Martin Brauen
Martin Brauen (born March 15, 1948 in Bern) is a cultural anthropologist from Bern, Switzerland who specialises in Tibet, the Himalayas and history of religions. Biography. Martin Brauen studied ethnology and religious history at the University of Zurich and Buddhology at the University of Delhi. He earned a doctorate after defending a thesis in Zurich on "Holidays and ceremonies in Ladakh" and a degree of "Privatdozent" (Habilitation in the field of anthropology of religions). Since 1975 he has had several positions at the EthnographicMuseum of the University of Zurich (Head of the "Himalaya, Tibet and the Far East  department, deputy director and director ad interim), as well as becoming a lecturer. From 2008 to 2012 he was chief curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Since then he is working as an independent curator: Kosmos – Rätsel der Menschheit (Museum Rietberg); Yak, Yetis, Yogis - Tibet im Comic (Museum Rietberg); Bill Viola: Passions (in the Cathedral of Berne); Cesar Ritz (old railway station Niederwald). Brauen is the author of several books and many exhibitions on Tibet, Bhutan, Nepal, Ladakh, and Japan. Among his books, Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism" is best known to the general  public and has been translated into six languages. Well known is also his book Dreamworld Tibet – Western Illusions (in German: Traumwelt Tibet). Martin Brauen has also produced several films and documentaries on Tibet and the Himalayas, and has worked in the areas of aid and development policy in a Swiss NGO (Brot für alle). He met Tibetans for the first time in 1965 and the 14th Dalai Lama in 1970 during an interview, and has since been committed to the Tibetan cause. He is married to the Tibetan artist Sonam Dolma Brauen, with whom he had two children, actress and  writer Yangzom Brauen and Tashi Brauen, artist. The great-grandfather of Martin Brauen, Elie Ducommun who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1902, was a notable pacifist.