Jeffrey Hopkins

Jeffrey Hopkins (1940–2024) was a scholar and translator of Tibetan Buddhism and Professor Emeritus of Tibetan Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia, where he taught Tibetan studies and language for more than three decades. He founded the university’s programs in Buddhist Studies and Tibetan Studies and served as director of its Center for South Asian Studies for twelve years. Hopkins earned a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

From 1979 to 1989, Hopkins served as the Dalai Lama’s chief English interpreter. He authored or translated more than twenty-five books, including Meditation on Emptiness, Emptiness Yoga, and Mountain Doctrine. He was also general editor and co-author, with William Magee and Elizabeth Napper, of Fluent Tibetan: A Proficiency-Oriented Learning System, a four-volume Tibetan-language textbook published in 1993.