BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//ceres.rub.de//events// CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-TIMEZONE:UTC BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dunhuang Material Culture\, Its Creation and Use DTSTART:20240131T130000Z DTEND:20240131T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:dunhuang-material-culture-its-creation-and-use-8182@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac ademy)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 30 January 2024\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berli n\, Rom\; Vienna).\n\nLecture Series Overview:\n\nChinese scholarship on t he Dunhuang Caves and materials from the so-called Library Cave\, one of t he greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century\, has expanded rapidl y over the past twenty years. An ever-increasing number of academics\, res earch projects\, and publications have provided a wealth of scholarly reso urces for the field. This corpus of research merits more attention from we stern scholars\, not just in Dunhuang Studies but from across a variety of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences. This series of six tal ks will explore this breath of Chinese scholarship and provide a guide to major areas within Dunhuang Studies\, its key scholars\, publications\, re search projects\, institutions\, and trends.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approach on two levels. The first is that Dunhuang m aterials\, given their range and diversity\, can be viewed as a coherent d ataset\, the closest we have to an ethnographic collection for medieval Ea stern Central Asia. In this sense then\, they should be valued in their co mplex\, interdisciplinary entirety. Second\, concentrating on Chinese Dunh uang research in the 21st century\, these talks also engage an ethnologica l approach to the academic realm in order to examine how subfields of Dunh uang Studies are delineated in light of institutions and ongoing social fo rces. Availing my position as someone in the field of Dunhuang Studies wor king at a Chinese research institute\, I will provide on-the-ground observ ations through discussions with members of the scholarly community in Chin a (i.e.\, ‘thick description’)\, with an emphasis on the explanation o f behaviour and agency that accepts emic categories of division of Dunhuan g resources and analyses their origins and usages\, as well as how those c ategories may enhance or constrain research together with the production o f knowledge and its dissemination.\n\nEach of these lectures will systemat ically cover the following areas: \n\n\n compilation and editing of prima ry source materials for all fields\n major scholars and publications\, coo perative projects\n research trends (themes and topics)\n reference and re search tools\n\n\nFinally\, given the framework and sponsor of these talks \, the resources explored will be keyed to the seven thematic research clu sters of the BuddhistRoad Project (Center for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Uni versität Bochum) to further scholarship on topics within the context of E astern Central Asia and their relation to Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nT he final talk in the series ties together a variety of themes and topics i n previous lectures through the exploration of Chinese scholarship on mate rial culture. Picking up from the previous lecture\, this presentation rev iews recent and ongoing projects digitising and cataloging Dunhuang caves and their contents. In the context of Chinese Dunhuang Studies\, the categ ory of material culture also extends to objects illustrated within cave mu rals\, ranging from furniture to clothes to musical instruments\, all of w hich have become research topics in their own right. Another rich area of research\, spanning image and realia\, are textiles and fabrics\, as well as votive objects such as banners from the Library Cave. In addition to st udy on the visual programmes of Dunhuang Caves and their contents\, Chines e scholars have increasingly focused on the degree to which material cultu re documents the transmutation of Buddhism in its transmission from India to China via Central Asia. The talk will close with summary of primary tre nds and future directions in Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research Professor at the Dunhuang Academy. His scholarship centres on Du nhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the role of Buddhist lit erature in ritual and art\, medieval economic development\, Esoteric Buddh ism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and ar chitectural space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on several m onographs\, including From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religiou s Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and ritual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first-ever cr itical bibliographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Compreh ensive Guide to Scholarly Resources for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/reg ister/u5Elde2vrDIuH9axFXq-VqlsptHTUIfnIUQd#/registration LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dunhuang-material-culture- its-creation-and-use/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mountain God\, Celestial God\, and Kingship: The Non-Buddhist Trad ition in Dunhuang Tibetan Documents DTSTART:20240124T130000Z DTEND:20240124T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:mountain-god-celestial-god-and-kingship-the-non-bu-10776@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Yuewei Wang \n\nThe lecture wil l be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 23 January 2024\, 1 2 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (CET) (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\; Vienna)\n \nThe Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts from the 8th to 11th centuries are pivo tal for understanding early Tibetan religions\, centered around mountain g od worship\, seen as earthly manifestations of the celestial gods (Tib. lh a). These divine celestial beings were thought to bestow divine rulership\ , deity systems\, laws\, and societal foundations upon humanity. The texts from Dunhuang (and other early Tibetan texts\, such as Stod lha rabs) del ineate three evolving relationships between celestial gods and mountain go ds and the rulers:\n\n\n Tibetan pre-imperial period (up to ca. 600): Loca l rulers (Tib. rgyal po) revered mountain gods for safeguarding and as sym bols of their rule.\n Tibetan imperial period (ca. 600–850): Mountain go ds were personal deities (Tib. sku bla) of divine kings (Tib. btsan po)\, essential in royal ceremonies but also capable of forsaking kings. Subjuga ted rulers were compelled to honor the Tibetan king’s personal deity.\n Additionally\, the renowned mountain gods of central Tibet\, the nine moun tain gods (Tib. lha dgu)\, were depicted as paternal relatives to the sacr ed Tibetan king\, both descendants of the celestial Phyva class.\n\n\nThes e narratives trace the mountain gods’ transformation from local guardian s to divine relatives of the Tibetan sovereigns\, mirroring the shifting p olitical and power dynamics of the era. The study concentrates on two emin ent Tibetan mountain gods\, Tanglha yazhur (Tib. Thang lha ya bzhur) and Y arlha shampo (Tib. Yar lha sham po)\, exploring the ideological and regal facets of pre-Buddhist Tibet.\n\nYuewei Wang is Post-doctoral researcher a ssociated with Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orien tale\, Paris\, and Ph.D. holder of École Pratique des Hautes Études-Pari s Sciences et Lettres. Her research interests focus on the Tibetan religio us history in textual resources and social practices\, the evolution of Ti betan mountain cults amidst societal changes\, and the comparative religio us theory. Her recent works include: “The Cult of the Mountain God Gnyan chen thang lha in Tibet” (PhD diss.\, EPHE\, Paris\, 2023)\, “Gnyan c hen Thang lha and his Three Vows in Byang gter” Revue d’Etudes Tibét aines: For A Critical History of the Northern Treasures\, vol. II (Paris\, upcoming\, 2023)\, and “Buddhism and Amdo Tibetan Society: Taking Amcho g Local Society as the Case” (PhD diss.\, Minzu University of China\, Be ijing\, 2018).\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-u ni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5EqcuypqTsrGtbgbzS65z\n\n  LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/mountain-god-celestial-god -and-kingship-the-non-bu/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Life Cycles: Calendars\, Festivals and Death at Dunhuang DTSTART:20240110T130000Z DTEND:20240110T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:life-cycles-calendars-festivals-and-death-dunhuang-8181@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac ademy) \n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-registe r until 09 January 2024\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Ber lin\, Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast)\n\nLecture Series Overview:\n\nChinese scholarship on the Dunhuang Caves and materials from the so-called Library Cave\, one of the greatest archaeological finds of t he 20th century\, has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years. An ever -increasing number of academics\, research projects\, and publications hav e provided a wealth of scholarly resources for the field. This corpus of r esearch merits more attention from western scholars\, not just in Dunhuang Studies but from across a variety of disciplines in the humanities and so cial sciences. This series of six talks will explore this breath of Chines e scholarship and provide a guide to major areas within Dunhuang Studies\, its key scholars\, publications\, research projects\, institutions\, and trends.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approach on two levels. The first is that Dunhuang materials\, given their range and dive rsity\, can be viewed as a coherent dataset\, the closest we have to an et hnographic collection for medieval Eastern Central Asia. In this sense the n\, they should be valued in their complex\, interdisciplinary entirety. S econd\, concentrating on Chinese Dunhuang research in the 21st century\, t hese talks also engage an ethnological approach to the academic realm in o rder to examine how subfields of Dunhuang Studies are delineated in light of institutions and ongoing social forces. Availing my position as someone in the field of Dunhuang Studies working at a Chinese research institute\ , I will provide on-the-ground observations through discussions with membe rs of the scholarly community in China (i.e.\, ‘thick description’)\, with an emphasis on the explanation of behaviour and agency that accepts e mic categories of division of Dunhuang resources and analyses their origin s and usages\, as well as how those categories may enhance or constrain re search together with the production of knowledge and its dissemination.\n\ nEach of these lectures will systematically cover the following areas: \n \n\n compilation and editing of primary source materials for all fields\n major scholars and publications\, cooperative projects\n research trends ( themes and topics)\n reference and research tools\n\n\nFinally\, given the framework and sponsor of these talks\, the resources explored will be key ed to the seven thematic research clusters of the BuddhistRoad Project (Ce nter for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) to further scholars hip on topics within the context of Eastern Central Asia and their relatio n to Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nThis lecture begins with a review of C hinese scholarship on Dunhuang manuscripts that offers key insights into t he vibrant exchange of medical and scientific knowledge across Eurasia\, o ften embedded in religious discourse. These exchanges influenced multiple domains of life at Dunhuang\, including the astral sciences and calendrics . Over the last twenty years work in China has begun showing an increasing interest in these areas and\, as well as in the relationships between rel ated texts and visual materials in Dunhuang caves. One of the strengths of recent scholarship has been research on the festival and seasonal year\, which fundamentally configured lay and religious life at Dunhuang. In keep ing with the topic of the quotidian\, this lecture will also examine recen t scholarship on fundamental issues concerning the death and the life cycl e\, including karmic\, together with the role of these play in the constru ction of Dunhuang caves.\n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research Professor at the Dun huang Academy. His scholarship centres on Dunhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the role of Buddhist literature in ritual and art\, me dieval economic development\, Esoteric Buddhism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and architectural space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on several monographs\, including From Byz antium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religious Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and ritual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first-ever critical bibliographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Comprehensive Guide to Scholarly Reso urces for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at  https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5YqfuGtrjwjG9MH3woZYhq yERF_H5cHY_g5#/registration LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/life-cycles-calendars-fest ivals-and-death-dunhuang/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Connections with the Divine: Religious Life in Dunhuang DTSTART:20231213T130000Z DTEND:20231213T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:connections-divine-religious-life-dunhuang-8179@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac ademy)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 12 December 2023\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berl in\, Rom)\n\nLecture Series Overview:\n\nChinese scholarship on the Dunhua ng Caves and materials from the so-called Library Cave\, one of the greate st archaeological finds of the 20th century\, has expanded rapidly over th e past twenty years. An ever-increasing number of academics\, research pro jects\, and publications have provided a wealth of scholarly resources for the field. This corpus of research merits more attention from western sch olars\, not just in Dunhuang Studies but from across a variety of discipli nes in the humanities and social sciences. This series of six talks will e xplore this breath of Chinese scholarship and provide a guide to major are as within Dunhuang Studies\, its key scholars\, publications\, research pr ojects\, institutions\, and trends.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approach on two levels. The first is that Dunhuang materials\ , given their range and diversity\, can be viewed as a coherent dataset\, the closest we have to an ethnographic collection for medieval Eastern Cen tral Asia. In this sense then\, they should be valued in their complex\, i nterdisciplinary entirety. Second\, concentrating on Chinese Dunhuang rese arch in the 21st century\, these talks also engage an ethnological approac h to the academic realm in order to examine how subfields of Dunhuang Stud ies are delineated in light of institutions and ongoing social forces. Ava iling my position as someone in the field of Dunhuang Studies working at a Chinese research institute\, I will provide on-the-ground observations th rough discussions with members of the scholarly community in China (i.e.\, ‘thick description’)\, with an emphasis on the explanation of behavio ur and agency that accepts emic categories of division of Dunhuang resourc es and analyses their origins and usages\, as well as how those categories may enhance or constrain research together with the production of knowled ge and its dissemination.\n\nEach of these lectures will systematically co ver the following areas: \n\n\n compilation and editing of primary source materials for all fields\n major scholars and publications\, cooperative projects\n research trends (themes and topics)\n reference and research to ols\n\n\nFinally\, given the framework and sponsor of these talks\, the re sources explored will be keyed to the seven thematic research clusters of the BuddhistRoad Project (Center for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) to further scholarship on topics within the context of Eastern Ce ntral Asia and their relation to Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nThis thir d talk explores the Dunhuang caves (i.e.