Trent Walker

Portrait of Trent    Walker

Lecturer in religious studies at Stanford University with a PhD in Buddhist — Studies (University of California-Berkeley), Trent Walker is currently Director of Preservation and Lead Scholar of the Khmer Manuscript Heritage Project, Buddhist Digital Resource Center, aimed at digitizing over 10,000 palm-leaf and bark-paper manuscripts from Cambodia in Khmer, Pali, and Thai.

With a solid knowledge in Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Pali, Sanskrit, Siamese languagees, Trent Walker has published numerous essays on Theravada Buddhism and liturgical traditions of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, in particular the adaptations of Tipitaka, the corpus of Pali canon. 

In 2022, Trent Walker published Until Nirvana’s Time: Buddhist Songs from Cambodia, the first collection of traditional Cambodian Buddhist poetry available in English, original translations of forty-five texts along with extensive notes and essays. Sung in daily prayers or all-night rituals of healing, mourning, and consecration, these Dharma songs have guided Khmer-speaking communities in Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam for generations,” he remarked in his book launch announcement. The collection reflects the author’s experience when, in 2005, he went to In 2005, Kampong Speu province to study under the Cambodian Dharma song masters Prum Ut and Koet Ran. You can the video presentation here.

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Trent Walker’s website.