Robert Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at Columbia University in New York City. He studied at Phillips Exeter Academy as well as Harvard, and then went on to study Buddhism and Tibet as a personal pupil of the Dalai Lama for nearly 30 years. Robert A. F. Thurman is the father of Uma Thurman and Dechen Thurman and he is also a former Tibetan Buddhist monk. In 1987, Mr. Thurman and Richard Gere founded New York City's Tibet House, a nonprofit institution devoted to preserving the living culture of Tibet. Robert Thurman has written extensively and lectured all over the world. He can be seen and heard in the documentary film Free Tibet which was produced by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys.


Father of (with Christophe de Menil) Taya Thurman (b. 1960), and (with Nena Thurman) Uma Thurman (b. 1970), Ganden Thurman (b. 1968), Dechen Thurman (b. 1973), and Mipam Thurman (b. 1978). College professor of actor Jake Gyllenhaal while he was enrolled at Columbia University.