BERKELEY — The Numata Center for Buddhist Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, is pleased to announce that the winner of the 2025 Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism is Professor Collett Cox (Professor Emerita, University of Washington), for her book A Gāndhārī Abhidharma Text: British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 28 (Seattle: Washington University Press, 2025).
The Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism is presented on an annual basis to an outstanding book in the area of Buddhist studies. The selection is made by an external committee that is appointed annually. Members of this year’s committee had high praise for the volume, which represents the fruits of decades of labor. One of the reviewers praises Cox’s volume as a “landmark contribution to Buddhist studies … [It] illuminates a formative phase of Buddhist scholasticism prior to the doctrinal consolidation of later systems and frameworks, offering rare insight into the exegetical practices of early Sarvāstivāda and related traditions….The volume’s meticulous integration of paleographic, linguistic, and doctrinal analysis marks a new standard in the study of Gāndhārī Buddhist manuscripts.” Another reviewer writes that “it will endure as a foundational study for the early history of Buddhist thought.”
Professor Cox will be presented with the Toshihide Numata Book Award on Friday, December 5, 2025, at the Jodo Shinshu Center (2140 Durant Ave., Berkeley). The award presentation will begin at 2 pm PST. Following the presentation, Professor Cox will deliver a keynote lecture, followed by a panel with presentations by Professors Baba Norihisa (University of Tokyo), Rupert Gethin (Bristol University), and Gao Mingyuan (University of Hong Kong).
More information about the Toshihide Numata Book Award in Buddhism, including names of past recipients of the Award, can be found here.