Reading the visual language of the Buddhist wall paintings of Kucha
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
10:00 am to 1:00 pm
- Venue
- Main Building
- Room
- G3
- Event type
- Seminar
About this event
The wall paintings of the Buddhist cave temples of Kucha are composed in a distinctive and highly refined pictorial language.
By learning their basic iconographic vocabulary and pictorial grammar, these murals can be approached as visual texts that can be actively 'read'. In this seminar, participants will engage in hands-on exercises to practice reading and interpreting the pictorial language of Kucha Buddhist painting. Through these practical exercises, the seminar will explore what kinds of Buddhological and historical insights can be drawn from mural materials by closely observing and analysing their visual language.
Attendance
This event is free and open to all, but registration is required.
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 at the Department of Eastern Philosophy and Culture on the Faculty of Letters of Toyo University, as well as External Researcher of the research centre ‘Buddhist Wall Paintings of Kucha on the Northern Silk Road’ at the Saxon Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig. Her research focuses on the wall paintings of Buddhist rock-cut monasteries along the Silk Road, with special focus on Kucha and Dunhuang. She was Research Fellow of the Asian Art Museum, State Museums of Berlin from 2010 to 2016, and completed her PhD at Freie Universität Berlin in 2014. Her publications include: G. Vignato & S. Hiyama, Traces of the Sarvāstivādins in the Buddhist Monasteries of Kucha (Leipzig Kucha Studies 3, 2022); I. Konczak-Nagel / S. Hiyama / A. Klein (eds.), Connecting the Art, Literature, and Religion of South and Central Asia: Studies in Honour of Monika Zin (2022); H. Habata & S. Hiyama (eds.), Variety of Jātaka and Avadāna Transmission (2025).
