Riga Shakya is a PhD candidate in Sino-ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ history in the History-East Asia Program at Columbia University. His interests broadly span classical and contemporary ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ literature and the history of Sino-ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ relations. Riga’s doctoral research centres on the emergence of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ political biography during the Qing period, with particular attention to the literary works of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ cabinet minister and polymath Dokhar Tsering Wangyal (Mdo mkhar tshe ring dbang rgyal). He is currently working on the first English language translation of Dokhar’s autobiography Reflections of a Cabinet Minister (Bka’ blon rtogs brjod). Riga holds a BA in East Asian Studies and Religious Studies from the University of Toronto, and a certificate in ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Language and Culture from Tibet University, Lhasa. He is also an avid translator of contemporary ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ fiction and poetry.