An inter­view with

Vladimir Uspensky

Pos­i­tion & Affil­i­ation: Pro­fess­or and Chair of Mon­go­li­an and Tibetan Stud­ies, St. Peters­burg University
Date: Septem­ber 10, 2018 in St. Peters­burg, Russia
Inter­viewed by: Anna Sehnalova

Cite this archive

Oral His­tory of Tibetan Stud­ies. (2021, Decem­ber 2). An inter­view with Vladi­mir Uspensky. Retrieved 26 April 2025, from https://oralhistory.iats.info/interviews/vladimir-uspensky/.
“An inter­view with Vladi­mir Uspensky.” Oral His­tory of Tibetan Stud­ies, 2 Dec. 2021, https://oralhistory.iats.info/interviews/vladimir-uspensky/.
Oral His­tory of Tibetan Stud­ies. 2021. An inter­view with Vladi­mir Uspensky. [online], Avail­able at: https://oralhistory.iats.info/interviews/vladimir-uspensky/ [Accessed 26 April 2025]
Oral His­tory of Tibetan Stud­ies. “An inter­view with Vladi­mir Uspensky.” 2021, Decem­ber 2. https://oralhistory.iats.info/interviews/vladimir-uspensky/.

Dis­claim­er: The views and opin­ions expressed in this inter­view are those of the inter­viewee and do not neces­sar­ily rep­res­ent the offi­cial pos­i­tion of the Oral His­tory of Tibetan Stud­ies project.

Timestamps:

Additional info

Vladimir Leonidovich Uspensky

Professor
Doctor of Sciences (equiv. Habilitation)

Born on Decem­ber 12, 1954 in Leningrad/St Petersburg.

In 1981 he gradu­ated from the Depart­ment of Asi­an and Afric­an Stud­ies of Len­in­grad (now St Peters­burg) State Uni­ver­sity. In the same year he became a post­gradu­ate stu­dent of the Insti­tute of Ori­ent­al Stud­ies (Len­in­grad Branch).

In 1984 he became a ten­ured mem­ber of this Insti­tute. He occu­pied a vari­ety of pos­i­tions, the most import­ant being the Head of the For­eign Cooper­a­tion Sec­tion and the Cur­at­or of the Tibetan Col­lec­tion. For many years he was the Dir­ect­or and Co-Dir­ect­or of the joint pro­ject with the Asi­an Clas­sics Input Pro­ject (ACIP) aimed at the com­pil­ing of a com­puter cata­logue of the Tibetan col­lec­tion. In 1996–97 he was a vis­it­ing pro­fess­or at the Insti­tute for the Study of Lan­guages and Cul­tures of Asia and Africa at the Tokyo Uni­ver­sity of For­eign Studies.

In 2004 he defen­ded the Habil­it­a­tion Dis­ser­ta­tion entitled Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing dur­ing the Man­chu Qing Dyn­asty (1644–1911).

His pub­lic­a­tions include three books and many art­icles in dif­fer­ent lan­guages. His main schol­arly work is the Cata­logue of Mon­go­li­an Manu­scripts kept at St Peters­burg Uni­ver­sity Library.

Schol­arly interests: his­tory and Buddhist lit­er­at­ure of the Tibetans, the Mon­go­li­ans and the Manchus.

Since Novem­ber 2007 he works at the Depart­ment of Asi­an and Afric­an Stud­ies of St. Peters­burg State Uni­ver­sity. From Janu­ary 2008 he was elec­ted as a pro­fess­or of the same department.

© IOM RAS

2021

Aca­­dem­i­­cian-Ori­ent­al­ist V. P. Vas­ilyev: Kazan—Beijing—Saint Peters­burg. (Essays and mater­i­als) [Академик-востоковед В. П. Васильев: Казань—Пекин—Санкт-Петербург (очерки и материалы)] / Valeyev R.M., Walravens H., Dat­sy­shen V.G., Elant­seva O.P., Zhukov V.Y., Kul­ganek I.V., Liu Liqiu, Martyn­ov D.Y., May­at­sky D.M., Pang T.A., Uspensky V.L.; com­piled by Pang T.A.; eds. Valeyev R.M., Kul­ganek I.V. Saint Peters­burg, Kazan, 2021. 320 p., ill.

Tibet­o­logy in St. Peters­burg. Col­lec­ted papers. Issue 2 / Edit­or­i­al board: B. B. Bad­mayev, A. V. Zor­in (exec­ut­ive edit­or), Ch. Ramble, A. A. Sizova (sec­ret­ary), V. L. Uspensky. St. Peters­burg: St. Peters­burg Centre for Ori­ent­al Stud­ies Pub­lish­ers, 2021. 356 р. + 16 il. ISBN 978–5‑85803–572‑5

2020

Uspensky V. Key­note: Tibetan Stud­ies in Saint Peters­burg: Past and Present // Revue d’Etudes Tibé­taines. New Cur­rents on the Neva River: Pro­ceed­ings of the Fifth Inter­na­tion­al Sem­in­ar of Young Tibet­o­lo­gists. Num­ber 55, Juil­let 2020. P. 1–14.

2019

Uspensky V. Józef Kowalewski’s Stud­ies on the His­tory of Cath­oli­cism in China // Rocznik ori­ent­alistyczny, T. LXXII, Z. 2, 2019. P. 134–151.

2018

Uspensky V. About an Attempt to Use the Cyril­lic Alpha­bet for the Mon­go­li­an Lan­guage // Rocznik ori­ent­alistyczny. T. LXXI, Z. 2, 2018. S. 249—258.

