The Center for Buddhist Studies and the Department of East Asian Studies are pleased to announce that Ziling Wan is the 2026 recipient of the Khyentse Foundation Best Graduate Student Award. An award ceremony took place in conjunction with the East Asian Studies ceremony on Friday, May 8, 2026.
Ziling Wan is completing her Ph.D. in East Asian Studies at the University of Arizona after successfully defending her dissertation in April 2026. She received her M.S. in Geographic Information Systems Technology from the University of Arizona in May 2026. Her dissertation, “Writing Miracle Tales in Early Modern China: Chan Master Huishan Jiexian’s (1610–1672) Representation of the Supernatural World,” examines the unexpected roles of ritualism and supernaturalism in early modern Chan monastic life by focusing on the Xianguo suilu 現果隨錄 (Record of Present-Life Karmic Retribution), the first miracle tale collection compiled by a Chan master. It argues that miracle narratives functioned as textual representations of speech acts through which Chan monks articulated karmic discourse, promoted moral exhortation, and constructed religious authority within the competitive religious environment of early modern China. Her research has been supported by major fellowships from the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation and the Khyentse Foundation. Her work has also been recognized by the China Times Cultural Foundation’s Young Scholar Award and Taiwan’s National Science and Technology Council’s Taiwanese Overseas Pioneers Grant. Ziling's personal website: zilingwan.com
The Khyentse Foundation Student Award was set in 2018 at the Center for Buddhist Studies to encourage the University of Arizona graduate and undergraduate students to study Buddhism and its related subjects. Since 2001, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and a team of volunteers have been committed to providing funding for individuals and organizations seeking to make the dharma available to the world. For more information: Student Awards | Center for Buddhist Studies | University of Arizona.