At the time of his death, he was giving a course in "Mahayana Buddhism" for the International Buddhist College (IBC) off-campus students doing their M.A. in Buddhist Studies at Than Hsiang Temple, Penang, Malaysia.

Mrs. Santina (Dr. Krishna), son, Siddhartha, daughter-in-law, Mimmi, friends, students, Dharma brothers and sisters attended Dr. Peter D. Santina's funeral on Thursday, 19th October 2006.
 
Biography of Dr. Peter Della Santina

Dr. Peter Della Santina was born in USA and received his B.A. in religion from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, USA.  He obtained his MA in Philosophy from the University of Delhi, India; followed by a Ph.D in Buddhist Studies from the same University in 1979.

He had spent many years studying and teaching in South and East Asia.  He was the Coordinator of the Buddhist Studies project at the Curriculum Development Institute of Singapore, a department of the Ministry of Education from 1983 to 1985.  More recently, he was a senior fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study in Simla, India and taught Philosophy at the Fo Kuang Shan Academy of Chinese Buddhism in Kaoh-shiung, Taiwan.

For more than twenty-five years Dr. Santina had been a student of His Holiness Sakya Trizin, leader of the Sakya Order of Tibetan Buddhism.  He had published several books and articles in academic journals including "Nagarjuna's Letter to King Gautamiputra" (Delhi 1978 & 1982), "Madhyamaka Schools in India" (Delhi1986) and "Madhyamaka and Modern Western Philosophy" (Philosophy East and West, Hawaii 1986). His widely read book "The Tree of Enlightenment" serves as a basic guide for those new to Buddhism and the Mahayana and Vajrayana Traditions.

Recommended links to Dr Peter Della Santina's major works

The Tree of Enlightenment: An Introduction to the Major Traditions of Buddhism
http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/~dsantina/tree/

Buddhism In Practice
http://www.dharmaweb.org/index.php/Buddhism_In_Practice_by_Dr._Peter_Della_Santina