\, Mogao\, Yulin\, Western and Eas tern Thousand Buddha Caves\, and Wugemiao) which\, together with their ma terial culture and textual resources\, are fundamentally Buddhist in natur e. Given that much of 21st century Chinese scholarship on Dunhuang has foc used on Buddhism\, this talk first examines the rich corpus of research on Buddhist texts\, doctrines and ritual. Research over the past twenty year s has also increasingly turned to non-Buddhist religions and practices\, r anging from Syriac Christianity to Manichaeism. We then examine how at the heart of this interest is the ever-increasing contemporary Chinese focus on the Silk Road as a conduit of transmission that served to establish rel igious networks of exchange across Eastern Central Asia.\n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research Professor at the Dunhuang Academy. His scholarship centres on Dunhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the role of Buddhist l iterature in ritual and art\, medieval economic development\, Esoteric Bud dhism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and architectural space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on several monographs\, including From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religi ous Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exoti c goods and ritual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first-ever critical bibliographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Compr ehensive Guide to Scholarly Resources for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join t he lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/r egister/u50ocuqvqz8oG9VPX9ck5xHjg2LUUf1Ctj5e#/registration LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/connections-divine-religio us-life-dunhuang/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Light from the North —Tibetan Manuscripts from the Northern-Sect or Caves at Dunhuang and their Significance DTSTART:20231206T130000Z DTEND:20231206T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:light-from-the-north-tibetan-manuscripts-from-the-10676@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Allan Ding\n\nThe lecture will b e available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 05 December 2023\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (CET) (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\; Vienna)\n\n Dunhuang (敦煌) was a regional center of Tibetan Buddhism during its hey day in the 10th century\, attracting Tibetan-speaking Buddhists from neigh bouring regions. Because scholars of Tibetan Buddhism at Dunhuang have bee n primarily focusing on Tibetan manuscripts from Mogao Cave 17 (a.k.a. the Library Cave\, Chin. Mogao ku 莫高窟)\, few have attempted to address the question of how Tibetan Buddhism existed at Dunhuang after the sealing of the ‘Library Cave’ around 1006. To complicate the matter\, althoug h the Tibetan manuscripts from the Northern-Sector Caves at the Mogao site \, some of which have been recently published\, can shed light on this iss ue\, it seems that the dating of these manuscripts needs to be reconsidere d and re-established as a first step. This talk will use some of the post- 10th-century Tibetan manuscripts and inscriptional evidence to discuss how Tibetan Buddhism continued to survive from the 11th century to the 16th c entury.\n\nYi (Allan) Ding is Assistant Professor at the Department of Rel igious Studies at DePaul University\, Chicago. He has published several ar ticles that deal with Buddhist materials from Dunhuang or Buddhism between Tibet and China\, including “‘Translating’ Wutai Shan into Ri bo rt se lnga (‘Five-Peak Mountain’): The Inception of a Sino-Tibetan Site i n the Mongol-Yuan Era (1206–1368)” Journal of Tibetology 18 (2018) \, “The Transformation of Poṣadha/Zhai in Early Medieval China (2nd–6th Centuries CE)” Buddhist Studies Review 36.1 (2019)\, and “By the Powe r of the Perfection of Wisdom: The ‘Sūtra-Rotation’ Liturgy of the Ma hāprajñāpāramitā in Dunhuang” Journal of the American Oriental Soci ety 139.3 (2019).\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruh r-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5wpcO-tqjktGdB_A2TAuRJar-pq2-zGRJVd  \n\n \n\n  LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/light-from-the-north-tibet an-manuscripts-from-the/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Newly Discovered Old Uyghur Manuscripts: Practice and Rituals of t he Uyghur Buddhists DTSTART:20230517T120000Z DTEND:20230517T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:newly-discovered-old-uyghur-manuscripts-practice-a-9085@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Ma Fu (Beijing)\n\nThe lecture w ill be available online on Zoom. Please pre-register until 16 May 2023\, 1 2 pm. Zoom lecture times 2: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 p m (Beijing)\; 8 am (East Cost)\n\nDue to the lack of literary records\, bo th the private religious practices and the public rituals of the Uighur Bu ddhist communities can mainly be traced in unearthed manuscripts. Recent e xcavations in important Buddhist sites in Turfan such as Tuyuq have brough t about significant new material on the everyday life of Buddhist monks an d practitioners of the Old Uyghur time. Practice and ritual texts in Old U yghur have also been re-discovered in public and private collections in Ch ina these days\, revealing various aspects of the religious life of the Ol d Uyghur Buddhists in their homeland and in China proper.\n\nMa Fu is a Hi storian. He is Assistant Professor of Chinese History at Beijing Universit y and specialises in the History of Pre-Islamic Eastern Central Asia and t he Silk Road. His recent publications include Fu Ma 付馬\, Sichou zhilu shang de Xizhou Huihu wangchao: 9~13 shiji Zhongya dongbu lishi yanjiu 絲 綢之路上的西州回鶻王朝: 9–13 世紀中亞東部歷史研究. [The West Uyghur Kingdom on the Silk Road: Study on the History of Eastern Central Asia during 9th–13th Centuries] (Beijing: Social Science Academ ic Press\, 2019) and Ma Fu\, “Buddhist and Christian Relay Posts on the Silk Road (9th–12th c.)”\, Central Asiatic Journal 63.1–2 (2021): 23 9–255.\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-boc hum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Eod-ispzIpH9Y6W94lHyB61Tq52_9Y7MvI LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/newly-discovered-old-uyghu r-manuscripts-practice-a/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Why did Books come down from the Sky? Or is there a Grain of Trut h in an Old Buddhist Literary Topos? DTSTART:20230419T120000Z DTEND:20230419T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:why-did-books-come-down-from-the-sky-or-is-there-a-9303@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Joanna Bialek (Berlin)\n\nThe le cture will be live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 18 April 2023\, 12 p m. Zoom lecture time: 2 pm (CEST)\n\nThe story of books coming from the sk y is presented in native Tibetan historiographies and histories of religio n as the first appearance of Buddhist teachings in the Yarlung Kingdom (? –6th c.) and as such it became an indispensable element in western textb ooks on Tibetan Buddhism. Its standard formulation has a set of books cont ained in a casket that falls down from the sky and lands on the roof of a royal palace during the reign of king Lha Totori Nyentsen (Tib. Lha Tho th o ri gNyan bTsan). The story in its earliest known variants consists of at least three originally independent motifs that were linked to each other and woven into one topos most probably not earlier than in the 11th or 12t h century. The motifs are: (1) the first encounter with Buddhism during th e reign of Lha Totori Nyentsen\; (2) books falling from the sky\; and (3) valued works enclosed in a casket. Even though questioned by Nelpa Paṇ ḍita (fl. 13th c.\, Nel pa Paṇḍita)\, the historical value of the st ory has been rather widely acknowledged by Tibetan scholars and should rec eive additional support from the analysis presented in the paper. I attemp t to elucidate two main problems related to the story: (1) the presumed in dependent origins of the single motifs\; and (2) the historical events vei led behind the seemingly legendary account. Moreover\, textual and linguis tic analyses shall support the hypothesis that some parts of the story mus t have originated in a multicultural and multilingual environment for whic h Central Asian oases would be an ideal candidate. A comparison of this sh ort account across various sources provides interesting insights on the so cio-historical background of the compositions\, informing our understandin g of the processes of social and cultural change.\n\nJoanna Bialek receive d her master’s degree in Religious Studies from the Jagiellonian Univers ity\, Krakow (Poland) and completed her Ph.D. in Tibetan Studies at the Ph ilipps University\, Marburg (Germany). She led a postdoctoral research on grammar of Old Literary Tibetan at the Central Asian Seminar\, the Humbold t University (Berlin\, Germany). Her research interests include Old and Cl assical Tibetan languages\, Old Tibetan ritual literature\, historical dev elopment of Tibetan religious languages\, as well as funeral rituals on th e Tibetan Plateau and in the Himalayas. Her most recent publications inclu de: Joanna Bialek. A Textbook in Classical Tibetan. London: Routledge\, 20 22.\, Joanna Bialek. “Social Roots of Grammar: Old Tibetan Perspective o n Grammaticalization of Kinterms.” In Crossing Boundaries. Tibetan Studi es Unlimited\, edited by Diana Lange\, Jarmila Ptáčková\, Marion Wettst ein and Mareike Wulff\, 253–88. Prague: Academia Publishing House\; Joan na Bialek. “Naming the Empire: from Bod to Tibet. A Philologico-Historic al Study on the Origin of the Polity.” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 61 ( 2021): 339–402\; and Joanna Bialek. “Body Exposure and Embalming in th e Tibetan Empire and Beyond. A Study of the btol Rite.” Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 74.4 (2021): 625–650.\n\nTo join the le cture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/regist er/u50rcuuvrT8qGdDtdrFAPfTL0N8XT_H-MhWK LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/why-did-books-come-down-fr om-the-sky-or-is-there-a/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Post-Imperial Tibetan History and Karakhoto Texts DTSTART:20230412T110000Z DTEND:20230412T130000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:post-imperial-tibetan-history-and-karakhoto-texts-9173@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Maho Iuchi (Kyoto)\n\nThe lectur e will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 11 April 2023\ , 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 1 pm (CET)\n\nSo far\, the history of Tibet i n the early post-imperial period has been understood based on limited refe rences in later historical sources\, as there was an overwhelming lack of contemporaneous sources\, especially in comparison to other periods. In th is context\, the Tibetan texts excavated from Karakhoto have great value a s a body of sources contemporary with post-imperial Tibet. That is\, they provide much-needed insights into a historical void.\n\nIn this talk\, Mah o Iuchi will discuss some of the Tibetan Texts from Karakhoto in the Stein Collection of the British Library that show the influence of post-imperia l Tibet and their relation to the Tangut Empire (ca. 1038–1227\, in Chin ese sources known as Xixia 西夏).\n\n\nMaho Iuchi is a Tibetologist. She is Associate Professor of the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research and Gra duate School of Letters at Kyoto University and specializes in Tibetan his tory of post-imperial period. Her recent publications include: Iuchi\, Mah o. An Early Text on the History of Rwa sgreng Monastery: The Rgyal ba’i dben gnas rwa sgreng gi bshad pa nyi ma’i ’od zer of ’Brom shes rab me lce. Cambridge (MA)\, London: Harvard University Press\, 2016\; Takeuch i\, Tsuguhito and Maho Iuchi. Tibetan Texts from Khara-khoto in the Stein Collection of the British Library. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko\, 2016. \n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at\nhttps://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting /register/u5cscu6rqTsvGtddhU0lqRbzmW8t4kXxAcPV LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/post-imperial-tibetan-hist ory-and-karakhoto-texts/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Tibetan Translation of the Uṣṇīṣavijāyadhāraṇīsūtra Produced in the Tangut Empire DTSTART:20230222T130000Z DTEND:20230222T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:tibetan-translation-of-the-uiavijayadharaisutra-pr-9233@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Alla Sizova (St. Petersburg)\n\n The lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 21 F ebruary 2023\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture time: 2 pm (CET).\n\nThe Uṣṇīṣav ijāyadhāraṇīsūtra is one of the most widespread and popular texts of its genre. In the Tibetan Buddhist canon\, it is represented by five diff erent versions (Derge no. 594–598). Another version of this Dhāraṇīs ūtra was discovered among the Tibetan texts from Karakhoto kept at the In stitute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences. It can be found in two sources: (1) an almost complete text is included in the m anuscript under call number Kh. Tib. 126/159\, (2) fragmentarily the same text is preserved in the famous Tibetan block print under call numbers Kh. Tib. 67 and Kh. Tib. 63/68.\n\nIn both cases\, the colophon is preserved only partially. It contains the name of the paṇḍita Jayānanda\, who h eld the position of the state preceptor (Chin. guoshi 國師) during the r eign of Emperor Renzong (r. 1139–1193\, 仁宗). Besides\, it provides t he name of the translator\, Gyurjékyi lotsaba Garanakarita (fl. 12th c.\, Tib. Sgyur byed kyi lo tsa ba ’gar a na k-ri ta).\n\nThe version of U ṣṇīṣavijāyadhāraṇīsūtra produced in the Tangut Empire bears a resemblance to the earliest translation found in the Tibetan Buddhist can on that was made by Jinamitra (mid-8th c.–early-9th c.)\, Surendrabodhi (fl. early-9th c.)\, and Yéshé Dé (mid-8th c.–early-9th c.\, Tib. Ye shes sde) (Derge no. 597). It is the only canonical version where Indra ac ts as the protagonist\, who urges the Buddha to utter the Uṣṇīṣavij āyadhāraṇī.\n\nThe lecture will outline the results of a study of the Tibetan version of the Uṣṇīṣavijāyadhāraṇīsūtra found among Karakhoto texts: in particular\, utilising this example underexplored orth ographic and lexical features of the translations produced in the Tangut E mpire will be shown. In addition\, the lecturer will present the results o f the comparison between the translation from Karakhoto and the version of Jinamitra\, Surendrabodhi and Yéshé Dé (Derge no. 597)\, conducted to obtain indirect data on the unity or similarity of their Sanskrit sources. \n\n\nAlla Sizova is a Mongolist and Tibetologist. Until September 2022\, she was a researcher at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts\, Russian Ac ademy of Sciences\, St. Petersburg. She specialises in manuscript studies and philology. Her recent publications include: Alla Sizova\, Alexander Zo rin\, and Larisa Bondar’. Slovarnуe materialy v documental’nom nasled ii D. G. Messershmidta: mongol’skii i tibetskii slovniki [Lexical Materi als in the Archival Legacy of D. G. Messerschmidt: Mongolian and Tibetan V ocabularies]. St. Petersburg: Peterburgskoe Vostokovedenie\, 2022\; Alla S izova. “O pervoi popytke perevoda v istorii tibetologii: metod brat’ev Furmon [On the First Attempt at Translating in the History of Tibetan Stu dies: Fourmont Brothers’ Method].” Tibetologiia v Sankt-Peterburge. Ti betology in St. Petersburg 2 (2021): 135–194.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5cl cu6vrzMvHdDyySc27OiVk9Ons8swk4Yy LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/tibetan-translation-of-the -uiavijayadharaisutra-pr/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Avalokiteśvara in Dunhuang and Tibet: The Development of a Bodhis attva's Mythology DTSTART:20230208T130000Z DTEND:20230208T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:avalokitesvara-in-dunhuang-and-tibet-the-developme-9209@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Reinier Langelaar (Vienna)\n\nTh e lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 07 Feb ruary 2023\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (CET) (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, R om\; Vienna)\n\nThis lecture will discuss the connections and gaps between Tibetan Dunhuang manuscripts on Avalokiteśvara and post-dynastic materia ls from the Tibetan Plateau\, where this bodhisattva would attain unparall eled standing. Mapping how Avalokiteśvara acquired his paramount status i n Tibet\, the talk combines Dunhuang materials with detailed study of pivo tal Tibetan works from the early second millennium\, chief among which the bKa’ chems ka khol ma [Pillar Testament] and the Ma ṇi bka’ ’bum [Collected Works on the Maṇi (Mantra)]\, in which the bodhisattva plays an outsize role. The textual histories of these early writings\, some rece nt strides notwithstanding\, remain largely unexplored. Bringing new insig hts into their past\, Reinier Langelaar will illustrate how the Tibetan my thology and cult of Avalokiteśvara developed. To what extent did they pig gyback on pre-existing traditions that circulated in surrounding areas\, s uch as Dunhuang? And when and how did innovative Tibetan twists\, if any\, come about?