Lingran Xie

Field: Modern Tibetan Studies
Advisor: Dr. Gray Tuttle
Email: lx2306@columbia.edu

Lingran Xie is a Ph.D. student in the East Asian Religion program. Her research interest focuses on monasticism in central Tibet (Lhasa and Shigatse), Sino-Tibetan relations during the
modern era, and Buddhist modernity in China. She wrote her M.A. thesis on how Lhasa’s
Drabzhi Lhamo Temple (གྲྭ་བཞི་དགོན་), a Tibetan Buddhist female treasure deity temple,
has encountered Buddhist modernity. In the summer of 2023, through field studies, she examined
the history of Drabzhi Lhamo Temple and its locative area Drabzhi Thang (གྲ་བཞི་ཐང་)
during the reigns of the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty,
explored the possible explanation of Grabzhi Lhamo’s origin and identity, and analyzed factors
contributing to Drabzhi Lhamo’s recent rise in popularity.

She received her B.A. in Religious Studies and Asian Studies from DePauw University
and her M.A. in East Asian Languages and Cultures (EALAC) from Columbia University. At
DePauw, her research broadly included analysis of pre-modern and modern Chinese literatures,
relations between the Chinese government and religions in the contemporary era, and the
political significance of religious imageries in modern Tibetan history. Before joining the M.A.
program at EALAC, she worked for two years as a research assistant at Yak Museum of Tibet in
Lhasa, where she conducted field research on the city’s monasteries.