2015

The Buddhist Tra­di­tions of Rus­sia: Com­mem­or­at­ing the 250th Anniversary of the Lin­eage of the Pan­dita Khambo Lamas [Учение Будды в России: 250 лет институту Пандито Хамбо-лам]. Edit­or­i­al Board: Prof. Dr. I. F. Pop­ova (chief edit­or); B. B. Bad­maev; Prof. Dr. V. L. Uspensky; Dr. A. V. Zor­in (exec­ut­ive edit­or); A. A. Sizova (sec­ret­ary). St. Peters­burg: St. Peters­burg Centre for Ori­ent­al Stud­ies Pub­lish­ers, 2015. 186 р.

Uspensky V. About an Early Attempt to Trans­late the Tengy­ur from Tibetan to Mon­go­li­an // Rocznik ori­ent­alistyczny. T. LXVIII, Z. 2, 2015. S. 206—212.

Uspensky V. [Review:] Peter Schwieger. The Dalai Lama and the Emper­or of China: A Polit­ic­al His­tory of the Tibetan Insti­tu­tion of Rein­carn­a­tion // The East­ern Buddhist. New Series. Vol. 46, No. 2, 2015. P. 131—138.

2014

Manu­scripts and Wood­b­lock Prints in Asi­an Lan­guages at the Sci­entif­ic Lib­rary of Saint Peters­burg State Uni­ver­sity / Edited by Vladi­mir L. Uspensky; St. Peters­burg State Uni­ver­sity Fac­ulty of Asi­an and Afric­an Stud­ies. St. Peters­burg: St. Peters­burg State Uni­ver­sity Fac­ulty of Philo­logy, 2014. 175, [1] p.

Tibet­o­logy in St. Peters­burg. Col­lec­ted papers. Issue 1. Edit­or­i­al Board: I.F.Popova (chief edit­or), B.B.Badmaev, A.V.Zorin (exec­ut­ive edit­or), V.L.Uspensky. St. Peters­burg: St. Peters­burg Centre for Ori­ent­al Stud­ies Pub­lish­ers, 2014.

Uspensky V. The Status of Tibet In the Sev­en­teenth – Early Eight­eenth Cen­tur­ies: A Mon­go­li­an Per­spect­ive // Rocznik ori­ent­alistyczny. T. LXVII, Z. 1, 2014. S. 230—237.

2012

Uspensky V. Rivalry of the Des­cend­ants of Ching­gis Khan and His Broth­er Khas­ar as a Factor in Mon­go­li­an His­tory // Rocznik ori­ent­alistyczny. T. LXV, Z. 1, 2012. S. 231—235.

2011

Uspensky V.L. Tibetan Buddhism in Beijing [Тибетский буддизм в Пекине]. St Peters­burg, 2011. 368 p.

2006

Explan­a­tion of the Know­able” by ‘Phags-pa bla-ma Blo-gros rgy­al-mtshan (1235–1280) / Fac­sim­ile of the Mon­go­li­an Trans­la­tion with Trans­lit­er­a­tion and Notes by Vladi­mir Uspensky. With spe­cial assist­ance from Inoue Osamu. Pre­face by Nakami Tat­suo. Tokyo: Research Insti­tute for Lan­guages and Cul­tures of Asia and Africa, 2006. 115 p.

2000

Uspensky V. Index to the Cata­logue of the Mon­go­li­an Manu­scripts and Xylo­graphs in the St. Peters­burg State Uni­ver­sity Lib­rary. Tokyo: Insti­tute for the Study of Lan­guages and Cul­tures of Asia and Africa, 2000. 186 pp.

1999

Uspensky V. Cata­logue of the Mon­go­li­an Manu­scripts and Xylo­graphs in the St. Peters­burg State Uni­ver­sity Lib­rary / Com­piled by V. L. Uspensky with assist­ance from O. Inoue. Edited and Fore­word by T. Nakami. Tokyo: Insti­tute for the Study of Lan­guages and Cul­tures of Asia and Africa, 1999. XV, 530 pp.

1998

Uspensky V. A Tibetan Text on the Ritu­al Use of Human Skulls // Manuscripta Ori­entalia. Vol. 4, No 4, Decem­ber 1998. P. 35–40.

1997

Uspensky V. Prince Yunli (1697–1738): Man­chu States­man and Tibetan Buddhist. Tokyo: Insti­tute for the Study of Lan­guages and Cul­tures of Asia and Africa, 1997.

1996

Uspensky V. Old Tibetan and Mon­go­li­an Col­lec­tions in the Lib­rar­ies of St. Peters­burg // Asi­an Research Trends: A Human­it­ies and Social Sci­ence Review. No. 6. The Centre for East Asi­an Cul­tur­al Stud­ies for Unesco; The Toyo Bunko. P. 173‒184.

1993

Буддизм в переводах. Выпуск 2 / Перевод Е.А.Торчинова, М.Е.Ермакова, В.И.Рудого, Е.П.Островской, Е.А.Островской-младшей, Т.В.Ермаковой, О.С.Сорокиной, К.Ю.Солонина, А.М.Кабанова, А.С.Мартынова, И.С.Гуревич, К.В.Алексеева, В.Л.Успенского, В.Ю.Климова, Е.А.Западовой. Редактор-составитель Е.А.Торчинов. СПб.: «Андреев и сыновья», 1993.