\n\nReinier Langelaar is a Tibetologist. He is a postdoc at th e Austrian Academy of Science’s Institute for the Cultural and Intellect ual History of Asia (IKGA)\, where he focuses on Tibetan social and religi ous history\, in particular Buddhist historiography and the development of Tibetan national mythology. His recent publications include “Buried Bon es and Buddhas Beyond: Ancestor Cults in 17th-century Khams and the Transc endentalisation of Tibetan Religion.” In The Social and the Religious i n the Making of Tibetan Societies. New Perspectives on Imperial Tibet\, ed ited by Guntram Hazod\, Mathias Fermer\, and Christian Jahoda\, 283–308. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften\, 2022\, and “Biog raphy and Hierarchy: The Tibetan Ruling House of Phag-mo-gru and the Singu lar Volume of the Rlangs (Rlangs-kyi-po-ti-bse-ru).” Medieval Worlds 15 (2022): 75–94.\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr -uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Mkf-CsqT8vGdP4YnUurFZK3vNhg8B_lkTv LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/avalokitesvara-in-dunhuang -and-tibet-the-developme/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Tibetan Texts on the Cult of Vajravārāhī from Karakhoto DTSTART:20230202T130000Z DTEND:20230202T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:tibetan-texts-on-the-cult-of-vajravarahi-from-kara-9083@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Alexander Zorin (Jerusalem)\n\nT he lecture will be online at Zoom. Please pre-register until 01 February 2 023\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Vienna)\ ; 8 pm (Peking)\, 8 am (East Coast)\n\nAs was shown by Kirill Solonin\, th e cult of Vajravārāhī\, a wrathful female yidam deity\, belonged to one of the major stems of Esoteric Buddhist. It was natural to assume that Ti betan influence played an important role in regard of this cult\, but unti l recently\, no Tibetan texts of this kind were identified. However\, it b ecame possible only after 2017\, when the P.K. Kozlov collection of Tibeta n texts from Karakhoto kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts\, the Russian Academy of Sciences\, became an object of the thorough analysis a nd cataloguing. A number of fragments that deal with Vajravārāhī were i dentified and a sample taken from the item ХТ-177 (Kh. Tib. 177) was pub lished. In his lecture\, Zorin is going to discuss all the relevant ritual texts identified in St. Petersburg\, trying to reconstruct the features o f the Tibetan cult of Vajravārāhī as it was known to Tanguts in Karakho to.\n\n\nAlexander Zorin is a scholar of Tibetan literature\, Tibetan boo k culture\, and the history of Tibetan Studies. For fifteen years he was c urator of the Tibetan collection kept at the Institute of Oriental Manuscr ipts\, Russian Academy of Sciences. He is currently Research Fellow of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His recent publications include Alexander Zorin\, Tibetan Studies in Russia: A Historical Sketch (Tokyo: The Intern ational Institute for Buddhist Studies of The International College for Po stgraduate Buddhist Studies\, 2020) and Alexander Zorin\, “On the Versio n of Vajracchedikā-prajñāpāramitā-sūtra Used in the 18th Century Kal myk Scrolls”\, in Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 58 (2021): 237–266.\n\n \nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.u s/meeting/register/u50sdOqsqTgrG9GBbZSKZldEGd_acpUhteQf LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/tibetan-texts-on-the-cult- of-vajravarahi-from-kara/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Religious and Linguistic Exchanges Between the North and the South of the Tarim Basin: Tocharians and Khotanese in Contact (5th–10th C.) DTSTART:20230125T130000Z DTEND:20230125T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:religious-and-linguistic-exchanges-between-the-nor-8412@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Federico Dragoni (Leiden)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 24 Janu ary\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Stockhol m\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast)\n\nRecent research on the linguistic contacts between Tocharian and Khotanese has uncovered a new co rpus of Khotanese loanwords in Tocharian. The majority of the loanwords ca n be dated before the diffusion of Buddhism in the Tarim Basin. Another gr oup of loanwords\, however\, can be traced back to the historical period o f attestation of Tocharian and Khotanese manuscripts (5th–10th c.). In t his group\, several Buddhist technical terms of Khotanese origin are to be found. The overall aim of this talk is to sketch possible scenarios of tr ansfer between the North and the South of the Tarim Basin: why were these words borrowed into Tocharian and under what historical circumstances? Can they tell us something on the transfer of religious practices from Khotan into Tocharian speaking territories? To answer these questions\, I will f irst test the hypothesis that these linguistic traces of religious exchang e may be connected with the alleged presence of a Khotanese religious miss ion in Šorčuq around the 5th c. Successively\, I will examine several Kh otanese manuscript fragments of religious content that were found in Šor čuq itself and in the Kuča area.\n\n\nFederico Dragoni holds a PhD in Li nguistics from Leiden University and an MA in Iranian Studies from the Fre ie Universität Berlin. He is currently employed at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics as a Postdoc researcher and specialises in Khotanes e\, Tocharian and historical contact linguistics. His recent publications include: Federico Dragoni\, “Materia medica Tocharo-Hvatanica\," Bulleti n of the School of Oriental and African Studies 84.2 (2021): 295–319\; F ederico Dragoni\, “The Tumshuqese Year of the Goat and the Fremdzeichen x6\," Journal Asiatique 308.2 (2020): 215–223.\n\n\n  LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/religious-and-linguistic-e xchanges-between-the-nor/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:ERC BuddhistRoad cancelled! DTSTART:20230125T090000Z DTEND:20230125T110000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:erc-buddhistroad-en-1-9244@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Unfortunately the Lunchbox Lecture by Flavio A. Geisshuesler m ust be cancelled. The event is rescheduled for a later this year.\nInforma tion about the new date will be published soon.\n\n\nMeeting with Buddholo gists - Talk with Flavio A. Geisshuesler\n\nTitle: Framing the Sky: Great Perfection Meditation and the Tibetanization of Buddhism\n\n\nThis study o ffers an introduction of the famous Tibetan practice known as “Direct Tr anscendence” (thod rgal\, Tögal) in order to explore its origins\, deve lopment\, and relevance for the study of meditation more generally. In wha t is likely one of the world’s most extraordinary techniques of meditati on\, yogis sit on top of mountains and gaze into the dark blue of the open skies above Tibet until they start to perceive specks of light that grow into complex mandalic shapes until they finally swirl back into empty spac e.\n\nDrawing on a vast range of primary sources (such as Dunhuang manuscr ipts\, 10th-century tantras of the Dzogchen tradition\, 14th-century comme ntaries\, as well as other mythical-ritual texts belonging to the Ancient School of Buddhism and Tibetan Bön)\, it not only reveals the unexpected origins of this practice—demonstrating that it likely originated amongst shamanic practitioners prior to the introduction of Buddhist to Tibet in the 7th century—but also asks larger questions regarding the nature of m editation. Indeed\, despite its esoteric character\, scholars have compare d the Tibetan sky-gazing technique to mindfulness meditation\, which has b ecome phenomenally popular across Western societies in recent decades. It has not only been argued that these types of practices share a frame of mi nd characterized by freedom\, but also a series of closely related traits\ , such as present-centeredness\, relaxation\, or a non-judgmental attitude .\n\nThis study contextualizes Tögal practice within a larger contemplati ve system\, which includes mythical-historical narratives of origin\, anat omical descriptions of our subtle bodies\, and philosophical speculations about the nature of language\, in order to show that meditation is not sim ply dominated by freedom. On the contrary\, this research project provides the reader with a series of “frames” that not only demonstrate that m editation frequently confines our freedom\, but also suggest that its trul y liberating power stems from increasing our awareness of the various limi tations that make up human existence. Amongst many other things\, it shows that present-centeredness requires us to be aware of our pasts\, relaxati on involves an appreciation of our bodily energies\, and a non-judgmental attitude calls for an understanding of how our brains are inherently geare d towards structure and meaning- making. LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/erc-buddhistroad-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Lunchbox Lecture with Flavio A. Geisshuesler cancelled and resched uled! DTSTART:20230124T111500Z DTEND:20230124T124500Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:lunchbox-lecture-with-flavio-a-geisshuesler-9232@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Unfortunately the Lunchbox Lecture by Flavio A. Geisshuesler m ust be cancelled. The event is rescheduled for a later this year.\nInforma tion about the new date will be published soon.\n\n\nTitle: Between Predic tion and Surprise: Tantric Buddhism and the New Paradigm of Meditation Res earch\n\n Meditation\, particularly in the form of mindfulness-based prac tices stemming from Buddhism\, has become a spectacularly popular phenomen on in our times. It is not only practiced by many strata of society\, but also studied empirically as part of a multidisciplinary research field ref erred to as “contemplative science” or “contemplative studies.” Am idst this enthusiasm\, it is quite easy to forget that this seeming famili arity with meditation is hiding a surprising fact\, namely that our cultur e’s appreciation of these Buddhist contemplative practices is rather sup erficial. This relative immaturity has given rise to critical voices\, bot h amongst students of the cultural-historical forms of meditation\, as wel l as amongst scientists investigating the cognitive-psychological effects of the practice.\n\nScholars of Buddhism not only caution that the modern concept of mindfulness diverges from classical definitions of meditation\, but also point out that it represents a relatively minor practice amongst the many contemplative exercises performed by Buddhists throughout the ag es. Neuroscientists\, in turn\, have gradually started to shift their inve stigation to include other techniques\, allowing them to investigate the r ole of memory\, perception\, imagination\, or arousal in contemplative pra ctices.\n\nThis project capitalizes on these existing discourses and bring s them together in a revolutionary manner to make sense of meditation in i ts manifold dimensions. More specifically\, the project offers an interdis ciplinary study of meditation practices in India and Tibet by moving diale ctically in between a classical historical-philological analysis of Sanskr it and Tibetan texts\, on the one hand\, and emergent theories from the co gnitive sciences\, on the other.\n\nThis methodology gives me the instrume nts necessary to achieve this study’s two primary objectives: 1) to pres ent “predictive coding” as a unified theoretical framework that can be applied to the bewildering range of different contemplative exercises fou nd in Buddhism (and beyond)\; 2) to apply the predictive coding paradigm t o the context of Indo-Tibetan tantra in order to outline a taxonomy of key practices found in this cultural-historical context. LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/lunchbox-lecture-with-flav io-a-geisshuesler/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Investigations into the Materials and Production of Buddhist Clay- based Sculptures from the Northern Silk Road—A Methodological Approach DTSTART:20221214T130000Z DTEND:20221214T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:investigations-into-the-materials-and-production-9189@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Birgit Angelika Schmidt (Berlin) \n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 13. December 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, R om\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Beijing)\; 8am (East Cost)\n\nThis lecture will focus on the clay-based sculptural production from Buddhist archaeological site s along the Northern Silk Road in Eastern Central Asia. Their rediscovery in the course of international so-called research expeditions at the begin ning of the 20th century led to the transfer of a large number of art and cultural objects to various collections worldwide. Analysis of material an d technical aspects in the production of clay-based sculptures from the Tu rfan Collection at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst\, Berlin\, can lead to a better understanding of the historical networks and cultural contexts.  By considering the material itself as an important source of information \, local patterns can be identified and compared\, so that transregional c onnections regarding the production of these sculptures can be explored.\n \n\n\nBirgit Angelika Schmidt is Graduate Conservator and Research Fellow at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst\, Berlin and doctoral candidate at the Institute for Near Eastern Archaeology at the Freie Universität\, Berlin . Her research interests include archaeological and conservation sciences\ , focusing on Central Asian clay-based artefacts and the study and scienti fic investigation of their materials and manufacturing techniques.\n\nAt t he Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM)\, Berlin she h as gained considerable experience in the implementation of scientific anal yses of art and cultural heritage. Her practical and field working activit ies include the conservation of the Tsatsapuri Temple in Ladakh\, India. N ext to co-curating\, she did the examination\, condition reporting and tre atment of clay-based sculptures for their exhibition at the Humboldt Forum \, Berlin.\n\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at   \nhttp://ru hr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5wqc-6rqDwrHN1tn1XAoGlrdoBGcd5vYpP a LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/investigations-into-the-ma terials-and-production/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:A Discussion of Form and Function Regarding the Buddhist Cave Site s along the Silk Road DTSTART:20221109T160000Z DTEND:20221109T180000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:a-discussion-of-form-and-function-regarding-the-bu-9052@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Online Discussion hosted by the BuddhistRoad project\, CERES.  \n\nThe discussion will take place online via ZOOM on 9 November 2022 at 5 pm (CET).\n\nAn online discussion between Robert Sharf (Berkeley)\, Nob uyoshi Yamabe (Tokyo)\, Carmen Meinert and Henrik H. Sørensen of the Budd histRoad Project concerning Buddhist usage and practice in the cave sanctu aries located along the Northern Part of the Silk Road in Central Asia. Th e discussion takes the views presented in Sharf’s paper “Art in the Da rk\,” and the response by Henrik Sørensen in “Light on Art in the Dar k” as the points of departure.\n\nIn the past decade there has been an o ngoing debate as regards form and function of the Buddhist cave-sanctuarie s located along the Silk Road\, i.e.