Alex Wayman

Alex Wayman (1921–2004) was an American Indologist and translator, a professor of Sanskrit at Columbia University. He translated foundational texts of Buddhism, including Chanting the Names of Manjusri, an extensive meditation from the Manjusri-nama-samgiti, and edited the groundbreaking studies collected in The Buddhist Tantras.

Wayman devoted his research to the inner, non-ritual interpretation of Tantra — ritual is symbolism, and technique is realization — placing him at the heart of the modern academic understanding of the deepest schools of Tibetan and Indian Buddhism. His careful editions helped open the study of Tantra to the wider, English-speaking world without sensationalism.