subtle body]].

==Life==

Geoffrey Brian Samuel was educated at [[Leeds Grammar School]] and [[University College, Oxford]], graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics in 1967.<ref name="Cardiff">{{cite web |title=Professor Geoffrey Samuel |url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey |publisher=[[University of Cardiff]] |accessdate=12 August 2019}}</ref> Moving to [[Trinity Hall, Cambridge]], he took Part III of the Mathematical Tripos (theoretical physics) in 1968, switching to gain a certificate in Social Anthropology in 1969.<ref name="Cardiff"/> He carried out ethnographic fieldwork in India and Nepal in 1971-2, and completed his PhD on Tibetan religion and society at Cambridge in 1975.<ref name="Cardiff"/> He then gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science at the [[University of Newcastle (Australia)|University of Newcastle]], New South Wales, in 1985.<ref name="Cardiff"/>

He has carried out fieldwork in India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and other Asian countries, studying religion and health practices.<ref name="Cardiff"/> He became a Professorial Fellow at the University of Cardiff in 2007, and then a full professor, a post he held until his retirement in 2014. He then moved to Australia, where he researches and supervises postgraduates.<ref name="Cardiff"/>

==Reception==
[[File:Chakras and energy channels 2 (3749594497).jpg|thumb|A Tibetan illustration of the [[subtle body]] showing the central [[Nadi (yoga)|nadi]] (channel) and two side channels connecting five [[chakra]]s]]

Stuart Ray Sarbacker, reviewing ''The Origins of Yoga and Tantra'' for the ''[[International Journal of Hindu Studies]]'', writes that in the book Samuel brings together his own Indian and Tibetan work with wider scholarship, creating "a coherent and lucid narrative of the development of [[Yoga]] and [[Tantra]] within a richly contextualized social history of Indic religion", including [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Jainism]]. Sarbacker contrasts the book with [[Mircea Eliade]]'s 1958 ''Yoga: Immortality and Freedom'' which gave little in the way of social context.<ref name="Sarbacker">{{cite journal |last1=Sarbacker |first1=Stuart Ray |title=Review: Contextualizing the History of Yoga in Geoffrey Samuel's "The Origins of Yoga and Tantra": A Review Symposium |journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies |date=December 2011 |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=303–357 |jstor=41476651 |doi=10.1007/s11407-011-9107-6 |s2cid=58943273 }}</ref>

Loriliai Biernacki, reviewing ''Religion and the Subtle Body'' for ''Asian Medicine'', called it an ambitious endeavour to describe the [[subtle body]] in different geographic and philosophical traditions, from [[Daoist]] energy flow to the "[[Transmigration of a soul|transmigratory]]" Tibetan and Indian body of [[chakra]]s and [[Nadi (yoga)|nadi]]s and modern [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|theosophy]] and [[new age]] [[shaman]]ic [[Astral Body|astral bodies]].<ref name="Biernacki2014">{{cite journal |last1=Biernacki |first1=Loriliai |title=Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body, written by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston |journal=Asian Medicine |volume=9 |issue=1–2 |year=2014 |pages=277–279 |issn=1573-420X |doi=10.1163/15734218-12341333}}</ref>

Georgios T. Halkias, reviewing ''Introducing Tibetan Buddhism'', called it a knowledgeable and instructive introduction to the topic, providing an "innovative and refreshing" approach covering aspects omitted in other introductions to [[Tibetan Buddhism]]. Halkias found the book admirably balanced between simplification and expertise, though he regretted the poor quality of [[Routledge]]'s images throughout their book series, and the absence of a "comprehensive bibliography".<ref name="Halkias">{{cite web |last1=Halkias |first1=Georgios T. |title=Introducing Tibetan Buddhism by Geoffrey Samuel |url=http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ebhr/pdf/EBHR_41_07.pdf |accessdate=12 August 2019 |pages=126–128}}</ref>

==Books==

* Rozario, S. T. and Samuel, G. B. eds. 2002. ''The daughters of Hariti: childbirth and female healers in South and Southeast Asia''. [[Routledge]].
* Samuel, G. B. 2005. ''Tantric revisionings: new understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian religion''. [[Motilal Banarsidass]]; [[Ashgate]].
* Samuel, G. B. 2008. ''The origins of yoga and tantra: Indic religions to the thirteenth century''. [[Cambridge University Press]].
* Samuel, G. B. 2012. ''Introducing Tibetan Buddhism. World Religions''. [[Routledge]].
* Dondhup, Y., Pagel, U. and Samuel, G. B. eds. 2013. ''Monastic and lay traditions in North-Eastern Tibet''. [[Brill Publishers|Brill]].
* Samuel, G. B. and Johnston, J. eds. 2013. ''Religion and the subtle body in Asia and the West: between mind and body''. Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy Vol. 8. [[Routledge]].

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{official|https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey}}

{{Yoga scholars}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Geoffrey}}
[[Category:Tibetologists]]
[[Category:Yoga scholars]]
[[Category:British Indologists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1940s births]]
[[Category:People educated at Leeds Grammar School]]

Geoffrey Samuel - Revision history

Bharatwiki Socrates at 02:55, 26 November 2023