Jeff Watt, one of the leading scholars of Himalayan art, acquired his prodigious knowledge of Buddhist, Bon and Hindu iconography from a longtime study of Buddhism and Tantra. As a teenager, he studied with Dezhung Rinpoche and Sakya Trizin, dropping out of school at 17 to take monastic vows from the 16th Gyalwa Karmapa. For the next 11 years, Watt trained intensively in India, Canada and the U.S., with teachers such as Dudjom Rinpoche, Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Kalu Rinpoche, and Sakya Jetsun Chimey.

He is the Director and Chief Curator of Himalayan Art Resources, a website and ‘virtual museum’ featuring upwards of 100,000 images with detailed descriptions. He was the founding Curator and leading scholar, from 1999 to 2007, at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, which houses one of the largest collections of Himalayan and Tibetan art in North America.

James Shaheen, Tricycle’s Editor-in-Chief, began his Buddhist practice in the mid-1990s, studying with teachers from a number of Buddhist traditions. He is particularly interested in Buddhism’s growth in the West and its applicability to Western politics, culture, and everyday life. He has been with Tricycle for nearly 25 years.