Troy Dean Harris

Troy Dean Harris (Venerable Sritantra Tantidharo Svamin) is a California-born independent ascetic-arts curator, philosopher, poet and painter, who is also active in ethnographic research, cultural criticism and consultancy. Harris is the chief disciple and principle curator of the life and works of yoga master Guru Chot.
Biography
Harris was born on October 6, 1953, in Los Angeles. As a college freshman poised to be selected for military service, he refused to participate in any capacity and was conferred Conscientious Objector "1-O" status. From 1973 he studied art history, comparative religions and political thought at Mt. San Antonio College. In 1976 he won a Shannon Scholarship and spent the spring traveling in Japan. He graduated in philosophy from CSU Pomona in 1977 and returned to Japan where he underwent studies with Také (ç«¹) Zen Master Higashi Myogi, Tengen-ji. From 1981 he traveled though India and met cloudist painter René Laubies on the beach at Puri in the spring of 1983. For a five-year period from early 1984, Harris studied yoga with Guru Chot in Bangkok and researched intermittently with Buddhadasa. In 1989 he founded Leela Beach Yoga Centre, Ko Pha Ngan. Since the turn of the century Harris has been based in Singapore, while spending much time in Malaysia, Kerala, the Sunda Islands, Paris and Japan.
Career
Harris is the foremost western disciple of yoga master Guru Chot with whom he lived for a five year period from early 1984 in Thailand. In 2007 his direction turned to art historical and critical studies.
In methodology Harris is linked to nuagisme or the "Cloudist" school through intimate friendship, study and travel with Colonial French painter, writer and translator René Laubies (ca 1917-2006). The origins of this relationship are documented in Harris' short essay, "I first met Rene on the beach at Puri" (2008) and further attested by the mutual correspondences of Harris, Laubiès and the American poet, translator and editor Cid Corman (1924-2004) as contained in the large collection of Corman's papers at Indiana University.

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