\, were they temples\, places of activ e practice and worship\, or were they mostly\, ancestral commemorative spa ces that were not visited\, but rather left in darkness as monuments of pi ety and prestige? If they were places of worship and practice\, how did th at express itself\, if the caves functioned as actual temples with a monas tic population living in them\, what is the evidence for this\, and if pla ces of meditation\, on the basis of what may this be established? Is it at all possible to gauge function from the physical forms or decoration of t he caves? Were there different types of usage depending on the cultures th at used them? The discussion will centre on these issues\, and the partici pants will present their respective views and argue for them on the basis of their research. Those attending the meeting are invited to participate in the discussion\, and to the extent possible have prepared questions or comments.\n\nIn order to follow the discussion and the presentations\, it is recommended to read the following three articles beforehand:\n\nRobert Sharf. “Art in the Dark: The Ritual Context of Buddhist Caves in Western China.” In Art of Merit: Studies in Buddhist Art and Its Conservation\, edited by David Park\, Kuenga Wangmo\, and Sharon Cather\, 38–65. Londo n: Archetype Publications\, Courtauld Institute of Art\, 2013.           https://www.academia.edu/27245928/Art_in_the_dark_the_ritual_context\ n\nHenrik H. Sørensen. “Light on ‘Art in the Dark’: On Buddhist Pra ctices and Worship in the Mogao Caves.” BuddhistRoad Paper 5.6 (2022).  https://omp.ub.rub.de/index.php/BuddhistRoad/catalog/view/200/177/1126\n\n Carmen Meinert. “Beyond Spatial and Temporal Contingencies: Tantric Ritu als in Eastern Central Asia Under Tangut Rule\, 11th–13th C.” In Buddh ism in Central Asia II—Practices and Rituals\, Visual and Material Trans fer\, edited by Yukiyo Kasai and Henrik H. Sørensen\, 313–365. Leiden: Brill\, 2022. https://static.ceres.rub.de/media/filer_public/35/08/35089c 9a-75fc-4ad8-be31-bd555ceacad1/9789004507937_16-meinert.pdf\n\n \n\nTo jo in the discussion\, please pre-register until 8 November 2022\, 5 pm (CET) at: \n\nhttps://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5ckcOuqpzsvHdY dw7uAUnaB9WN28b3AGTOv\n\n  LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/a-discussion-of-form-and-f unction-regarding-the-bu/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Feasting with a Maṇḍala: Gaṇacakra-Related Texts from Dunhua ng and Their Significance DTSTART:20221026T120000Z DTEND:20221026T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:feasting-with-a-mandala-8176@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Yi Allan Ding (Chicago)\n\nThe lecture will b e available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 25 October 2022\, 12 p m. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Stockholm\, Vienna )\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (New York\, Toronto\, Miami)\n\nAfter the collaps e of the Tibetan Empire in the mid-ninth century\, transgressive tantric e lements started to be absorbed into Tibetan Buddhism and rapidly spread in Tibetan-speaking areas. As a result\, the Dunhuang corpus features a uniq ue set of tenth-century gaṇacakra-related rituals texts that reveals the importance of the Sarvabuddhasamāyoga and the existence of Tibetan adapt ation. This talk explains the early forms of the Tibetan gaṇacakra in th ese ritual texts and the ritual logic of the gaṇacakra as a communal lit urgy. These Dunhuang texts also shed light on the gaṇacakra-related Nyin gma texts preserved in the Peking Tengyur.\n\n\nYi (Allan) Ding is Assista nt Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University\, Chicago. He has published several articles that deal with Buddhist materi als from Dunhuang or Buddhism between Tibet and China\, including “‘Tr anslating’ Wutai Shan into Ri bo rtse lnga (‘Five-Peak Mountain’): T he Inception of a Sino-Tibetan Site in the Mongol-Yuan Era (1206–1368)\, ” Journal of Tibetology 18 (2018)\, “The Transformation of Poṣadha/Z hai in Early Medieval China (2nd–6th Centuries CE)\,” Buddhist Studies Review 36.1 (2019)\, and “By the Power of the Perfection of Wisdom: The ‘Sūtra-Rotation’ Liturgy of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā in Dunhuang\ ,” Journal of the American Oriental Society 139.3 (2019). He currently w orks on a book manuscript that focuses on the zhai feast and relevant litu rgical scripts from the sixth to the tenth centuries.\n\n\nTo join the lec ture\, please register here https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/regist er/u5MvdeqqrTooE9Tcp826iqbfD4qhfYCxijsG. LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/feasting-with-a-mandala/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dunhuang Performative Texts and Manuscript Studies DTSTART:20221019T120000Z DTEND:20221019T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:dunhuang-performative-texts-and-manuscript-studies-8180@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac ademy)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 18 October 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berli n\, Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast)\n\nLecture Series Ov erview:\n\nChinese scholarship on the Dunhuang Caves and materials from th e so-called Library Cave\, one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century\, has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years. An ever-i ncreasing number of academics\, research projects\, and publications have provided a wealth of scholarly resources for the field. This corpus of res earch merits more attention from western scholars\, not just in Dunhuang S tudies but from across a variety of disciplines in the humanities and soci al sciences. This series of six talks will explore this breath of Chinese scholarship and provide a guide to major areas within Dunhuang Studies\, i ts key scholars\, publications\, research projects\, institutions\, and tr ends.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approach on two l evels. The first is that Dunhuang materials\, given their range and divers ity\, can be viewed as a coherent dataset\, the closest we have to an ethn ographic collection for medieval Eastern Central Asia. In this sense then\ , they should be valued in their complex\, interdisciplinary entirety. Sec ond\, concentrating on Chinese Dunhuang research in the 21st century\, the se talks also engage an ethnological approach to the academic realm in ord er to examine how subfields of Dunhuang Studies are delineated in light of institutions and ongoing social forces. Availing my position as someone i n the field of Dunhuang Studies working at a Chinese research institute\, I will provide on-the-ground observations through discussions with members of the scholarly community in China (i.e.\, ‘thick description’)\, wi th an emphasis on the explanation of behaviour and agency that accepts emi c categories of division of Dunhuang resources and analyses their origins and usages\, as well as how those categories may enhance or constrain rese arch together with the production of knowledge and its dissemination.\n\nE ach of these lectures will systematically cover the following areas: \n\n \n compilation and editing of primary source materials for all fields\n ma jor scholars and publications\, cooperative projects\n research trends (th emes and topics)\n reference and research tools\n\n\nFinally\, given the f ramework and sponsor of these talks\, the resources explored will be keyed to the seven thematic research clusters of the BuddhistRoad Project (Cent er for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) to further scholarshi p on topics within the context of Eastern Central Asia and their relation to Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nThis lecture focuses on the wealth of Dunhuang Buddhist resources\, which extends to enacted texts such as sūtr a exegesis and performed narratives. This lecture reviews Chinese scholars hip on Buddhist exegetical texts and narratives together with their perfor mative contexts. It then turns to the wide array of research on popular li terature\, much of which was influenced by both Chinese and Central Asian Buddhism and their roles in the vernacularisation of language and literary forms. Finally\, we examine how Dunhuang textual resources also offer a r ich corpus for linguistic and manuscript studies\, with a growing number o f Chinese scholars focusing on the linguistic diversity of the Dunhuang ma nuscripts and regional exchanges. \n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research Professor at the Dunhuang Academy. His scholarship centres on Dunhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the role of Buddhist literature in ritual a nd art\, medieval economic development\, Esoteric Buddhism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and architectural space o f the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on several monographs\, includi ng From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religious Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and ritual pa raphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first-ever critical bibliographi cal survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Comprehensive Guide to Sch olarly Resources for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please r egister at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5MkcemsqDkoH NN_9mUxCqH76DoYe3kexqQR LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dunhuang-performative-text s-and-manuscript-studies/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Effortlessness in Early Dzogchen: Paradox\, Demarcation and Transc ending Process DTSTART:20220914T120000Z DTEND:20220914T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:effortlessness-in-early-dzogchen-paradox-demarcati-8459@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Dylan Esler (Bochum)\n\nThe lect ure is a hybrid event. To participate via Zoom\, please pre-register until 14 September 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Cost)\n\nEarly Dzogchen though t is characterised by its uncompromising insistence on an effortless mode of meditative practice. There is a certain paradox entailed in this positi on\, which can be stated as follows: Given that all forms of training invo lve some form of effort\, how is one to learn to practise in an effortless manner?\n\nTaking stock of this paradox\, this talk will look at the noti on of effortlessness from two complementary angles. First\, Dr. Esler will consider how effortlessness serves to demarcate Dzogchen from the tantric approach of Mahāyoga through rhetorical deconstruction and symbolical tr ansposition. Second\, he will seek to show that\, when examined in a conte xt-sensitive way\, effortlessness is also more than just a rhetoric of dec onstruction. This will lead us to explore the implications of effortlessne ss for an understanding of the contemplative path or of what might be term ed\, from a comparative point of view\, a transcending process.\n\nTextual ly speaking\, the talk will be based on a set of hitherto unstudied commen taries by\n\nNupchen Sangyé Yéshé (ca. 844 to mid-10th c.\, Tib. gNubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes)\, a pivotal figure in the codification of Buddhi st lineages in early Tibetan history. His commentaries are devoted to four of the so-called ‘eighteen texts of the mind section’ (Tib. sems sde bco brgyad) and they are among the earliest works to articulate a systemat ic exposition of Dzogchen thought.\n\n\nDylan Esler is a scholar and trans lator of Tibetan Buddhist texts. He holds a PhD in Languages and Literatur e from the University of Louvain and an MA in Buddhist Studies from SOAS\, London. He presently works at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum on the project An Enquiry into the Developme nt of the Dzogchen Tradition in the Commentaries of the Tibetan Scholar Nu bchen Sangye Yeshe (10th century)\, which is sponsored by the Federal Mini stry of Education and Research (BMBF). Prior to that\, he worked on the DF G-funded Nyang ral project\, also at CERES. His research interest focuses on early Nyingma expositions of Dzogchen and Tantra. His recent publicatio ns include: “Yamāntaka’s Wrathful Magic: An Instance of the Ritual Le gacy of gNubs chen Sangs rgyas ye shes on the Byang gter Tradition via the Figure of rGya Zhang khrom\,” Revue d’Etudes Tibétaines 62 (2022): 1 90–215 and\; “Negotiating the Absence of Ritual: Dzogchen in the Tantr ic Manuscripts of Dunhuang and Beyond\,” Journal of the International As sociation of Buddhist Studies 44 (2021): 409–440.\n\n\nTo join the lectu re\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/ u5wkf--qqDIuH92h0aCs_kFY6zLDp4Wl-h6B LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/effortlessness-in-early-dz ogchen-paradox-demarcati/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:On the use of Historical Social Network Analysis in the Study of C hinese Buddhism DTSTART:20220713T120000Z DTEND:20220713T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:on-the-use-of-historical-social-network-analysis-i-8425@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Marcus Bingenheimer (Philadelphi a)\n\nThe lecture is a hybrid event. To participate via Zoom\, please pre -register until 12 July 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\ , Berlin\, Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast)\n\nCan histor ical network analysis contribute to our understanding of Chinese Buddhism? The talk will describe some of the methods and data currently available f or the application of formal network analysis. Formal network analysis in this context denotes the analysis and visualisation of clearly defined\, c omputable network data. After an introduction to network analysis as a met hod\, the lecture will describe its application with the help of two case studies. First\, we will look at a network region spanning the late 3rd an d early 4th centuries. The “Dao'an-Huiyuan-Kumārajīva Triangle” is a stable reference point\, which\, from a network perspective\, emerges as the actual fountainhead of Chinese Buddhism. It will be argued that this f ormation was the immediate cause for the firm establishment of Mahāyāna as the dominant form of Buddhism in China. Second\, a closer look at the n etwork region modeling the late 16th early 17 century reveals two distinct stages in the late Ming (1368–1644\, 明) Buddhist revival. Following t he Wanli (萬曆) revival brought about by a group of well-studied\, famou s monks\, the network perspective asserts the centrality of Miyun Yuanwu ( 1567–1642) and his students who came to dominate 17th century East Asian Buddhism. It can be argued that the Buddhism of Miyun's lineage differed considerably from the syncretic\, inclusive Buddhist discourse of the “g reat monks” of the Wanli era.\n\n\nMarcus Bingenheimer is Associate Prof essor of Religion at Temple University\, Philadelphia. He specialises in t he history and historiography of Buddhism\, early sūtra literature\, and computational approaches to research in the humanities. He has published a handful of books and more than fifty articles.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u50v c-ivqD0rH90vPWlMdkyP57AcIZWRwMDl LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/on-the-use-of-historical-s ocial-network-analysis-i/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Using Gephi with the Historical Social Network of Chinese Buddhism DTSTART:20220712T120000Z DTEND:20220712T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:using-gephi-with-the-historical-social-network-of-8431@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Workshop by Marcus Bingenheimer (Philadelphia) \n\nThis works hop will introduce participants in the use of a popular\, open-source netw ork analysis software. After an overview of Gephi functions\, we will use the tool with a particular dataset\, the "Historical Social Network of Chi nese Buddhism" (https://github.com/mbingenheimer/ChineseBuddhism_SNA) that contains some 18\,000 actors and 26\,000 connections.\n\nAfter the worksh op\, participants will be able to identify persons in the network\, unders tand how to trace connections back to primary sources\, visualise ego-netw orks\, and enrich the dataset with their own data.