Uma Thurmans Father, Robert, Dies at 84

's father Robert Thurman, a monk and renowned scholar of Tibetan Buddhism, has died at the age of 84. 

He made history as the first westerner to be ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk by the himself, according to his official website.

For three decades until his retirement in 2019, he held the Je Tsongkhapa professorship of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies at .

Robert raised Uma a Buddhist, with two years of her childhood spent in Almora, an Indian town famed as a hub for western Buddhists in a state bordering Tibet.

His death was announced Tuesday by Tibet House US, the Manhattan-based nonprofit he co-founded to promote Tibetan culture and the Dalai Lama. 

'We are deeply saddened to announce that Robert A.F. Thurman , prominent American Buddhist scholar, co-founder of Tibet House US, author and translator whose teachings shaped countless lives, died Tuesday morning, June 16, in Woodstock, New York,' the organization posted to Instagram.

After the Sanskrit mantra: 'Om Mani Padme Hum,' the statement noted that the 'Thurman family requests privacy at this time.'

As his daughter became a movie star, Robert's own work vigorously promoting Tibetan Buddhism to the west achieved greater prominence.

In 1997, the year Uma's movies Gattaca and Batman & Robin were released, Robert was named one of Time magazine's 25 most influential Americans.