Dr. Amelia Hall

Amelia is a new member of our editorial team and specializes in the translation and editing of obscure texts, such as ritual texts and namthars. She is also a professor at Naropa University. 

Amelia earned her Tibetan and Himalayan Studies doctorate from the University of Oxford in 2012. Her dissertation involved translating the namthar of Kunzang Dechen Lingpa, a Tibetan treasure revealer from the twentieth century, and documenting his terma revelations in Tibet, India, and the United States. She has taught Buddhism at Central Michigan University and Antioch University as part of the Buddhist Studies Abroad Program. Currently, she holds the position of Associate Professor of Buddhism at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She teaches in various degree programs such as BA Religious Studies, MA Yoga Studies, MA Contemplative Religions, and Master of Divinity. Her ongoing research and translation work focuses on ritual texts in klu ’bum collections, examining the influence of traditional ecological knowledge on perceptions of climate change and landscape transformation in the Himalayas. She has a great interest in translating ritual instructions and historical works.

Amelia’s recent publications include: “Embodying the Diamond Sow: Tantric Pilgrims in a Secret Lotus Land,” Body Trouble: Religious Boundaries for Sex, Gender and Corporeality (2018); “Gter ston: Tibetan Buddhist Treasure Revealers,” Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism (2020); “How is this Sacred Place Arrayed? Pacification, Increase, Magnetism, and Wrath in the Establishment of an Eastern Himalayan sbas yul,” Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History: Transformations of sBas Yul Through Time (2020). Amelia is currently working on a book on the Four Noble Truths, forthcoming from Shambhala Publications.

In addition to teaching at Naropa, Amelia leads workshops and courses at Tara Mandala and Drala Mountain Center. She also conducts a monthly online course on the History of Buddhism for Google’s Buddhism Group (from 2022 to the present). Amelia lives in Colorado with her husband and child.