\n\nIf you are intereste d in participating in the workshop\, please contact Ben Müller. \n\n \n \n  LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/using-gephi-with-the-histo rical-social-network-of/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dunhuang and the Social Contract DTSTART:20220629T120000Z DTEND:20220629T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:dunhuang-and-social-contract-8178@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac ademy)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 28 June 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\ , Rom\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast)\n\nLecture Series Ove rview:\n\nChinese scholarship on the Dunhuang Caves and materials from the so-called Library Cave\, one of the greatest archaeological finds of the 20th century\, has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years. An ever-in creasing number of academics\, research projects\, and publications have p rovided a wealth of scholarly resources for the field. This corpus of rese arch merits more attention from western scholars\, not just in Dunhuang St udies but from across a variety of disciplines in the humanities and socia l sciences. This series of six talks will explore this breath of Chinese s cholarship and provide a guide to major areas within Dunhuang Studies\, it s key scholars\, publications\, research projects\, institutions\, and tre nds.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approach on two le vels. The first is that Dunhuang materials\, given their range and diversi ty\, can be viewed as a coherent dataset\, the closest we have to an ethno graphic collection for medieval Eastern Central Asia. In this sense then\, they should be valued in their complex\, interdisciplinary entirety. Seco nd\, concentrating on Chinese Dunhuang research in the 21st century\, thes e talks also engage an ethnological approach to the academic realm in orde r to examine how subfields of Dunhuang Studies are delineated in light of institutions and ongoing social forces. Availing my position as someone in the field of Dunhuang Studies working at a Chinese research institute\, I will provide on-the-ground observations through discussions with members of the scholarly community in China (i.e.\, ‘thick description’)\, wit h an emphasis on the explanation of behaviour and agency that accepts emic categories of division of Dunhuang resources and analyses their origins a nd usages\, as well as how those categories may enhance or constrain resea rch together with the production of knowledge and its dissemination.\n\nEa ch of these lectures will systematically cover the following areas: \n\n\ n compilation and editing of primary source materials for all fields\n maj or scholars and publications\, cooperative projects\n research trends (the mes and topics)\n reference and research tools\n\n\nFinally\, given the fr amework and sponsor of these talks\, the resources explored will be keyed to the seven thematic research clusters of the BuddhistRoad Project (Cente r for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) to further scholarship on topics within the context of Eastern Central Asia and their relation t o Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nThis second talk explores recent Chinese scholarship on the social contract at Dunhuang: governing structures\, sta tecraft\, foreign and ethnic relations\, economic compacts and trade\, as well as lay-clerical relations. Also discussed is research on aspects of ‘civil society’ which\, in the context of Dunhuang\, was largely organ ised through kinship relations as well as social and religious association s. At the heart of much of this research is a focus on the fundamental shi ft during the Tang and Guiyijun periods (7th–11th c.) that witnessed an increasing vernacularisation in terms of patronage together with a shift f rom aristocratic elites with connections to the Chinese heartland to more bureaucratic and local modes of governance.\n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research P rofessor at the Dunhuang Academy. His scholarship centres on Dunhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the role of Buddhist literature in ritual and art\, medieval economic development\, Esoteric Buddhism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and architectural space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on several monographs\, including From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religious Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and r itual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first-ever critical bibl iographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Comprehensive Guid e to Scholarly Resources for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5UvcO qoqD4sGdAh_VtWK4BstG1CS1wSSlvP URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dunhuang-and-social-contra ct/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The Refined Art of Manichaean Upāya: How Chinese Manichaeans Used Buddhism for Their Own Purposes DTSTART:20220615T120000Z DTEND:20220615T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:refined-art-manichaean-upaya-how-chinese-manichaea-8362@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture by Gábor Kósa (Budapest)\n\nThe lecture is live available at Zoom. Please pre-register until 14 June 2022\ , 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Stockholm\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast) \n\nMānī (216–ca. 277 AD) \, the founder of Manichaeism\, was brought up in a Jewish-Christian commu nity at the end of the Arsacid Dynasty (247 BCE–224 CE). After several p rivate revelations\, he established his own religion\, which he and his di sciples propagated in the newly established Sasanian Iran. During his life time\, Mānī was surrounded by various religious traditions of the ancien t world and these traditions naturally left their traces on his religious system. In 242 CE\, during his first mission to the eastern borders of the Sasanian Empire (224–651)\, Mānī encountered both Hindu ascetics as w ell as Buddhist and probably Jain monks. These encounters must have furthe r contributed to his approach to self-denial and self-discipline.\n\nSprea ding along the Silk Road\, Manichaeism arrived in China in 694\, where it remained basically a religio licita until 842. After the Huichang persecut ion (842–845\, 會昌)\, Manichaeans found a relatively safe harbor in t he southeastern regions\, especially in Zhejiang (浙江)and Fujian (福 建) provinces\, where they survived for centuries\, as reports from the S ong (960–1279\, 宋)\, Yuan (1279–1368\, 元) and Ming (1368–1644\, 明) Dynasties attest.\n\nDuring the 4th–9th centuries\, when Manichaean missionaries spread their teachings along the Silk Road\, Buddhism once a gain had a huge impact on the terminology of Manichaean scriptures that\, meanwhile\, were translated into Parthian\, Chinese\, and Uyghur. These Ma nichaean translators used a translation technique that Mānī himself had declared during his lifetime: one should make the original Manichaean cont ent sound familiar to the local inhabitants\, thus these newly translated scriptures are replete with the unique expressions of the then highly popu lar Buddhist tradition(s).\n\nIn his presentation\, Kósa explores some Ch inese Manichaean scriptures from Dunhuang that use Buddhist and Buddhist-l ike metaphors\, as well as some Manichaean paintings that likewise apply B uddhist iconography to express their Manichaean message.\n\n\nGábor Kósa is a Historian of religion. He is Associate Professor at ELTE University (Budapest)\, and specialises in Chinese religions. His recent publications include: Gábor Kósa\, “A Manichaean Pure Land. The Buddhisized Descri ption of the Realm of Light in the Chinese Manichaean Hymnscroll (cols. 26 1–338)\,” in Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology\, ed . Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne\, 707–743 (Honolulu: Universi ty of Hawai’i Press\, 2019) and\; Gábor Kósa\, “Zarathuštra in the Chinese Manichaean Manuscripts from Fujian\,” Quaderni di Studi Indo-Med iterranei XII (2019 [2021]): 135–171.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Elceqtrz0v HtwfYcgIM8V6kagq8TnoayOR LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/refined-art-manichaean-upa ya-how-chinese-manichaea/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Chinese Dunhuang Studies in the 21st Century: The Lay of the Land DTSTART:20220525T120000Z DTEND:20220525T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:chinese-dunhuang-studies-21st-century-lay-land-8177@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:BuddhistRoad Guest Lecture Series by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang Ac ademy)\n\nThe lecture will be available live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 24 May 2022\, 12 pm. Zoom lecture times: 2 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Stockholm\, Vienna)\; 8 pm (Peking)\; 8 am (East Coast) \n\nLecture Series Overview:\n\nChinese scholarship on the Dunhuang Caves and materia ls from the so-called Library Cave\, one of the greatest archaeological fi nds of the 20th century\, has expanded rapidly over the past twenty years. An ever-increasing number of academics\, research projects\, and publicat ions have provided a wealth of scholarly resources for the field. This cor pus of research merits more attention from western scholars\, not just in Dunhuang Studies but from across a variety of disciplines in the humanitie s and social sciences. This series of six talks will explore this breath o f Chinese scholarship and provide a guide to major areas within Dunhuang S tudies\, its key scholars\, publications\, research projects\, institution s\, and trends.\n\nThis series of talks also takes an ethnographic approac h on two levels. The first is that Dunhuang materials\, given their range and diversity\, can be viewed as a coherent dataset\, the closest we have to an ethnographic collection for medieval Eastern Central Asia. In this s ense then\, they should be valued in their complex\, interdisciplinary ent irety. Second\, concentrating on Chinese Dunhuang research in the 21st cen tury\, these talks also engage an ethnological approach to the academic re alm in order to examine how subfields of Dunhuang Studies are delineated i n light of institutions and ongoing social forces. Availing my position as someone in the field of Dunhuang Studies working at a Chinese research in stitute\, I will provide on-the-ground observations through discussions wi th members of the scholarly community in China (i.e.\, ‘thick descriptio n’)\, with an emphasis on the explanation of behaviour and agency that a ccepts emic categories of division of Dunhuang resources and analyses thei r origins and usages\, as well as how those categories may enhance or cons train research together with the production of knowledge and its dissemina tion.\n\nEach of these lectures will systematically cover the following ar eas: \n\n\n compilation and editing of primary source materials for all f ields\n major scholars and publications\, cooperative projects\n research trends (themes and topics)\n reference and research tools\n\n\nFinally\, g iven the framework and sponsor of these talks\, the resources explored wil l be keyed to the seven thematic research clusters of the BuddhistRoad Pro ject (Center for Religious Studies\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum) to further scholarship on topics within the context of Eastern Central Asia and their relation to Chinese Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nThis talk provides an overview of Dunhuang Studies in China as it stands in 2022\, laying the groundwork for the five talks to follow\, each of which will cover specific fields o f research in China\, Taiwan\, and Hong Kong. Beginning with a brief overv iew of the development of Dunhuang Studies in China in the 20th century\, this lecture then explores how Chinese scholarship is situated in a series of academic frameworks\, including research networks\, trends\, instituti ons\, and government-funded projects. The second part of the talk then exa mines recent research in the fields of geography and history\, that will i n turn establish a foundation for the five following lectures.\n\n\nNeil S chmid is Research Professor at the Dunhuang Academy. His scholarship centr es on Dunhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the role of Budd hist literature in ritual and art\, medieval economic development\, Esoter ic Buddhism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of paintin g and architectural space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently at work on s everal monographs\, including From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual Objects and Religious Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and ritual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, and the first -ever critical bibliographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, entitled The Comprehensive Guide to Scholarly Resources for Dunhuang Studies.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/mee ting/register/u5cucOGvpj0uHtdHcCtCLwtKFWPKHAw01W1S LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/chinese-dunhuang-studies-2 1st-century-lay-land/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Far from Wellness: Tantric Buddhist Rituals on the Silk Road DTSTART:20220214T170000Z DTEND:20220214T181500Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:far-wellness-tantric-buddhist-rituals-silk-road-7926@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Lecture by Prof. Dr. Carmen Meinert (Central Asian Religions) as part of the lecture series "Eine Religion kommt selten allein: Streifz üge durch die Religionsgeschichte". The online lecture will be presented in German. After the lecture English questions\, however\, are welcomed in the CERES YouTube channel.\n\nThe misconceptions about what lies behind t he term Tantra are very numerous in contemporary Western societies. With o ffers such as ritual massages and introductions to spiritual sexual practi ces\, certainly  one can earn a lot of money\, but one does not necessari ly accomplishes salvation\, the attainment of Buddhahood. What did Tantric Buddhist ritual practice look like in the 12th century\, as it was practi sed in the caves of Dunhuang and in other remote places\, perceived as sac red spaces\, along the so-called Silk Road in Central Asia? I would like t o take you on a journey through time and give you an impression of Buddhis t reality of life and religious experience by applying the concept of tran scendence-immanence distinction developed in the KHK to historical visual and textual materials from Central Asia.\n\n\nCarmen Meinert is Professor for Central Asian Religions and PI of the ERC project BuddhistRoad at CERE S\, Ruhr-Universität Bochum\, Germany. Trained in Buddhist Studies\, Tibe tan Studies\, and Sinology\, she aims to develop the field of Central Asia n religions more systematically and to integrate Central Asian and Tibetan Studies in the larger framework of Comparative Religious Studies. Her rec ent publications include:\nMeinert\, Carmen and Henrik H.\, ed.\, Buddhism in Central Asia I\, Patronage\, Legitimation\, Sacred Space\, and Pilgrim age (Leiden: Brill\, 2020)\; Heirman\, Ann\, Carmen Meinert\, and Christop h Anderl\, ed.\, Buddhist Encounters and Identities across East Asia (Leid en: Brill\, 2018) and Meinert\, Carmen\, ed.\, Transfer of Buddhism across Central Asian Networks (7th to 13th Centuries) (Leiden: Brill\, 2016).\n\ n\nClick here to CERES' YoutTube channel. \n\nCERES live website here. LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/far-wellness-tantric-buddh ist-rituals-silk-road/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Law and Slavery on the Silk Road: How did Buddhist Monks and Nuns participate in the Slave Trade? DTSTART:20220114T150000Z DTEND:20220114T170000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:law-and-slavery-silk-road-how-did-buddhist-mo-en-1-7650@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Cuilian Liu (Pittsburgh)\n\nThe lecture is li ve available at Zoom. Please pre-register until 13 January 2022\, 12 pm. Z oom lecture times: 4 pm (Amsterdam\, Berlin\, Rom\, Stockholm\, Wien)\; 10 pm (Peking)\; 10 am (New York\, Toronto\, Miami)\n\nThe selling and buyin g of human beings as slaves were highly sensitive\, controversial\, and pr ofitable on the trading networks along the Silk Road. Manuscripts excavate d from Cave 17 in Dunhuang (敦煌) and tombs in the Astana graveyard in T urfan contain records documenting how Buddhist institutions and individual monks and nuns were involved in the slave trade as buyers\, owners\, sell ers\, and transaction witnesses.\n\nExamining lawsuits\, contracts\, and d eathbed testaments concerning slave ownership related to Buddhist monks an d nuns\, this article explores what roles the Buddhist clergy had played i n the slave trade on the Silk Road\, and the legal implications of such in volvement. It shows that despite disapproval of slave ownership in Buddhis t canon law and strict regulations on slave trade in laws of the Tang Dyna sty (618–907\, 唐)\, Buddhist monks and nuns showed little concern over these restrictions when participating in the trading of slaves in the loc al markets in Dunhuang and Turfan.