Insight Travel Buddhist Pilgrimages: Welcome: Our Leaders

Pilgrimage Leaders

Robert Pryor is Director and founder of the Antioch College Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya, India. Since 1979, he has led groups of students to Asia for this semester-long program of study and meditation at the site of the Buddha's enlightenment. In 1987 he established Insight Travel as a model for contemporary pilgrimage based on the combination of travel, study and practice. Robert was a consultant for BBC television on its film "In The Footsteps of the Buddha."

Dianeah Wanicek is a director of Insight Travel and has led groups to India, Nepal and Bhutan. She is a visual artist, a Hatha Yoga instructor, and is trained in Yantra Yoga, a Tibetan form of yoga practice. She has been practicing Vipassana and Tibetan Buddhist meditation for the past fifteen years. Dianeah is the mother of four grown children and her principal interests are the integration of all these traditions with daily life, including the daily life of the Asian pilgrimage.

Ian Baker is a scholar, writer and explorer who has lived for many years in Kathmandu and has traveled widely throughout Tibet and the Himalayas. In 1993 he was a member of a research team that made the first successful journey to Pemako through the Namche Barwa/Tsangpo Gorge in more then 60 years. He is co-author of "Tibet: Reflections from the Wheel of Life."

Beata Grant is Associate Professor of Chinese at Washington University in St. Louis. Beata lived and traveled in China for two years researching the major Buddhist sites, and has returned often to lead groups and seek research materials. A long-time practitioner of Buddhist meditation, Beata is particularly interested in exploring how Buddha dharma is experienced and practiced in everyday life, whether in Asia or America.

Tshering Jamtsho has been leading Insight Travel pilgrimages in Bhutan since 1992, with a leadership style characterized by personal warmth and a sense of adventure. He was raised in this mountain kingdom and has an excellent knowledge of its high rugged terrain as well as an inherent understanding of Bhutan's Vajrayana Buddhist culture.

Joanne Larson is an Instructor at the Centre for Buddhist Studies in Kathmandu, where she has studied and taught Buddhism and Tibetan for the past six years. She is a student of Chokyi Nyima Rinpoche, a Dzogchen Master and the abbot of Ka-Ning Shedrup Ling Monastery in Boudha, Nepal. Joanne worked in Nepal as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1990 and 1991, and has been a practitioner of Vajrayana Buddhism since that time. She is fluent in both Tibetan and Nepal. Joanne has circumambulated Mount Kailas, trekked in the western U.S., the Andes, and the Himalayas, and has traveled on pilgrimage in India, Nepal, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

Pat Masters has a Masters Degree in Buddhist Studies and a PhD in Political Philosophy, and is currently the Director of International Programs at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. She is also an Associate Professor in Political Science where she teaches courses on the intersections of religion and politics. She previously taught in India for Antioch College's Buddhist Studies Program and designed and led a Buddhist Studies Program in Kyoto, Japan for Antioch. She speaks fluent Japanese and is a practicing Buddhist.

Margaret Ward has a background in comparative religion and has worked on the staff of the Antioch Buddhist Studies Program in Bodh Gaya. She has a contagious enthusiasm for travel in the most remote areas, and has led the Insight Travel pilgrimage to the sites of the Buddha's life in India and Nepal.

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