Geoffrey Samuel is a Professor in the School of History, Archaeology and Religion at Cardiff University in Wales, and Director of the Body, Health and Religion (BAHAR) Research Group, an international research network based at Cardiff.

His academic background is in physics and social anthropology and his PhD, based on field research with Tibetans in Nepal and India, was on Tibetan religion and society. His subsequent fieldwork, focusing on religion and on medical and health practices, has included several further research trips to India, Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan, and shorter visits to other Asian societies.

Recent research projects have included studies of Tibetan medicine and of Tibetan yogic health practices, and research on Tibetan ritual dance. He is author of a number of books, including Mind, Body and Culture (1990), Civilized Shamans (1993), The Origins of Yoga and Tantra (2008) and Introducing Tibetan Buddhism (2012), and is co-editor of the journal Asian Medicine: Tradition and Modernity.

Photo courtesy of Torbjørn Hobbel, Norway, 2010.

Credentials

B.A. (Oxford), Ph.D. (Cambridge)

Areas of Research

• Religion in contemporary and historical Tibetan societies
• Historical development and contemporary practice of technologies of consciousness
• understanding the relationship between consciousness, body and materiality, particularly in relation to healing, meditation and yoga
• Tibetan, Indian and other Asian medical, health and yogic practices
• Religion and modernity, including Buddhism in contemporary societies
• Gender, sexuality and masculinity in Asian cultures
• Shamanism and ‘nature religions’