\n\nWhen ownership of their personal sla ves was challenged\, they were not reluctant in seeking legal intervention by initiating lawsuits in the lay court. In these practices\, such Buddhi st monks and nuns have received evident support from the secular legal sys tem. The local government not only placed official seals on a Buddhist mon k’s market certificate of slave purchase filled with abusive terms\, but also ruled in favor of a Buddhist nun to protect her rights as the adopti ve mother but ignored her enslavement of a free commoner’s daughter\, a severe crime against the Tang law.\n\n\nCuilan Liu is a scholar of Buddhis t studies. She is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the Universi ty of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on the legal interaction between Bu ddhism and law. Her recent publications include: “Buddhism in Court: Cle rical Privileges and the Jurisdiction of the Buddhist Clergy in Indian Bud dhist Monastic Law.\,” History of Religions 60.2 (2020): 103–131 and\; “The Fall of a Chinese Buddhist Monk: Law and State Governance in Post- Imperial China\,” Journal of Law and Religion 35.3 (2020): 432–449.\n\ n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.u s/meeting/register/u5Moc-2qrD4uGNAbbupYaH4WkoHL8PMCQWgP until 13th of Janu ary 2022. LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/law-and-slavery-silk-road- how-did-buddhist-mo-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:"Pièges à copistes" and Layout Variants in Dunhuang Buddhist Man uscripts DTSTART:20211216T130000Z DTEND:20211216T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:pieges-copistes-and-layout-variants-dunhuang--en-1-7656@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Costantino Moretti (Paris)\n\nThe lecture is available at Zoom. Please pre-register until 15 December 2021\, 12 pm.\n\n The aim of this talk is to observe the mechanisms linked to the production of specific textual and formal alterations which provide information of c odicological interest in Buddhist manuscripts from Dunhuang (敦煌)\, in particular on the characteristics of a manuscript archetype\, on its produ ction techniques\, and its formal evolution. Besides\, the importance of s urveying the alterations in the arrangement of textual and para-textual el ements will be discussed by means of a structural analysis revealing manus cript filiation based on formal characteristics.\n\n\nCostantino Moretti i s the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Professor in Chinese Medieval Buddh ism at the École française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO). He received his M A and PhD in East Asian Studies (Chinese Buddhism) from the École Pratiqu e des Hautes Études (Paris). His main fields of interest are Chinese Budd hist apocryphal scriptures\, Dunhuang manuscripts and codicology. He is cu rrently sub-editing entries concerning Medieval Chinese manuscripts from D unhuang for the "Encyclopaedia of Manuscript Cultures in Asia and Africa" (EMCAA\, Hamburg University). His recent publications include "Genèse d ’un apocryphe bouddhique" (Paris: Collège de France\, Institut des Haut es Études Chinoises\, 2016)\, which focuses on a 5th-century apocryphon t hat constitutes an important source for the study of popular Buddhism in M edieval China. He also collaborated on the edition of Jean-Pierre Drège\, "La fabrique du lisible: La mise en texte des manuscrits de la Chine anci enne et médiévale" (Paris: Collège de France\, 2014).\n\n\nTo join the lecture please register here https://ruhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/regis ter/u5AsdemprT0uGtBJaD1pmvZp0pka5J_U66z3 LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/pieges-copistes-and-layout -variants-dunhuang--en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Vajravārāhī in Tangut Buddhist Manuscripts DTSTART:20211209T130000Z DTEND:20211209T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:tangut-manuscripts-related-tantric-deity-vajr-en-1-7655@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Chung-pui Tai (Hong Kong)\n\nThe lecture is a vailable live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 07 December 2021\, 12 pm. \n\nVajravārāhī is often the object of visualisation in the Six Yogas o f Naropa (Tib. nA ro’i chos drug) and the Mahāmudrā\, the pillars in t he Kagyu (Tib. bka’ brgyud) teaching of Tibetan Buddhism. The cult of Va jravārāhī became popular among the Tanguts with the introduction of Tib etan Buddhism between the 11th and 13th centuries. A Vajravārāhī Cave w as built at Liangzhou (涼州)\, on the outskirt of the present-day city o f Wuwei (武威)\, in 1130 CE during the reign of Emperor Chongzhong (r. 1 087–1139\, 崇宗). This cave is a good illustration of the cult of Vajr avārāhī in the Tangut territory. The thangkas discovered among the Tang ut antiques from Khara-Khoto also contain images of Vajravārāhī alone o r paired with Cakrasaṃvara. However\, the most critical evidence of the cult of Vajravārāhī is the Tangut translation of Buddhist texts on Vajr avārāhī. This talk aims to provide an overview of Tangut Buddhist manus cripts related to Vajravārāhī. The talk will explore the content of the se manuscripts. It will also discuss the role of Tangut Buddhism in the tr ansmission of the cult of Vajravārāhī in the region.\n\n\nChung-pui Tai is a Tangutologist and a Teacher Educator. He is Assistant Professor at t he Faculty of Education of the University of Hong Kong and specialises in Tangut manuscripts and Chinese language education. His recent publications include: Chung-pui Tai\, “Decipherment of Tangut Fragment with Tibetan Phonetic Glosses Or. 12380/3910 from the British Collection\, and on Its R elationship with Fragments from the Russian Collection\,” in Qiang Songs on the Silk Road: Proceeding of the International Academic Forum on Liter ature and Manuscript of Ethnic Minorities in China\, ed. Tang Jun (Beijing : China Social Sciences Press\, forthcoming) and Viacheslav Zaytsev and Ch ung-pui Tai\, “Re-examination of Tangut Fragment Or. 12380/3495 from the Collection of the British Library\,” Tangut Research 45 (2021): 111–1 18.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register here https://ruhr-uni-bochu m.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5Msd-2tpzwjH9IKEl4cHRlyoCjRxP2fRrQn LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/tangut-manuscripts-related -tantric-deity-vajr-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:The Ngok Lineage: The Little-known Successors of Marpa Lotsaba (10 00?–1081?\, Tib. Mar pa lo tsā ba) and their Influence in Central and E astern Tibet during the Early Second Millennium DTSTART:20211125T130000Z DTEND:20211125T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:rngog-lineage-little-known-successors-mar-pa--en-1-7654@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Cécile Ducher (Paris)\n\nThe lecture is avai lable live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 24 November 2021\, 12 pm.\n\ nThe spread of Buddhism to Central Asia in the early second Millennium\, a nd particularly the introduction of Tibetan tantric traditions from the La ter Spread (Tib. phyi dar) within the Tangut State is one of the fields st udied at the CERES. This presentation aims to give insights into one of th ese traditions\, the Ngokpa Kagyü (Tib. rNgog pa bKa’ brgyud)\, that pl ayed an important role in Central Tibet in the 12th and 13th centuries\, a nd is now shown to have had some influence on the Tangut Buddhist culture. Ngok Chödor (1023–1090\, Tib. rNgog Chos rdor) was one of Marpa Lotsab a’s (1000?–1081?\, Tib. Mar pa lo tsā ba) four main disciples\, along with Milarépa (1040–1136\, Tib. Mi la ras pa)\, whose disciple Gampopa (1079–1153\, Tib. sGam po pa) had many disciples who gave rise to the v arious Kagyü (Tib. bKa’ brgyud) sub-schools (one of them\, the Barom Ka gyü (Tib. ’Ba’ rom bka’ bgryud) and its representative\, Tishri Ré pa (1164/65–1236\, Tib. Ti shri Ras pa)\, was especially active among th e Tanguts). Chödor had a son\, Ngok Dodé (1078–1154\, Tib. rNgog mDo s de)\, who became Marpa’s main successor and established the Ngok traditi on as the legitimate holder of Marpa’s teaching\, in the form of a famil y lineage based in Central Tibet. Several of his successors travelled to E astern Tibet and may have at that time encountered Tangut disciples who la ter spread the Ngok approach in their country.\n\nThe presentation will be divided into two main parts. First\, some elements of the history of the Ngok lineage will be shared with the hope to shed some light on how the Ng ok tradition may have entered the Tangut State and how influent it was at that time in Tibet in general. Then\, the main transmissions taught and pr acticed in the Ngok lineage\, the so-called ‘seven maṇḍalas of the N gok\,’ will be presented\, with a particular emphasis on what characteri zes each of these tantric teachings and the main features of its iconograp hy.\n\n\nCécile Ducher is a Tibetologist and independent researcher assoc iated with the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie orien tale (CRCAO) in Paris. She specialises in the study of religious history a nd Tantric Buddhism\, particularly of the Marpa Kagyü tradition. Her rece nt publications include Cécile Ducher\, "Building a Tradition: the Lives of Mar-pa the Translator" (Munich: Indus Verlag\, 2017)\; Cécile Ducher\, "A Neglected bKa' brgyud Lineage: the rNgog from gZhung and the rNgog pa bka' brgyud Transmission\," In "Mahāmudrā in India and Tibet".\, ed. Rog er Jackson and Klaus-Dieter Mathes\, 142–169 (Leiden\, Boston: Brill\, 2 020).\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register here https://ruhr-uni-boc hum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5ckdOCspzgtHtE3ArC5wooVH3Qivp6J3YbZ LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/rngog-lineage-little-known -successors-mar-pa--en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Cave Murals of Western Tibet DTSTART:20211111T160000Z DTEND:20211111T180000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:cave-murals-western-tibet-en-1-7653@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by David Pritzker (Chicago)\n\nThe lecture is av ailable live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 09 November 2021\, 12 pm.\ n\nIn keeping with aims of the BuddhistRoad project the present lecture wi ll explore the relevance of the Silk Road in the establishment and present ation of Buddhism and Kingship in West Tibet. The end of the Tibetan Empir e’s Pugyal Dynasty (Tib. sPu rgyal\, 7th to 10th c.) and the beginning o f the kingdom of Tö Ngari Korsum (Tib. sTod mNa’ ris skor gsum) in West Tibet is symbolically embodied in the escape of the royal son Kyi de Nyim a Gön (Tib. sKyid de Nyi ma mgon\, d. ca. 930) from the maelstrom of revo lt and collapse in Central Tibet. As the bridge between old and new\, Kyi de and his heirs carried the authority and legacy of the Pugyal Tsenpo (Ti b. spu rgyal brtsan po) towards the Highlands of West Tibet (ca. 910). But this was not simply a direct transfer from Central Tibet to West Tibet\, rather on closer examination of textual and art historical material it bec omes clear that this transformation was one that was directly informed by the major Buddhist centers along the Silk Road\, from Dunhuang and the Hex i Corridor in the East to greater Kashmir and the Wakhan Corridor in the W est. In this light\, the presentation will uncover a West Tibetan kingdom deeply influenced by the Silk Road.\n\n\nDavid Pritzker is the director of the Pritzker Art Collaborative\, Chicago\, and is also a Research Fellow at the Art Institute of Chicago. Most recently he has co-curated the exhib ition "Cultural Exchange Along the Silk Road: Masterpieces of the Tubo Per iod (7th – 9th Century)"\, with Wang Xudong\, director of the Palace Mus eum and former director of Dunhuang Academy. The exhibition opened on July 2\, 2019 and ran until October 22\, 2019 at the Dunhuang Academy Exhibiti on Center. More than 461\,000 people visited the show. He received his PhD from the University of Oxford with a focus on early textual history and h istoriography in Tibet. Since 1996\, in collaboration with China’s Natio nal Cultural Heritage Administration and together with Sichuan University\ , Pritzker has been exploring\, documenting\, and researching early sites of the Purang-Guge Kingdom (Tib. sPu hrangs Gu ge\, ca. 10th c.) in West T ibet.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register here https://ruhr-uni-boc hum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5MpfuCupzsqG9GpFjCS518etSOi0LPyQnYo LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/cave-murals-western-tibet- en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Why did the Uyghurs become Buddhist? DTSTART:20211110T150000Z DTEND:20211110T170000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140217Z UID:lecture-johan-elverskog-7905@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Johan Elverskog (Dallas\, TX).\n\nIn 762 CE\, the ruler of East Uyghur Khanate (ca. 744–840\, also known as Uyghur St eppe Empire)\, Bügü Khan (759–779)\, converted to Manichaeism. The Uyg hur elite continued to embrace this tradition even when their empire on th e Mongolian Plateau collapsed and they fled to present-day northwest China . But around the year 1000\, the Uyghurs converted to Buddhism\, the domin ant religion among their subject peoples—the Chinese\, Sogdians\, and To charians—and would remain Buddhist until their conversion to Islam centu ries later.\n\n\nJohan Elverskog explores the Uyghurs’ conversion in the larger context of Eurasian geopolitics and the contemporary messianic bel ief that the end of the dharma was nigh. Johan Elverskog is a historian. H e is Dedman Family Distinguished Professor at Southern Methodist Universit y and specialises in inter-Asian cross-cultural exchange and interaction. His recent and forthcoming publications include: Johan Elverskog\, "The Bu ddha’s Footprint: An Environmental History of Asia" (Philadelphia: Unive rsity of Pennsylvania Press\, 2020) and "The Precious Summary: A History o f the Mongols" (New York: Columbia University Press\, forthcoming). Elvers kog was 2013 Visiting Research Fellow at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg "Dynam iken der Religionsgeschichte" in Bochum\n\n\nDue to the rules to minimize the pandemic only limited seats can be offered. Please pre-register at bud dhistroad@rub.de by 5th of November 2021. LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/lecture-johan-elverskog/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dunhuang Caves and the Aesthetics of Scale DTSTART:20211028T121500Z DTEND:20211028T134500Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:dunhuang-caves-and-aesthetics-scale-en-1-7652@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Neil Schmid (Dunhuang)\n\nThe lecture is avai lable live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 27 October 2021\, 12 pm.\n\n The Mogao Caves (Chin. Mogao ku 莫高窟) contain dozens of miniature cav es dating from the Tang and Five Dynasties periods. Though at 1/10th the s ize and thus too small to hold any ritual practice\, these miniature caves replicate in perfect detail the visual programs of larger caves. Scholars have neglected these diminutive creations as a distinct phenomenon\, and as of yet no research exists on the topic. This talk provides the first th orough analysis of these small-scale caves\, outlining their typologies an d content\, as well as their distribution among larger caves. Crucial to t his exploration is the concept of scale in medieval Chinese religion and a rt\, and its importance in revealing how such caves functioned conceptuall y and ritually. Finally\, through a detailed comparison of form and visual ity\, we explore how it is impossible to fully understand the Mogao Caves as a sacred site without full consideration of these striking miniatures.\ n\n\nNeil Schmid is Research Professor at the Dunhuang Academy. His schola rship centres on Dunhuang and explores a range of topics\, including the r ole of Buddhist literature in ritual and art\, medieval economic developme nt\, Esoteric Buddhism (Chin. mijiao\, 密教)\, and the ritual aesthetics of painting and architectural space of the Mogao Caves. He is currently a t work on several monographs\, including From Byzantium to Japan: Ritual O bjects and Religious Exchanges Across Eurasia in Late Antiquity\, tracing the flow of exotic goods and ritual paraphernalia along the Silk Road\, an d the first-ever critical bibliographical survey of Dunhuang materials\, e ntitled The Comprehensive Guide to Scholarly Resources for Dunhuang Studie s.