Robert A. F Thurman, who was ordained a Buddhist monk in 1964 by Tenzin Gyatso, the current Dalai Lama, is the current director of Tibet House in New York City. He is the father of five children including the actress Uma Thurman. One of the world's most respected scholars and translators of Tibetan and Sanskrit, Thurman has translated The Tibetan Book of the Dead (1994) and is the author or translator of many books includingThe Central Philosophy of Tibet: A Study and Translation of Jey Tsong Khapa's Essence of True Eloquence (1984),Speech of Gold: Reason and Enlightenment in Tibetan Buddhism (1989), Inside Tibetan Buddhism (1995), and Infinite Life: Seven Virtues for Living Well(2004). This book was published in cooperation with The Institute for Advanced Studies of World Religions.
