SIT Study Abroad

• A pioneer in experiential, field-based study abroad providing academically engaging semester and summer programs with a focus on critical global issues.
• More than 2,000 undergraduates from 200-plus colleges and universities study in over 40 countries each year.

Hubert Decleer

Over his nearly 25 years of leading SIT Study Abroad Tibet and Nepal programs, Hubert Decleer has gently and firmly guided about a thousand students to discover the gems of wisdom in these cultures and shape more meaningful lives. Both Hubert and many of his students have become internationally recognized scholars in an expanding network of inter-related fields.

Hubert's contributions to the field of Tibetan Studies are being honored this August (2010) at the International Association of Tibetan Studies (IATS) conference in Vancouver, Canada, by a panel of his former SIT students - themselves now significant academic leaders - discussing and celebrating his work.

According to two of these alumni, Benjamin Bogin and Andrew Quintman, professors at Georgetown and Yale Universities respectively, "Hubert's work is both incredibly prolific and continually original, covering the religious, literary, and cultural histories of Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and India. Perhaps more importantly, for nearly 25 years, he has directed SIT's program for Tibetan (and Himalayan People's) Studies, a program that has served as a starting point for many young scholars working in the field today. As an exemplar of both scholar and mentor, he has had a lasting and profound impact on the study of Tibet, maintaining close relationships with many of the field's senior voices while actively supporting its new generation of researchers."

Hubert's own extensive research and translations of Himalayan Buddhist practices and texts brought him into close contact with many inspiring Buddhist leaders, which in turn opened the way for SIT students to meet some of these luminaries. During his tenure, SIT students have regularly been invited for audiences with the Dalai Lama, had an audience with the young Karmapa soon after he came into exile in India in 2001, and have met with innumerable teachers, monks, priests, and other venerable practitioners.

With his inimitable combination of serious commitment and light-heartedness, Hubert often warns his students, "There is one thing you should be very afraid of... that is... leading a mediocre life." Throughout his leadership in the SIT Tibet and Nepal programs, Hubert has lived by this dictum and guided students to reach deeper forms of learning and shape more meaningful lives. His students not only study Tibetan monastic debate, ritual music composition, Sherpa mountaineering, refugees in Nepal, changing language priorities, and many other aspects of Himalayan culture and life. They also learn about traditions and develop life skills in kindness, respect, inspiration - which he describes as the "sina qua non in any research" - and devotion to vocation.

SIT students under Hubert's tutelage have gone on to become professors of Asian studies, religious studies, philosophy, and linguistics at universities across the US, including not only Yale and Georgetown, but also the University of California Berkeley, Texas Tech, and the University of Chicago, among others. His former students also serve in diverse leadership positions such as Time Magazine Bureau Chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan; Managing Director for World Wildlife Fund, Eastern Himalayan Region; and Episcopal priest and Director of the Interfaith Center of New York.

Hubert shifted from the position of Academic Director of the SIT Tibet and Himalayan Peoples program to become its Senior Advisor six years ago. He continues to advise students and lead excursions to pilgrimage sites in several countries, as well as to work closely with current Academic Director Isabelle Onians and to support SIT's Nepal program as needed. And as always, Hubert continues to serve as humble friend and mentor to a vast network of former students.

Written by Susal Stebbins.

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