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at  https://ruhr-uni-bochum .zoom.us/meeting/register/u5YucO-przIuH9Dil4in_TfRB2kF9QbQasIV until 27th of October 2021. LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dunhuang-caves-and-aesthet ics-scale-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dzogchen Workshop: Contemplation and Non-Doing: Solitude\, Absorpt ion and Letting-be as Structural Principals of Contemplative Religious Pra ctice DTSTART:20210922T140000Z DTEND:20210924T170000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:dzogchen-workshop-contemplation-and-non-doing-en-1-7609@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Dzogchen is a Tibetan Buddhist contemplative tradition that em phasizes effortlessness as a key fea-ture of its doctrinal architecture an d meditative programme. Non-striving thus represents one of the central re search questions examined in the “Dzogchen” project\, which is sponsor ed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and is based a t the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum . The present workshop seeks to explore this theme in a broader framework\ , by looking at it comparatively from the viewpoints of a number of religi ous traditions.\n\nMany traditions of contemplative practice\, whether the y be Buddhist or of other religious origin\, emphasize the need to purify the tendencies towards outer and inner forms of distraction. This leads to a state of (outward) solitude\, which can (but need not necessarily) be t emporarily and spatially delimited. Solitude thus provides a framework for actual contemplation or absorption\, the central task of the contemplativ e life (= inner solitude). Although contemplation is usually presented as the result of a strenuous process of gradual renunciation and effort\, the higher stages of contemplative practice often underscore the fact that wi lful striving can be an obstacle to true contemplation. In such an optic\, wilful striving eventually gives way to a suspension of effort and opens up to a state of inner letting-be.\n\nThe meaning (and the precise order) of this threefold structure (solitude – contemplation – letting-be) is presented differently according to various contemplative traditions. It p rovides a fruitful field for a comparative religious enquiry\, one in whic h both the commonalities and differences between traditions of mystical pr axis can be explored. This workshop will provide a forum for experts to di scuss this theme from the perspectives of the following traditions of myst ical praxis: Dzogchen\, Tantra\, Mahāmudrā\, Chan/Zen\, Pure Land Bud-dh ism\, Daoism\, Kashmiri Shaivism\, Judaism\, Christianity\, and Sufism.\n\ nProgramme of the workshop LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dzogchen-workshop-contempl ation-and-non-doing-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Reconciling the Irreconcilable? Revisiting the Dunwu dasheng zheng li jue 頓悟大乘正理决 [The Judgement on Sudden Awakening Being the True Principle of Mahāyāna] and the Samyé Debate in the 8th Century DTSTART:20210722T120000Z DTEND:20210722T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:reconciling-the-irreconcilable-revisiting-the-en-1-7648@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Yi Allan Ding (Chicago)\n\nThe lecture is av ailable live at Zoom. Please pre-register here until 21 July 2021\, 12 pm. \n\nSince Paul Demiéville published his study on the Dunwu dasheng zhengl i jue 頓悟大乘正理决 [The Judgement on Sudden Awakening Being the T rue Principle of Mahāyāna] in Le concile de Lhasa in 1952\, many scholar s have contributed to the discussion about related issues by closely study ing relevant Tibetan materials\, which include PT 823/1\, PT 827/2\, PT 11 6\, bSam gtan mig sgron [The Eye-Lamp for Meditation]\, Cig car ’jug pa rnam par mi rtog pa’i bsgom don [The Meaning of the Sudden Entry into No n-Conceptual Meditation]\, dBa’ bzhed [The Testament of Wa]\, etc. This presentation demonstrates that the Tibetan materials have enabled us to re evaluate the composite nature of the Judgement and to extrapolate a ‘deb ate’ process underneath the seemingly disorderly questions and answers. For instance\, a large portion of the Judgement should be understood as Ch inese translations of original Tibetan queries\; owing to the existence of translation procedures\, miscommunication between Kamalaśīla (ca. 740 –795) and Moheyan (fl. 786–794\, 摩訶衍) did at times happen. A mor e nuanced understanding of the Judgement also makes it possible to reconci le the narrative in the Judgement with some of the elements in the now wel l-studied dBa’ bzhed.\n\n\nYi (Allan) Ding is Assistant Professor at the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University\, Chicago. He has pu blished several articles that deal with Buddhist materials from Dunhuang o r Sino-Tibetan Buddhism\, including “‘Translating’ Wutai Shan into R i bo rtse lnga (‘Five-Peak Mountain’): The Inception of a Sino-Tibetan Site in the Mongol-Yuan Era (1206–1368)” Journal of Tibetology 18 (20 18) \, “The Transformation of Poṣadha/Zhai in Early Medieval China (2n d–6th Centuries CE)” Buddhist Studies Review 36.1 (2019)\, and “By t he Power of the Perfection of Wisdom: The ‘Sūtra-Rotation’ Liturgy of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā in Dunhuang” Journal of the American Orient al Society 139.3 (2019). He currently works on a book manuscript that focu ses on the zhai feast and relevant liturgical scripts from the sixth to th e tenth century.\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register here https://r uhr-uni-bochum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5MocuquqD8uE9aXaWfuuwf0HJAa91RZUQ LE until 21st of July 2021. LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/reconciling-the-irreconcil able-revisiting-the-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Establishing of Buddhist Nodes in Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th c. - Part III: Impacts of Non-Buddhist Influences and Doctrine DTSTART:20210712T110000Z DTEND:20210714T171500Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:establishing-buddhist-nodes-eastern-central-a-en-1-7657@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:This is the 3rd and final conference of the BuddhistRoad proje ct\, which has been creating a new framework to understand the dynamics of cultural encounter and religious transfer across premodern Eastern Centra l Asia. This conference shares these aims\, with first a new focus on the complex interactions between Buddhism and non-Buddhist traditions\, and se cond a deepening of the traditional focus on Buddhist doctrines. Between t he 6th and 14th centuries\, as Buddhism continued to spread along the so-c alled Silk Road and strengthen its position in many of the nodes along the way\, it encountered other religions\, from both east and west\, indigeno us traditions of interacting with superhuman beings\, and novel non-religi ous technologies. Buddhist travellers\, missionaries and converts had to n egotiate\, accept\, adapt\, or reject these influences\, and they all had impacts on local forms of Buddhism to a lesser or greater extent. A key pa rt of the new Buddhist traditions created by these processes were altered worldviews\, beliefs and creeds that were authorised by means of teaching and the passing down of orthodoxy. Thus\, although doctrines and the impac t of non-Buddhist influences are discussed on separate days of this confer ence\, there is much scope for dynamic overlapping of topics and exciting cross-fertilisation of dialogue throughout\n\nThe conference is held onlin e and on invitation only.\n\nConference programme LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/establishing-buddhist-node s-eastern-central-a-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Reading Too Closely: Observations on Manuscript Copying and Produc tion in Gilgit and Greater Gandhāra DTSTART:20210708T120000Z DTEND:20210708T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:reading-too-closely-observations-manuscript-7649@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Charles DiSimone (Ghent)\n\nThe lecture is av ailable live at Zoom. Please pre-register until 07 July 2021\, 12 pm\n\nTh e three-hundred-year period spanning the 6–8th centuries of the Common E ra was a time of Buddhist predominance throughout the area known as Greate r Gandhāra encompassing modern Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan and Nort hern India. A testimony to the strong Buddhist influence in this period ma y be seen in the numerous manuscript materials from this time and area tha t have been uncovered throughout the last century\, and which are still ap pearing into the present. These manuscripts were copied in two distinct sc ripts\, Gilgit/Bamiyan Type I (sometimes referred to as Round Gupta Brāhm ī) and Gilgit/Bamiyan Type II (also known as Protośāradā) and may be r eferred to collectively as ‘Gilgit/Bamiyan Type Manuscripts’. They wer e produced on birch bark folios with carbon-based ink by an unclear number of what appear to have been professional scriptoria located variously aro und Greater Gandhāra\, and the manuscripts were then collected into cache s. The content of the manuscripts comprise Buddhist works of both Mahāyā na (predominantly sūtras) and Mainstream (predominantly āgama\, vinaya\, and avadāna) views. Taking examples from a number of collections of thes e Gilgit/Bamiyan Type Manuscripts\, in this talk I will present observatio ns on the methods and techniques employed by scribes in the copying of the se manuscripts\, the production of the birch bark folios that made up the material support of the manuscripts\, and the spread of these manuscripts both within Greater Gandhāra and beyond.\n\n\nCharles DiSimone is an FWO Postdoctoral Researcher at Ghent University. He received his doctorate fro m Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and has held positions at the B uddhist Digital Resource Center\, LMU Munich\, and Mahidol University. His research primarily focuses upon the applications of philological\, codico logical\, and critical analysis of Buddhist sūtra manuscripts and literat ure\, both Mahāyāna and Mainstream. Recent publications include research on scribal practices in the Gilgit area and Greater Gandhāra and a forth coming book on the (Mūla-)Sarvāstivāda Dīrghāgama manuscript (Wisdom 2021).\n\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register here https://ruhr-uni-bo chum.zoom.us/meeting/register/u50scOCsqj0oHdDwnvS2QIcfq43o-frSFNIT until 7 th of July 2021. LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/reading-too-closely-observ ations-manuscript/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Introduction to Speculative Thinking: An Unidentified Work in Tang ut Translation of Maja Jangchup Tsöndrü (d. 1185\, Tib. rMa bya Byangchu b brtson 'grus)? DTSTART:20210610T130000Z DTEND:20210610T150000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:introduction-speculative-thinking-unidentifie-en-1-7634@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Zhouyang Ma (Cambridge\, MA\, Harvard Univers ity)\n\nThe lecture is available live at Zoom. Please pre-register here u ntil 8 June 2021\, 12 pm.\n\nAmong the many Tangut Buddhist texts discover ed in Karakhoto there is one entitled sew2 ˑjij1 ˑo2 śjij1 dźju1 sji2 lju̱2 tshjịj2 -------- [The Ornament which Clarifies the Introduction t o Speculative Thinking]\, recorded as Tang. 314 in catalogues of Tangut Bu ddhist texts. The work is attributed to Master Bodhi-Diligence of Central Tibet (Tang. lji2 phə1 gu2 lhjịj2 po1 tjɨj1 ˑjɨr2 dzji̱j2 --------) \, which attests to its Tibetan origin. The fact that several fragments of different manuscripts of this work have been identified bespeaks the popu larity of this work in the Tangut Tangut Empire (ca. 1038–1227\, in Chin ese sources known as Xixia 西夏). This work\, consisting of at least eig ht volumes in its Tangut translation\, was presumably a long Tibetan treat ise. With regard to the authorship\, we are probably on relatively solid g round to argue that this work was composed by the renowned Kadam (Tib. bka ’ gdams pa) master Maja Jangchup Tsöndrü (d. 1185\, Tib. rMa bya Byang chub brtson ’grus). Therefore\, the Tangut translation sheds important light on the Buddhist histories of the Tangut Empire and Tibet during the 12th and 13th centuries\, especially on the transmission and assimilation of the early Kadam scholasticism. Remarkable features of the fragments\, s uch as the Chinese numerals and Tibetan letters alongside the Tangut lines \, reveal to some degree the practice of such scholasticism in the Tangut Empire as well.\n\nZhouyang Ma is currently a PhD. candidate in Inner Asia n and Altaic Studies\, Harvard University. His dissertation project examin es the rise of Tibetan Buddhism in the Tangut Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries\, focusing on the transmission of the Sangphu (Tib. gsang phu) s cholasticism. He has been trained as a scholar in Tibetan Studies ever sin ce his undergraduate education. He also became interested in Tangut Studie s because the tons of Tangut manuscripts embody the gate to a fascinating world of intellectual exchanges\, cultural innovations\, and social plural ity.\n\nTo join the lecture\, please register at  https://ruhr-uni-bochum .zoom.us/meeting/register/tJwldO6uqTIqHtaXYA5_-ySr4k5dtmhJNgK3 until 8th o f June 2021. Meeting-ID: 988 3767 9042\, Security code: 000002\n\n  LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/introduction-speculative-t hinking-unidentifie-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Mythical and Historical Discrepancies: Chinese Princess Wencheng a nd the Princess of Jincheng as Presented in Old and Classical Tibetan and Chinese Sources DTSTART:20210422T121500Z DTEND:20210422T134500Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:mythical-and-historical-discrepancies-7624@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Emanuela Garatti (Paris)\n\nThe lecture is av ailable live at Zoom. Please pre-register here until 20 April 2021\, 12 pm .\n\nIn Tibetan classical sources\, the two Chinese princesses arrived in Tibet during the 7th and the 8th centuries are consistently presented as h aving played critical roles in introducing and promoting Buddhism in Tibet . These sources\, dating as early as the 11th and the 12th centuries\, pro vide an image of two the princesses as active patrons of Buddhism and thus perpetuate an image of two women incarnating the role of legitimisers of Buddhism’s presence in Tibet up to the present. Nevertheless\, old Tibet an sources\, in particular Dunhuang Tibetan documents and Chinese sources\ , official histories as well as other official texts\, never mention the p roclivity of Princess Wencheng and Princess of Jincheng towards Buddhism n or detail any specific religious activities of the two princesses. This pr esentation surveys references to the two princesses in early Tibetan and C hinese sources in order to go beyond this fundamental discrepancy between ancient and classical sources and to understand the continuities and diver gences lying behind these texts. The goal of this presentation is also to provide the evolution of the image of Princess Wencheng and Princess of Ji ncheng in Tibetan and Chinese historiography.\n\nEmanuela Garatti is resea rcher at the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes\, Centre de recherche sur le s civilisations de l'Asie orientale. LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/mythical-and-historical-di screpancies/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Moving out of the Tibetan Period: Stein Painting 3 from Dunhuang DTSTART:20210226T100000Z DTEND:20210226T120000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:moving-out-tibetan-period-stein-painting-3-7603@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Imre Galambos (Cambridge)\n\nThe lecture is a vailable live at Zoom. Please pre-register here until 25 February 2021\, 1 2 pm.