The Maitripa College community mourns the sudden loss of a brilliant and most kind alum, Dr. Michael Ium (MA 2014). We delighted in his passion for Buddhist Studies and community while he was a student here, and have been so proud of his subsequent achievements and promising career. Michael will be missed by his many friends here.  

We also share the information with you that a Gofundme page has been started to help Michael’s mother, Young Hee Ium, shoulder the significant expenses facing her, such as repatriation of Michael’s body, funeral expenses, etc. Please offer what you can by clicking here.

Dr. Michael Ium

Michael Ium was born and raised in Toronto as the child of South Korean immigrants. He studied psychology at the University of Toronto, earning a BA in 2008. Becoming disillusioned with his subsequent career as a professional poker player, he wrote, “As a backpacker going through a quarter-life crisis, my interest in Tibetan Buddhism and the Geluk tradition was sparked by a ten-day ‘Discovering Buddhism’ retreat at Kopan Monastery [in Nepal] in 2011.” It was there that he learned about Maitripa College in Portland, Oregon, and enrolled that fall.

Michael completed a Master of Arts in Buddhist Studies at Maitripa College, in 2014. He then received a prestigious Chancellor’s Fellowship and entered the PhD program at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He won a 2020 International Dissertation Research Grant from the American Academy of Religion, studying for over a year in India, and completed his PhD in 2023 with a dissertation entitled “The Early History of Ganden Monastery and the Construction of the Geluk Tradition,” which illuminated understudied aspects of the early Geluk tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and its founder, Tsongkhapa through the lens of the history of its first great monastery, Ganden. Michael then returned to his alma mater, the University of Toronto, as the first postdoctoral fellow in both the Department for the Study of Religion and the Ho Centre for Buddhist Studies. A brilliant scholar with a bright future, his career contributions, cut short by his untimely death, are a loss to us all.

Michael was the co-editor of the Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies and actively presented his research at prominent academic conferences, including meetings of the American Academy of Religion, the International Association of Tibetan Studies, the International Seminar of Young Tibetologists, and the International Association of Buddhist Studies. He was part of a translation group at UCSB working on sūtra translations for the 84000 Project and published several scholarly articles. He had recently taken up a position in Vienna as a postdoctoral fellow at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia, working on material related to Tibetan Buddhist scholasticism from the eleventh to thirteenth centuries.  On April 1, 2025, while delivering a talk in Vienna, Michael experienced a sudden health emergency. He passed away in the hospital on April 9.

In Nepal, where several hundred FPMT teachers and administrators (including several from Maitripa College) had gathered for a conference, Michael was included in a dedicated Medicine Buddha Puja at Kopan Monastery and in a special Jangwa (a ritual for those who have passed away) at Swayambhunath in Kathmandu.

At Maitripa College, upon hearing of Michael’s health emergency, Yangsi Rinpoche led prayers on April 8 and 9th. On the 8th, extensive rounds of Medicine Buddha and Heart Sutra and 21 Taras recitations that lasted over two hours. On April 9th, after learning Michael had died, community and several of Michael’s colleagues abroad joined us online to offer lights, King of Prayers, mani mantra, and shared remembrance of Michael with stories that were warm, funny, slightly irreverent, and deeply grateful. In these, a composite of Michael’s many interests, as well as his character, emerged, uniting us in love for a friend.

Sharing collegiality, particularly over a good meal, was always a highlight for Michael at any gathering. He made friends everywhere with his warmth, humor, integrity, and keen intellectual curiosity. He will be deeply missed by his friends, family, and colleagues around the world.