Canonical Illuminations​: The Visual Subtext of a Fourteenth Century Sūtra Collection from Mustang, Nepal

Christian Luczanits

Abstract

Field documentation in Summer 2015 in Upper Mustang included twenty-nine volumes (ka to a with two volumes missing ma and ha) of a Sūtra Collection (mdo sde), each volume containing at least four illuminations on the first and last folios. These illuminations are carefully organised across all volumes, making them the earliest canonical colleciton with such a visual subtext known so far. Roughly speaking, the illuminations in the first volumes refer to the previous lives of the Buddha (jātaka), volume tha to ma illustrate the life of the Buddha, and the remaining volumes are dedicated to deities.
My lecture will present an analysis of these illuminations in relation to the content of the collection, the captions that accompany many of them, and their art historical pedigree. The information gained from these depictions offers a fascinating glance on 14th century Tibetan Buddhism at the periphery.

Christian Luczanits, SOAS, London

Christian Luczanits studied Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the Institute of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna, Austria, with a focus on art historical subjects. There he completed his PhD under the external supervision of the late Maurizio Taddei, Istituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli. Following his PhD he held research positions at the University of Vienna until 2000, the Austrian Academy of Sciences, 2000 to 2003, and the Lumbini International Research Institute, 2005/06. Christian Luczanits also held visiting professorships at UC Berkeley in 2004/05, at Free University in Berlin 2006–08, and at Stanford University and UC Berkeley in the first half of 2010. While teaching in Berlin Christian Luczanits also curated the exhibition "Gandhara – the Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan. Legends, Monasteries and Paradise" at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn together with Michael Jansen and was responsible for its catalogue. Before joining SOAS he has been Senior Curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York.

Organiser: Christian Faggionato

Contact email: cf36@soas.ac.uk