\n\nStein painting 3 (Ch.xxxviii.005) at the British Museum is a silk painting with a symmetrical composition of two Avalokiteśvara figures fa cing each other. With 147.3 × 105.3 cm in size\, this is among the larger paintings from Dunhuang. At the top centre of the composition\, between t he two figures is a donor inscription inside a yellow cartouche. The inscr iption contains no date but has been dated to the mid-ninth century on the basis of a supposed reference to the Tibetan control of the region. Imre Galambos examines the inscription and argues that it does not refer to th e Tibetan rule of Dunhuang but is simply about a woman who lives away from her original home. His presentation also shows that we can improve on th e reading of the inscription\, which in turn modifies our translation. In view of these considerations\, the manuscript almost certainly dates to th e tenth century. LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/moving-out-tibetan-period- stein-painting-3/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Toward Building a Typology of Chos Grub's Calligraphy: Paleographi cal Studies of the Tibetan Dunhuang Manuscripts written in the Monastic St yle DTSTART:20201013T120000Z DTEND:20201013T133000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:toward-building-typology-chos-grubs-calligraphy-7580@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Channa Li (Vienna)\n\nThe lecture is availabl e live at Zoom. Please pre-register here until 12 October 2020\, 12 pm.  \n\nManuscripts are not only bearers of texts but also artefacts. Beyond c onveying intellectual or literary messages\, a manuscript is per se an arc haeological object\, the tangible outcome of social and human endeavor. In her presentation Channa Li is about to establish a typology of the callig raphy of Chos grub\, the famous bilingual translator from Dunhuang. Siftin g through the manuscripts falling into Chos grub’s intellectual ‘legac y’ this presentation seeks to contribute to a better reading of manuscri pts with this certain type of script and\, moreover\, serves as the benchm ark for further recognition of Chos grub’s works.\n\nChanna Li is curren tly a Post-doc Research Associate in IKGA\, the Austria Academy of Science s. With a Ph.D. at Leiden University in 2019\, her fields of interest rang e widely from the Buddhist cultures and materials along the Silk Road (esp . Dunhuang\, Kizil)\, to the significance of Buddhist narratives in helpin g us visualise the ideological history of Buddhism in ancient India\, Chin a\, and Tibet. She also focuses on Buddhist Mahāyāna translations made b y medieval Chinese and Tibetan monks\, especially Tibetan sūtras translat ed from Chinese. LOCATION:CERES-Palais\, Raum "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/toward-building-typology-c hos-grubs-calligraphy/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dunhuang as Sacred Space: On the History and Formation of a Major Religious Site in the Eastern Central Asia DTSTART:20200702T140000Z DTEND:20200702T160000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:dunhuang-sacred-space-history-and-formation-m-en-1-7546@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Online lecture by Henrik Hjort Sørensen (CERES/BuddhistRoad)\ n\nThis lecture is meant to discuss the important Buddhist site of the Mog ao Caves 莫高窟 in Dunhuang 敦煌 located in the westernmost Gansu pro vince 甘肅省 of China as a ‘sacred space.’ This means understanding it as a consciously organised locus which continued to function as a majo r site for intercultural Buddhist practice for more than a millennium cove ring a timespan from the late 4th to the 14th century. The presentation wi ll focus on what constitutes a ‘sacred space’ by identifying those str uctural\, building blocks required for such a place to come together\, for its operation\, maintenance and other fundamental requirements.\n\nFind m ore details to the online lecture and the log-in data here.  LOCATION:Online Event URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dunhuang-sacred-space-hist ory-and-formation-m-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Inside Out: The Story of a Pair of Wooden Book Covers from Ancient Khotan DTSTART:20191023T120000Z DTEND:20191023T140000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:inside-out-story-pair-wooden-book-covers-ancient-6970@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guestlecture by Ruixuan Chen (Heidelberg)\n\nThis talk present s some preliminary findings of a codicological and historical investigatio n of a pair of wooden tablets that used to function as the covers of the m ain manuscript of the famous Book of Zambasta. While the book is well know n as one of the most important sources for Khotanese Buddhism\, the covers \, bearing bilingual inscriptions which are every bit as interesting as th e book itself\, have not yet received due attention. This talk approaches this pair of book covers as written artifacts having social lives in their own right. Drawing parallels from a variety of Buddhist manuscript cultur es in the trans-Himalayan regions\, efforts will be made to shed new light on their materiality and its relevance to the persistent exchanges of rel igious ideas and material cultures across the Pamir mountain ranges throug hout the second half of the first millennium.\n\nPicture: © Depositum der BERLIN-BRANDENBURGISCHEN AKADEMIE DER WISSENSCHAFTEN in der STAATSBIBLIOT HEK ZU BERLIN - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Orientabteilung LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/inside-out-story-pair-wood en-book-covers-ancient/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Establishing of Buddhist Nodes in Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th c. - Part II: Visual and Material Transfer\, Practices and Rituals DTSTART:20190916T160000Z DTEND:20190918T193000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:establishing-buddhist-nodes-eastern-central-a-en-2-6778@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:The aim of this\, the 2nd conference of the BuddhistRoad proje ct\, is to investigate different aspects of material culture and transfer in and between the Central Asian Buddhist communities during the 6–14th centuries\, as well as dealing with issues relating to ritual and religiou s practices. Material transfer includes the exchange of iconographical mod els and religious imagery\, book culture\, cave sanctuaries\, etc. Ritual practices as conceived here is meant to focus on the transmission\, formul ation and re-formulation of salient forms of ritual performances\, includi ng meditation and visualisation. Given that rituals generally take place i n prearranged\, ritual spaces\, it is in the nature of things that a certa in overlapping between material culture and ritual practices has taken pla ce in Central Asian Buddhism\, something that is also likely to be borne o ut in a number of the presentations.\n\nIt is hoped that a more inclusive approach afforded by the two overarching topics of the conference will ass ist us in the formulation of new methods of research. LOCATION:Beckmanns Hof URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/establishing-buddhist-node s-eastern-central-a-en-2/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Luchbox Lecture: The Silk Road in Post-WWII Japanese Religious Ima gery: Hirayama Ikuo’s Art and Activism and the Yakushiji Temple DTSTART:20190704T101500Z DTEND:20190704T114500Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:luchbox-lecture-the-silk-road-in-post-wwii-japanes-6273@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Lunchbox lecture by Paride Stortini (Chicago)\n\nThe concept o f the Silk Road suggests a chronotope of cultural contact\, flows of ideas and religions\, trade and economic interests at the interstices of empire s\, from the ancient Roman and Chinese\, to the modern “Great Game” be tween Russia and the British empire.\n\nIn post-WWII Japan\, the idea of t he Silk Road was associated in the media\, art\, and literature with freed om of travel\, contact with exotic cultures\, and spiritual encounters. Th e image of Japan as the end point of the route and the repository of the r ich entanglement of cultures that flowed through the Eurasian continent ma de it possible to conceive a new role for the country after the war: Japan as a model of cultural heritage preservation and a promoter of peace and international collaboration. Religion and spirituality play an essential r ole in such image\, especially in the case of Buddhism\, whose spread from India to East Asia followed the maritime and land routes of the Silk Road . In this lecture\, the lecture will particularly analyze how such images of the Silk Road and of Buddhism intersected in the art and cultural herit age activism of Hirayama Ikuo\, one of the major post-war nihonga painters in Japan and a survivor of the Hiroshima nuclear bombing\, and how they b ecame part of religious practice and imagery at the Yakushiji temple\, in Nara. The lecture will take into consideration material and economic aspec ts of this imaginaire\, and what is left unsaid in the discourse around it \, such as Buddhist involvement in Japanese wartime militarism. LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/luchbox-lecture-the-silk-r oad-in-post-wwii-japanes/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Dynamics\, Stability & Tradition: The Role of the Religions of Ira nian Speakers in Central and Eastern Asia DTSTART:20190314T080000Z DTEND:20190315T163000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:dynamics-stability-tradition-role-religions-i-en-1-5635@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Iranian speakers—especially Sogdians\, Bactrians\, and Khota nese—had their homeland in Central Asia. Especially the former two are k nown as the traders on the Silk Roads and dominated the trade route up to China. They had contact with various religions\, Zoroastrianism\, Manichae ism\, Christianity (especially the Church of the East\, so-called Nestoria nism)\, Buddhism and Islam through their trade activities.\n\nBecause of t heir religious diversity\, the Iranian speakers often played a major role as the cultural intermediaries in Central and Eastern Asia. Thus\, the con tact with them triggered the dynamic change for several ethnic groups. On the other hand\, the Iranian speakers were also impacted by others in thei r religious orientation. The above-mentioned introduction of Buddhism amon g some Sogdians can be counted as one of those examples\, because it proba bly happened through the contact with Chinese. In addition\, a certain con tact with Tocharians\, Indo-European speakers in Central Asia\, can also b e indicated.\n\nThe workshop offers an ideal platform for a fruitful discu ssion between scholars from Europa and Asia from various fields.\n\nProgra mme of the workshop LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/dynamics-stability-traditi on-role-religions-i-en-1/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:A Glimpse into the Fire Offerings in the Tangut State: Homa Ritual in Text\, Image\, and Practice DTSTART:20181009T080000Z DTEND:20181009T100000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:glimpse-fire-offerings-tangut-state-homa-ritual-te-5653@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture presented by Hou Haoran (Leipzig) as part of the ERC funded research project BuddhistRoad\n\nFrom the 12th to the 13th cen tury\, the fire offerings of Homa became prevalent in the Tangut state. Th is perception is based on the evidence as follows: Tangut tantric literatu re\, recovered from Kara Khoto and Shanzuigou\, contains a considerable am ount of manuals of Homa ritual\; historical sources and Buddhsit prayers r ead the accounts of the Homa offerings performed at the Tangut court\; vis uality of the Homa elements is observed in the Thangka collections from Kh ara Khoto and the mural paintings in the Dunhuang Caves. From the three as pects\, the lecture will provide an overview of the ritual offerings of Ho ma during the Tangut period. It will further examine an early Tangut block print\, i.e.\, the Saṃpuṭatantra\, which includes a section homavidhi introducing various formulas of Homa ritual. The text derseves special men tion in its rarity for being kept in three languages: Sanskrit\, Tibetan\, and Tangut. Reflecting on a comparative study of the trilingual documents \, the lecture attempts to provide clues on how Tangut people interpreted and reacted to Buddhist texts\, images\, and rituals.\n\n \n\n  LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Cordoba" (3.06) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/glimpse-fire-offerings-tan gut-state-homa-ritual-te/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Some Problems Surrounding Sogdian Tantric Texts DTSTART:20180626T080000Z DTEND:20180626T100000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:guest-lecture-some-problems-surrounding-sogdian-ta-5135@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Guest lecture by Yutaka Yoshida (Kyoto) as part of the ERC fun ded research project BuddhistRoad\n\nSogdians\, an Iranian speaker\, are f amous as the merchants between West and East. In their homeland\, Zoroastr ism seems to have been dominant among them\, but passing the trade routs\, so-called Silk Road\, they had contacts with different religions. When th ey came closer to China\, some Sogdians became Buddhists. They also produc ed Buddhist texts in their own language and a small part of them came down to us by chance. In his lecture\, Yutaka Yoshida\, a leading scholar of M iddle Iranian Studies\, first gives an overview about Sogdian Buddhist tex ts which were excavated from Turfan and Dunhuang. And then he focuses on T antric texts and discusses them in detail.\n\nPicture: Depositum der Berli n-Brandenburgischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin - Preußischer Kulturbesitz Orientabteilung LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13) URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/guest-lecture-some-problem s-surrounding-sogdian-ta/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Start-up Conference BuddhistRoad: Establishing of Buddhist Nodes i n Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th c. DTSTART:20180523T160000Z DTEND:20180525T163000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:establishing-buddhist-nodes-eastern-central-asia-5092@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Establishing of Buddhist Nodes in Eastern Central Asia 6th to 14th c.—Part I: Sacred Space\, Pilgrimage\, Patronage\, Legitimation Str ategies \n\nThe aim of this start-up conference to the ERC funded project BuddhistRoad is to investigate the complexities concerning patronage and donors in Central Asian Buddhist communities on the one hand\, and issues relating to sacred spaces and pilgrimage on the other. While the focus wil l be on the cultures that thrived along the Silk Road during the period 6 –14th centuries\, the scope of the meeting will also include these thema tics in adjacent areas and cultures in order to provide viable comparative and theoretical basis for further elucidation and discussion.\n\nFind mor e information on the project and conference here.\n\nVenue: Beckmanns Hof | RUB Campus | Universitätsstraße 150 | 44801 Bochum\n\nMore information on the conference's program URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/establishing-buddhist-node s-eastern-central-asia/ END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT SUMMARY:Past and Present Buddhist Transfers in Asia. A Conceptual Analysis DTSTART:20180406T070000Z DTEND:20180406T170000Z DTSTAMP:20260423T140218Z UID:past-and-present-buddhist-transfers-asia-4977@ceres.rub.de CATEGORIES: DESCRIPTION:Internationale conference in cooperation with the Institut d'A sie Orientale\, Università degli Studi di Perugia\, Ens de Lyon and the École française d’Extrême-Orient.\n\nThe conference aims to evaluate the relevance of concepts such as syncretism\, hybridity\, mélange\, mét issage and bricolage used to describe the processes of transmission of Bud dhism by comparing case studies from various Asian cultural areas and from different historical periods. Of paramount importance in the conference i s the contextualisation of the processes of transmission of Buddhism. Rega rdless of the period under examination\, the transmission of Buddhism from one cultural context in Asia to another is always dependant on specific l ocal circumstances and needs\; thus\, teachings and practices are always r einterpreted locally. Therefore\, the transfer of Buddhism never results i n the conservation of a supposedly authentic tradition\, but rather is a d ynamic process of constant renewal. In a nutshell\, the goal of the confer ence is to typologize the historical\, cultural and societal factors that induce religious innovation by considering global as well as local framewo rks. Through specific case studies\, cultural and religious complexities w ill become visible as dynamic phenomena which move beyond boundaries.\n\nV enue: Institut d’Asie Orientale\, École Normale Supérieure de Lyon\, 1 5 Parvis René Descartes\, 69007 Lyon\, Salle D4.070.\n\nProgram of the Co nference URL:https://buddhistroad.ceres.rub.de/en/events/past-and-present-buddhist- transfers-asia/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR