Research Associate Buddhist Road (since 02/2018)
KHK Visiting Research Fellow (08/2017-01/2018)

Yukiyo Kasai started her Ph.D studies at Osaka-University (2001-2002) and specialized in the field of History of Uyghur Buddhism. She completed her dissertation at the Institute for Turkology of Free University Berlin (2002-2005) and participated in the 'Akademienvorhaben Turfanforschung' at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. After gaining her Ph.D., Yukiyo Kasai did research as a Fellow at Fritz Thyssen foundation (2006-2007) and DFG (2008). From 2008 to 2016, she was a researcher in the Academy project Turfan Studies at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and was rewarded with "Preis für Geisteswissenschaften" in 2011 at the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Her cumulative post-doctoral thesis, submitted to the Faculty of East Asian Studies at RUB in 2021, focuses on religions in pre-Islamic Uyghur society (8th-14th centuries).

Most recently she has been working on Uyghur manuscripts from the 9th-14th centuries. Since Buddhism was introduced into the Uyghurs, a Turkish speaking tribe, it became their main religion. After their conversion, the Uyghurs produced many Buddhist texts in their own language (Old Uyghur) and also left inscriptions in different Buddhist sites. They are one of the most important materials which teach us the activities of the Uyghur Buddhists

on appointment

Education

Ph.D., „Die historische Analyse der uigurischen buddhistischen Kolophone“, Free University Berlin, 2005

M.A., „The Old Turkish Xuanzang-Biography - Analysis of the 7th and 8th volumes. Comparison with the Chinese original“, Osaka-University, 2001

B.A., East Asian History, Central Asian History, Osaka-University, 1998