Ronald Davidson earned his Ph.D. in Buddhist Studies in 1985, specializing in Indian Yogacara philosophical problems. He is Professor of Religious Studies. His primary area of research is in the domain of tantric Buddhism (Vajrayana, Mantrayana, Mantranaya), especially in medieval India and early Tibet. His books include Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (New York: Columbia University Press, 2002), Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005); Ronald M. Davidson and Christian K. Wedemeyer, eds. Tibetan Buddhist Literature and Praxis: Studies in its Formative Period, 900-1400 (Leiden: Brill Academic, 2005); Steven D. Goodman and Ronald M. Davidson, eds. Tibetan Buddhism: Reason and Revelation (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992); and Ronald M. Davidson, ed. Wind Horse: Proceedings of the North American Tibetological Society (Berkeley: Asian Humanities Press, 1981).
His current research is on the issue of secrecy in Indian tantric Buddhism, which will be examined in Secrecy and Revelation in Indian Esoteric Buddhism, to be completed shortly. Concurrently, he is also compiling on a Sanskrit edition and annotated English translation of Padmavajra's Guhyasiddhi (The Secret Accomplishment), a ninth century work proposing an extreme version of esoteric praxis, one that calls into question the apologetic ideology that such behaviors were symbolically coded rather than physically enacted. Beyond these, he has a monograph on the siddha Virupa in preparation.
Emphasis: Sanskrit/Tibetan
Dissertation: Buddhist Systems of Transformation: Āśraya-Parivrtti/-Parāvrtti among the Yogācāra[electronic resource](link is external). 1985. 422 p.