Robert Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Relgion at Columbia University, the president of Tibet House US, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan civilization, and president of the American Institute of Buddhist Studies, a nonprofit affiliated with the Center for Buddhist Studies at Columbia University and dedicated to the publication of translations of important artistic and scientific treatises from the Tibetan Tengyur. He is considered the leading American expert on Tibetan Buddhism and is the author of many books on Tibet, Buddhism, art, politics, and culture, including The Central Philosophy of Tibet, Circling the Sacred Mountain, Essential Tibetan Buddhism, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet, Worlds of Transformation, Inner Revolution, Infinite Life, The Jewel Tree of Tibet, Why the Dalai Lama Matters, and with Sharon Salzberg, Love Your Enemies.