Bharatwiki Socrates: Created page with "{{Short description|British Indologist and researcher (born 1946)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}} '''Geoffrey Samuel''' (born 22 November 1946) is an emeritus professor of religious studies at Cardiff University. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as yoga, tantra, and the subtle body. ==Life== Geoffrey Brian Samuel was educated at Leeds Grammar School and University College,..."

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Created page with "{{Short description|British Indologist and researcher (born 1946)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}} '''Geoffrey Samuel''' (born 22 November 1946) is an emeritus professor of religious studies at Cardiff University. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as yoga, tantra, and the subtle body. ==Life== Geoffrey Brian Samuel was educated at Leeds Grammar School and University College,..."

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{{Short description|British Indologist and researcher (born 1946)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2023}}
'''Geoffrey Samuel''' (born 22 November 1946) is an emeritus professor of religious studies at [[Cardiff University]]. He is known for his ethnographic studies of Tibetan and other Indic religions, investigating topics such as [[yoga]], [[tantra]], and the [[subtle body]].

==Life==

Geoffrey Brian Samuel was educated at [[Leeds Grammar School]] and [[University College, Oxford]], graduating with a bachelor's degree in physics in 1967.<ref name="Cardiff">{{cite web |title=Professor Geoffrey Samuel |url=https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey |publisher=[[University of Cardiff]] |accessdate=12 August 2019}}</ref> Moving to [[Trinity Hall, Cambridge]], he took Part III of the Mathematical Tripos (theoretical physics) in 1968, switching to gain a certificate in Social Anthropology in 1969.<ref name="Cardiff"/> He carried out ethnographic fieldwork in India and Nepal in 1971-2, and completed his PhD on Tibetan religion and society at Cambridge in 1975.<ref name="Cardiff"/> He then gained a Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science at the [[University of Newcastle (Australia)|University of Newcastle]], New South Wales, in 1985.<ref name="Cardiff"/>

He has carried out fieldwork in India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, and other Asian countries, studying religion and health practices.<ref name="Cardiff"/> He became a Professorial Fellow at the University of Cardiff in 2007, and then a full professor, a post he held until his retirement in 2014. He then moved to Australia, where he researches and supervises postgraduates.<ref name="Cardiff"/>

==Reception==
[[File:Chakras and energy channels 2 (3749594497).jpg|thumb|A Tibetan illustration of the [[subtle body]] showing the central [[Nadi (yoga)|nadi]] (channel) and two side channels connecting five [[chakra]]s]]

Stuart Ray Sarbacker, reviewing ''The Origins of Yoga and Tantra'' for the ''[[International Journal of Hindu Studies]]'', writes that in the book Samuel brings together his own Indian and Tibetan work with wider scholarship, creating "a coherent and lucid narrative of the development of [[Yoga]] and [[Tantra]] within a richly contextualized social history of Indic religion", including [[Hinduism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Jainism]]. Sarbacker contrasts the book with [[Mircea Eliade]]'s 1958 ''Yoga: Immortality and Freedom'' which gave little in the way of social context.<ref name="Sarbacker">{{cite journal |last1=Sarbacker |first1=Stuart Ray |title=Review: Contextualizing the History of Yoga in Geoffrey Samuel's "The Origins of Yoga and Tantra": A Review Symposium |journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies |date=December 2011 |volume=15 |issue=3 |pages=303–357 |jstor=41476651 |doi=10.1007/s11407-011-9107-6 |s2cid=58943273 }}</ref>

Loriliai Biernacki, reviewing ''Religion and the Subtle Body'' for ''Asian Medicine'', called it an ambitious endeavour to describe the [[subtle body]] in different geographic and philosophical traditions, from [[Daoist]] energy flow to the "[[Transmigration of a soul|transmigratory]]" Tibetan and Indian body of [[chakra]]s and [[Nadi (yoga)|nadi]]s and modern [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|theosophy]] and [[new age]] [[shaman]]ic [[Astral Body|astral bodies]].<ref name="Biernacki2014">{{cite journal |last1=Biernacki |first1=Loriliai |title=Religion and the Subtle Body in Asia and the West: Between Mind and Body, written by Geoffrey Samuel and Jay Johnston |journal=Asian Medicine |volume=9 |issue=1–2 |year=2014 |pages=277–279 |issn=1573-420X |doi=10.1163/15734218-12341333}}</ref>

Georgios T. Halkias, reviewing ''Introducing Tibetan Buddhism'', called it a knowledgeable and instructive introduction to the topic, providing an "innovative and refreshing" approach covering aspects omitted in other introductions to [[Tibetan Buddhism]]. Halkias found the book admirably balanced between simplification and expertise, though he regretted the poor quality of [[Routledge]]'s images throughout their book series, and the absence of a "comprehensive bibliography".<ref name="Halkias">{{cite web |last1=Halkias |first1=Georgios T. |title=Introducing Tibetan Buddhism by Geoffrey Samuel |url=http://himalaya.socanth.cam.ac.uk/collections/journals/ebhr/pdf/EBHR_41_07.pdf |accessdate=12 August 2019 |pages=126–128}}</ref>

==Books==

* Rozario, S. T. and Samuel, G. B. eds. 2002. ''The daughters of Hariti: childbirth and female healers in South and Southeast Asia''. [[Routledge]].
* Samuel, G. B. 2005. ''Tantric revisionings: new understandings of Tibetan Buddhism and Indian religion''. [[Motilal Banarsidass]]; [[Ashgate]].
* Samuel, G. B. 2008. ''The origins of yoga and tantra: Indic religions to the thirteenth century''. [[Cambridge University Press]].
* Samuel, G. B. 2012. ''Introducing Tibetan Buddhism. World Religions''. [[Routledge]].
* Dondhup, Y., Pagel, U. and Samuel, G. B. eds. 2013. ''Monastic and lay traditions in North-Eastern Tibet''. [[Brill Publishers|Brill]].
* Samuel, G. B. and Johnston, J. eds. 2013. ''Religion and the subtle body in Asia and the West: between mind and body''. Routledge Studies in Asian Religion and Philosophy Vol. 8. [[Routledge]].

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
*{{official|https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/702489-samuel-geoffrey}}

{{Yoga scholars}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel, Geoffrey}}
[[Category:Tibetologists]]
[[Category:Yoga scholars]]
[[Category:British Indologists]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:1940s births]]
[[Category:People educated at Leeds Grammar School]]

Geoffrey Samuel - Revision history