Biography

Venerable Dr. Yifa has been a nun at Fo Guang Shan Monastery in Taiwan since 1979. She received her PhD in religious studies from Yale University in 1996 and was awarded the “Ten Outstanding Young Persons Award” in Taiwan in 1997, the “Outstanding Women in Buddhism Award” in 2003, and the “Julia Hollister Award” in 2006 given by the United Nations for her contribution in Peace and Interfaith Education. She has been an administrator at Fo Guang Shan Buddhist College in Taiwan, and at Hsi Lai University in Rosemead, California. She has been a visiting scholar at the University of California Berkeley and Harvard University, a lecturer at Boston University and a faculty member at National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan. She taught at McGill University as the Numata Visiting Professor in the spring of 2005 and served as the chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of the West in Los Angeles.

Over the years, Dr. Yifa has been engaged in interfaith dialogue and was supported on some occasions by UNESCO. She was also a contributor to the “Safe Motherhood Project” by the UNICEF South Asia Office. Dr. Yifa is a frequent guest lecturer on subjects including Chinese Buddhist philosophy, thanatology and ethics. Her current research focuses on Buddhist monasticism and women in Buddhism. She is the author of The Origin of Buddhist Monastic Codes in China and Safeguarding the Heart: a Buddhist Response to Suffering and September 11 and Authenticity: Buddhist Perspective on Junk.