By: Kaitlin Sepanek
Yampolsky was born in NYC. He received his college education at Horace Mann School and graduated in 1942 with his undergrad from Columbia College. After school, he joined the service and was appointed position of lieutenant while fighting in the Battle of Iwo Jima. He also served under the Navy Joint Intelligence center and was awarded a Bronze Star for serving as a translator.
One of his greatest accomplishments was winning the Fulbright scholarship in 1954 for 8 years in order to work on his dissertation on Hueing in Kyoto, Japan. (Hueing is the study of the quality of a color as determined by a dominant wavelength). Blue+Red=Purple
After his completed work, he returned to US in 1962 and soon completed his Ph.D. by 1965.
By the late 1960s, Yampolsky was given the position of librarian of Columbia’s East Asian Library. He stayed in this position until 1981.
In 1990 he retired and continued to lecture until about 1994. He was awarded Buddhist Studies Senior Scholar Award and received many thanks and gifts from people all over the world, but mostly from Japan and Medieval Japanese Studies program.
Died 1996 at the age of 75, survived by his wife, children and grandchildren.
He translated Asian books on Zen and religion for Asian course studies in America to English so that the students would better understand the knowledge.
He was mainly a translator and the books he wrote were published by Columbia University Press. The books and translations are still being used today.
Scholar of Zen Buddhism: centered in Asian coutries like China, Japan, Korea and Vitnam. “Zen” Buddhism is the study of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in the Tang dynasty in China. There is a school known as the Chan School which spread the knowledge of Zen Buddhism into more countries, making it more popular and eventually reaching the US.
English translation of Platform Sutra of the Dharma Treasure of the Great Master, the Sixth Patriarch
Zen: mix of dowism and buddhism centered on meditiation
