Exploring the narrative world of the Buddhist cave temples of Kucha
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
10:00 am to 12:00 pm
- Venue
- Online
- Event type
- Lecture
About this event
Once flourishing as one of the major Buddhist kingdoms along the Silk Road, Kucha still preserves numerous cave temple sites that testify to the prosperity of its unique Buddhist culture.
These cave temples, together with the murals that adorn their interiors, constitute invaluable visual sources for understanding the distinctive cultural traditions of the 'Tocharian Buddhism', which once thrived along the northern edge of the Tarim Basin.
This lecture will first provide an overview of Buddhist culture in Kucha and its archaeological sites. It will then focus on an analysis of the concept of 'ancient India'; as fashioned within the interior spaces of Kucha cave temples dating from the 5th to the 7th centuries, in order to elucidate the characteristics of the highly sophisticated visual culture developed by Kucha Buddhism.
Attendance
This event is free and open to all but online only. Please register to attend through the link above.
Sponsor and organiser
The Buddhist Forum series is kindly sponsored by the Khyentse Foundation. It has been organised by the SOAS Centre of Buddhist Studies.
About the speaker
Satomi Hiyama is Assistant Professor of Buddhist Art History in the Department of Eastern Philosophy and Culture at Toyo University. She is also an External Researcher at the Buddhist Wall Paintings of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road research centre at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. Her research focuses on wall paintings in Buddhist rock-cut monasteries along the Silk Road, particularly in Kucha and Dunhuang. She was a Research Fellow at the Asian Art Museum, State Museums of Berlin (2010 to 2016) and completed her PhD at Freie Universität Berlin in 2014. Her publications include several edited volumes and studies on Buddhist art and textual traditions.
