Application

Admission to the Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies requires outstanding academic qualifications and an above-average degree at the master’s level (e.g., Master of Arts, Magister Artium, or an equivalent degree) in a field relevant to Buddhist Studies, including a completed thesis. Applications from students who are currently in the final stage of their master’s program are also welcome.

Applicants are expected to have knowledge of at least one historical source language of Buddhism. This knowledge should correspond to the requirements of the respective doctoral project and will typically be at the bachelor’s or master’s level. Within the program, expertise is available in the major classical Buddhist source languages, including Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Chinese, and Japanese. Further language skills may be acquired during the course of the doctoral program.

General information about pursuing a doctorate in a humanities discipline at LMU and the applicable doctoral regulations can be found here.

You can start your studies in either the winter or summer semester (October or April). You can find the exact dates under Enrollment dates and deadlines.

Applications can be submitted at any time. If you want to start in October and are applying from abroad, we recommend that you apply by June 1; if you want to start in April, we recommend that you apply by December 1 of the previous year, as the admission and enrollment process for international doctoral candidates can take some time.

Applicants are required to fill in and submit all documents in the Online Application Tool of the LMU Doctoral Program in Buddhist Studies.

The following documents are required for your application:

• Curriculum vitae
• Letter of motivation
• Exposé (brief description of your doctoral project, max. 3000 words, including bibliographic information)
• Evidence of a master’s-level degree (e.g., Master of Arts, Magister Artium, or an equivalent degree):
  
  • Master's degree certificate and transcript of records. Please note that all certificates must be accompanied by an explanation of the grading system. Documents that are not in German or English must be translated.
  • Master's thesis or final thesis of your highest degree (in PDF format, max. 2 MB)
• Proof of the language skills required for the doctoral program (German or English)
• Proof of knowledge of a Buddhist source language (bachelor's or master's level)

If you have further questions, please consult our Frequently Asked Questions page.