Robert A. F. Thurman

The 84-year-old Buddhist scholar, translator, and co-founder of Tibet House US, Robert Thurman, died peacefully at his home in Woodstock, New York, on the morning of June 16, 2026.

Best known as a professor at Columbia University, father of Uma Thurman, the famous actress and model, and the co-founder of Tibet House US, Thurman spent his career insisting that Buddhist thought was not simply an exotic subject but a way of life with the potential to influence how the West sees and understands consciousness, mind and suffering.

Robert Thurman’s ideology and intellectual life were deeply influenced by the Dalai Lama. The New York Times called him “The Dalai Lama’s man in America.” Thurman first met the Dalai Lama in 1964 in India. A close intellectual fondness grew between the two, which finally led to Tibet House US. For the past six decades, Thurman has been the anchor between Tibetan Buddhism and the American mainstream.

Robert Thurman wasn’t simply a scholar; he was a professor who could fill lecture halls instead of making an empty assertion. He could translate ancient Sanskrit into language that ordinary New Yorkers could understand and believe.

Thurman’s life took a turn when he lost his left eye in an accident while changing a flat tire with a jack. His life felt meaningless, which made him wander, quite literally. He eventually dropped out of Harvard before going on a spiritual journey through Europe, the Middle East, Asia and finally India, where he met the Dalai Lama. Robert Thurman learned Tibetan, and by the age of 24, he was a Tibetan Buddhist Monk. The only Western Tibetan Monk existing at that time.

He gave up his robe as a Monk, resigned his monastic vows in 1967 and returned to Harvard. In an interview, Thurman said, "I wanted to be a monk ... study and meditate and do Buddhism, on every level, all my life. I realised ... the only way to do that as a lay person in America, and support a family and myself, was to be a professor, so I went back to Harvard." By 1972, he earned a PhD degree in Sanskrit Indian Studies.

In 1988, he was appointed the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University, the first endowed chair in Buddhist studies in the United States. Robert Thurman’s book Inner Revolution: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Real Happiness argued that Tibetan Buddhism could not only influence individuals but Western society as a whole. The book became a bestseller. Another of his notable works is the translation of the “Vimalakirti Sutra” from the Tibetan canon into English.

Time Magazine named Robert Thurman as one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997. In 2020, he was awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s highest civilian honors for his lifelong dedication towards restoring India’s ancient Buddhist heritage.

Robert Thurman was married twice. His first marriage to Marie-Christophe de Menil ended in 1961. He and his second wife, Nena von Schlebrügge, established the Menla Retreat and Dewa Spa, a 325-acre healing center in the Catskill Mountains. He had five children.

Friends and family online have shared messages of sorrow, kindness and peace. ​