Magdalena Maria Turek, "Buddhist Hermits in Eastern Tibet: Saint-Making and Ascetic Performance" (Routledge, 2025)

Jul 25, 2025

Magdalena Maria Turek, an independent research scholar with a PhD from Humboldt University, dives into the world of Tibetan Buddhism. She discusses her ethnographic study on the Lepchi Meditation School, detailing how meditation practices empower nuns and monks, and shape Buddhist identity amid cultural challenges. Turek shares insights on asceticism and its role in personal transformation, as well as the societal impact of charismatic figures like Tsultrim Tarchen. Her reflections on the intersection of spirituality and academic research reveal a vibrant tapestry of contemporary Tibetan practices.

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ANECDOTE

Finding the Research Topic

Magdalena Maria Turek discovered her research topic through inspiration by Shamar Rinpoche and Tibetan traditions emphasizing meditation in caves, not monasteries.
She overcame skepticism about Tibetan practice continuity post-Cultural Revolution through early fieldwork in Eastern Tibet starting 2007.

ANECDOTE

The Rise of Tsultrim Tarchen

Tsultrim Tarchen rose from ordinary life under Chinese repression to become a famed meditation master and founder of the Lapchi school.
His life story mirrors traditional Tibetan saint narratives but uniquely lacks early recognition as an incarnation lama.

INSIGHT

Distinct Nature of Gondras

Meditation schools ('gondras') differ from monasteries with stricter asceticism and individual practice focus.
These schools emphasize meditation discipline, renunciation, and self-formation unlike more ceremonial monasteries.

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Magdalena Maria Turek is an independent research scholar. She received her PhD from Humboldt University, Germany, and was a Research Fellow with the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies at the American Council of Learned Societies, USA. Her research examines how contemporary reiterations of Tibetan Buddhist orthopraxy, local narratives, and religious historiography shape Buddhist identities among Tibetans in China and the diaspora.

She just published Buddhist Hermits in Eastern Tibet: Saint Making and Ascetic Performance (Routledge, 2025), a fascinating ethnography of the meditation school of Lapchi in Kham, which is in Eastern Tibet in modern day Yushu Prefecture in Qinghai Province. This is a relatively modern hermitage founded by a charismatic ascetic master named Tsultrim Tarchen, and populated by various nuns and monks who are studying meditation under Tsultrim Tarchen. Her book explores the rise of Tsultrim Tarchen, the activities practiced by the students there, and the how their contemplative practices and ascetic regimes allow for self-formation and empowerment on the part of the meditators, participate in ethno-religious revival, and articulate a counter-cultural position against Chinese domination of Tibetan culture. I found this book rich with ethnographic detail about the various nuns and why they were there. It was able to help me understand modern Buddhist practices on their own terms, but also how they relate to broader social and historical forces. It's very readable, but also deeply researched both in the field and in terms of the theoretical literature.

Note: Early on in the podcast, we mention a film made by some traveling companions of Dr. Turek's around the same area she did fieldwork. The film was not made by Dr. Turek and does not reflect her views, but gives a sense of the area where she did her fieldwork. The link to the trailer can be found here.

Kate Hartmann is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Wyoming. She recently published Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage (Oxford University Press, 2025). Her other work can be found on her personal website.

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