ABOUT
Originally established in 2003, the Center for Daoist Studies is the education and
research branch of the Daoist Foundation, a non-profit religious and educational
organization. The Center for Daoist Studies conducts and supports research and education
on the Daoist tradition.
Our Directors
Louis Komjathy (Kang Siqi 康思奇; Xiujing 修靜; Wanrui 萬瑞; Ph.D., Religious Studies,
Boston University) has been involved in Daoist Studies for over fourteen years. He
is currently Assistant Professor of East Asian Religions at Pacific Lutheran University,
Research Associate in the Institute of Religion, Science and Social Studies of Shandong
University (PRC), and Co-chair of the Daoist Studies Group of the American Academy
of Religion. He has published Title Index to Daoist Collections (Three Pines Press,
2002), a technical reference work for accessing classical Daoist texts; Cultivating
Perfection: Mysticism and Self-transformation in Early Quanzhen Daoism (Brill, 2007),
a scholarly monograph on that twelfth-century Daoist religious movement; and the
forthcoming Handbooks for Daoist Practice (Xiudao shouce 修道手冊; Yuen Yuen Institute
[Hong Kong], 2008), a translation series for Daoist practitioners and students. His
current research focuses on early Quanzhen 全真 (Complete Perfection) Daoism, contemporary
Daoist monasticism, and the history of Daoist Studies. In 2006, he lived as a visiting
Daoist monk in the Daoist monasteries of Laoshan 嶗山 (Mount Lao; near Qingdao, Shandong)
and Huashan 華山 (Mount Hua; Huayin, Shaanxi) and received ordination into the Huashan
lineage of Quanzhen Daoism. He lives in Olympia, Wash. Email.
Kate Townsend (Tang Xiang'en 唐鄉恩; L.Ac., LMP) has been a student and practitioner
of Daoism, Chinese medicine, and the healing arts since 1984. Over the last twenty
years, she has studied with some of the foremost first- and second-generation Daoist
teachers in North America and has traveled and studied extensively in China, including
two internships at the Chengdu College of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She is particularly
interested in female Daoist cultivation and is currently working on a book on this
topic. She also received classical Yoga training at Samadhi Yoga Center (Seattle,
Wash.) and is a certified Yoga instructor. She lives in Olympia, Wash. and maintains
Queen Anne Natural Health, an acupuncture, herbal, and massage therapy clinic in
the upper Queen Anne area of Seattle. Email.
