Brief Bios. of Ken Holmes and Katia Holmes
/ Publications
Ken and Katia in the Samye Dzong temple, Brussels
The following is a potted biography of Ken,
taken from the "About the Author" section of his book "Karmapa"
Ken Holmes, born in London in 1947, went from his studies
into a career of chemical engineering, which he left to manage a project helping
homeless addicts in central London. The project completed, he set out, in 1969
to meet in person the Sufi and Tibetan mystics he had read about since his childhood.
His travels led him through the Middle East and Afghanistan to India, where he
spent 6 months in Dharamsala, studying with the monks of HH the Dalai Lama. From
there he went to Kagyu Samye Ling, the first Tibetan Buddhist centre established
in the west. Kagyu Samye Ling has been his base for the past 30 years, during
which time his life has been devoted to making Tibetan Buddhist meditation and
philosophy available to the western world. He and his wife, Katia, whom he met
in Samye Ling in 1971, have translated some of the main Kagyu teaching texts into
English as well as much of the liturgy used in daily Buddhist practice.
In 1977, Ken and Katia spent six months travelling
with His Holiness the Sixteenth Karmapa
as his assistants for his European tour. It was during this time that His Holiness
encouraged them to enter into intensive study of Kagyu texts and to prepare
accurate English translations based upon the traditional lineage explanations.
Ken is presently Director of Studies at Kagyu Samye Ling, where he writes, teaches
and interprets for visiting Tibetan lamas. He also lectures in elementology
and astro-science for the Tara-Rokpa
College of Tibetan Medicine and assists in its translation work.
The following is a brief biography of Katia
Katia was born in France, as Katia Fontenelle, a direct
descendent of the famous French philosopher of that name. Following an education
in France and America, she gained an M.A. in political science at SciencePo in
Paris and went on to gain an M.Sc. in economics at the University of Paris. Her
research at this time took her to India. Following a year of lecturing at Vincennes
University in Paris, in 1970 she stayed for much of a sabbatical year in Kagyu
Samye Ling Tibetan Centre in Scotland, which she had visited in 1969. Based
in Samye Ling and France, she has dedicated her life since then to the study and
preservation of Tibetan wisdom.
In 1987 she gained a pre-doctoral DEA diploma in Religious
Anthropology of Asia and Africa at the EPHE, Paris. Since 1993, she has concentrated
on Tibetan Medicine and has worked in close conjunction with Khenpo Troru Tsenam
Rinpoche, Tibet's finest doctor and greatest scholar. Katia is the main translator
and interpreter for the Tara-Rokpa College
of Tibetan Medicine where she is working on a translation of the famous Fourfold
Tantra, under the guidance of Khenpo Tsenam.
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Last Updated: 15 April 1998
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