Associate Professor Claudio Cicuzza

Claudio Cicuzza earned both his MA and PhD in Indology from the University of Rome, “La Sapienza”. His supervisor was Professor Raniero Gnoli. Currently, he holds the 2024 Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Translation Grant in Buddhist Studies and is a member of The Pali Translation Project (https://palitranslation.org/).
 
Previously, he served as professor and head of the department at Webster University’s School of Arts and Sciences, as well as a professor in the International PhD Program in Buddhist Textual Studies at Mahidol University. From 2016 to 2018, he was Director of the Lumbini International Research Institute in Nepal, and from 2017 to 2024, he also served as General Editor of the Materials for the Study of the Tripitaka Series (Bangkok/Lumbini).
 
His current research focuses on Pali literature, with a particular emphasis on the textual traditions of Central Siam, and on the Sanskrit scholasticism of the Pāla period in Northern India. One of his key projects, funded by the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, involves the English translation of an important Buddhist Tantra—the Laghutantra-ṭīkā by Bodhisattva Vajrapāṇi. This text is the oldest of the three foundational commentaries in the Kālacakra tradition. He is also working on an edition and translation of Ratnarakṣita’s commentary on the 30th chapter of the Saṁvarodayatantra. In the field of Pali literature, he is preparing critical editions of two significant Pali texts from Siam: the Paramatthamaṅgala and the Vessantarajātaka-vivaraṇā.
He also explores the social, political, and ecological implications of Buddhist thought in Asia and the Western world.
 
Cicuzza's scholarly contributions include numerous articles, edited volumes, critical editions, and translations from Sanskrit and Pali. Notable publications include The Laghutantraṭīkā by Vajrapāṇi (Rome, 2001), La rivelazione del Buddha (Milan, 2001 and 2004), Il capitolo XXX del Samvarodayatantra (Rome, 2001), Buddhism and Buddhist Literature of Siam: Selected Papers of Peter Skilling (co-editor, Bangkok and Lumbini, 2009), A Mirror Reflecting the Entire World: The Pali Buddhapadamaṅgala or “Auspicious Signs on the Buddha’s Feet” (Bangkok and Lumbini, 2011), and How Theravāda is Theravāda? Exploring Buddhist Identities (co-editor with Peter Skilling, Jason A. Carbine, and Santi Pakdeekham, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai). His most recent works include The Wat Pho Manuscript of the Unhissavijaya (Bangkok and Lumbini, 2018) and “Further Notes on Human ‘Rights’ and ‘Dignity’ from a Buddhist Perspective” (Journal of Philosophy and Religion Society of Thailand, 2022).