He lived and worked among Tibetan Buddhist communities for extended periods since the early 1980s, particularly in Ladakh. While his earlier research focused on development, religious identification, and the dynamics of communal conflict, his current research concerns Tibetan Buddhist practice lineages as they negotiate the challenges of normative secularism and the scientific worldview. He heads the collective research project “Buddhism and Modernity: Global Dynamics of Transmission and Translation” and has a particular interest in the methodological and conceptual challenges of experimental and experiential research on contemplative practice and the emerging field of contemplative studies more generally.