Sherab Chödzin Kohn. Photo via The Chronicle. Sherab Chödzin Kohn. Photo via The Chronicle.

Buddhist author and translator Sherab Chödzin Kohn died during the night of January 22 at his home in Boulder, Colorado.

Kohn was a close student of the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche beginning in the early 1970s, and served as one of his principal editors. He was Chögyam Trungpa’s representative to Europe from 1978 to 1983.

Alongside Samuel Bercholz, Kohn edited the anthology Entering the Stream: An Introduction to the Buddha and His Teachings. Kohn was the author of A Life of the Buddha and published many translations, including Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha. He was one of the founding directors of the Nalanda Translation Committee.

Nikko Odiseos, President of Shambhala Publications, says that Kohn was “a hidden treasure for the Shambhala Publications community.” He writes:

Hundreds of thousands of people have been lucky enough to read what he wrote, edited, and translated from German and French; he worked on twenty titles spanning Buddhism, classical Chinese thought, Jungian archetypes, Rilke, martial arts, ethics, children’s books, and more. While his erudition, wit, and immense heart were not apparent for those who did not know him personally, it is for these we will remember Sherab most…. His brilliance shined brightly, and he touched and mentored many here. He was a hero to us.