The Naropa Institute is a private, non-profit liberal arts college located in Boulder, Colorado, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in the arts, social sciences and humanities. The institute was founded in 1974 as a division of the Nalanda Foundation, a non-profit, nonsectarian educational organization, by the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who envisioned a university that would combine contemplative studies with traditional Western scholastic and artistic disciplines. The Naropa Institute is modeled on Nalanda University, a Buddhist institution of scholastic and contemplative disciplines which flourished in India from the fifth to the twelfth centuries. It takes its name from Naropa, the eleventh-century abbot of Nalanda University and a renowned Buddhist scholar, teacher and practitioner.
When the institute opened in the summer of 1974, its program of studies, expected to draw 300 to 400 participants, attracted 1,800 students and eighty faculty. Over 100 courses and workshops were offered in Eastern and Western traditions of meditation, philosophy, psychology, poetry, creative writing, theater, dance, music, and visual arts. Faculty have included well-known figures such as Allen Ginsberg, John Cage, Gregory Bateson, R. D. Laing, Anne Waldman, Harvey Cox, William Burroughs, and Herbert Guenther, among many others. Trungpa Rinpoche acted as president of the institute from 1974 to 1985. That year the institute was reorganized as a separate non-profit educational corporation under the direction of a board of trustees, of which Trungpa Rinpoche was an ex-officio member until his death in 1987.
In 1980 the institute appointed its first dean, Judith Lief, who was succeeded in 1985 by Chancellor Barbara Dilley. After Trungpa Rinpoche's death in 1987, the title of president became available, and in 1989 the title of chancellor was changed to reflect that. The current president of the institute is John W. Cobb. The institute received accreditation from the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in 1986. On July 25, 1990 the institute formally reasserted its original name, "The Naropa Institute." Its current address is 2130 Arapahoe Avenue, Boulder, Colorado, 80302-6697.
The sound recordings in the fonds were maintained in the custody of
Vajradhatu Recordings in Boulder, Colorado, until their acquisition by
the Archives in 1989. Vajradhatu Recordings (now Kalapa Recordings) is
a department of Vajradhatu, an association of Buddhist churches founded
in 1973 by the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. The fonds consists
of sound recordings created or acquired by Vajradhatu Recordings pursuant
to its policy of creating a permanent record of the teaching and administrative
activities of the Venerable Trungpa Rinpoche and other principal teachers
and administrators of the Nalanda Foundation and its divisions. Included
are recordings of academic and administrative events presided over or conducted
by Trungpa Rinpoche or his successor, the Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin,
and by other noted teachers, scholars or artists.
The fonds is arranged in the following series:
1. Administrative activity
2. Public talk or seminar
3. Special event, workshop or conference
4. Summer session founder's course
Title based on contents of the fonds.
Extent includes duplicates.
Some audio reels show evidence of deterioration.
Portions of the fonds are restricted to authorized students. Access
to those records is by arrangement with the Archives Director.
Inventories accompany series descriptions. For additional details see
the Vajradhatu Archives Database of Holdings.
Related materials may be found in the Naropa Institute Allen Ginsberg
Library.
Further accruals are expected. Videocassette recordings related to
portions of the fonds exist and are described in a finding aid for the
Vajradhatu Archives Video Recovery Project.
Photographic records related to portions of the fonds are described
in the Vajradhatu and Nalanda Foundation Information Office Photographic
Fonds Finding Aid.
Related materials may be found in the following fonds of sound recordings:
the Venerable Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche fonds; the Vajradhatu fonds;
the Vajradhatu Seminary fonds; the Nalanda Foundation fonds; the Shambhala
Training events fonds; and the Vajra Regent Ösel Tendzin fonds.
An inventory of verbatim transcriptions of portions of the fonds exists.
Return to description list.