This two-day symposium brings to Shanghai an international group of scholars, including art historians, anthropologists and intellectual historians, to look at and think with objects across the Buddhist world. Participants will use a wide range of methodologies to consider the lives and travels of Buddhist objects and icons, their engagement of viewers, modes of experiencing, collecting practices, embodiment, and knowledge making. Drawing on a variety of case studies, the symposium aims to stimulate cross-disciplinary and trans-regional dialogues and map out possible trajectories surrounding the on-going debates on Buddhist material culture and art history.
The symposium is convened by Francesca Tarocco and Tansen Sen and supported by the Office of the Provost, NYU Shanghai and the Center for Global Asia at NYU Shanghai.
Space is limited. Please contact Pan Zhao, pan.zhao@nyu.edu, if you wish to attend.
S Y M P O S I U M S C H E D U L E
Thursday, APRIL 28
9:00 Tea & Coffee
9:15-9:30am Welcome - Joanna Waley Cohen and Francesca Tarocco (NYU Shanghai)
PANEL 1: OF BONES AND RELICS
Chair/commentator - Peter Skilling (French School of Asian Studies)
9: 30-10: 00 Himanshu Prabha Ray (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Travelling Relics: Spreading the Words of the Buddha
10: 00-10: 30 Sraman Mukerjee (Nalanda University)
Travelling Lives: Archaeologists, the "Buddhist Pope" and the Bones of Śākyamuni
10:30-11:30 Roundtable discussion
11: 45-13:00 Lunch break
PANEL 2: AUTHORSHIP, OWNERSHIP AND TRAVELING TEXTS
Chair/Commentator --- Tansen Sen (NYU Shanghai/Baruch College)
13:30-14:00 Alexey Kirichenko (Moscow State University)
The Circulation of Buddhist Manuscripts in Myanmar
14:00-14:30 Peter Skilling (French School of Asian Studies)
Mapping Buddhist Ritual Through Stamped Clay Tablets
14:30-15:30 Roundtable discussion
17:30 – 18:30 PUBLIC LECTURE
Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Of Matter, Spirits and Places: Japanese Discourses on the Bodies of the Shinto Divinities (Kami)
Friday, APRIL 29
9:00-9:30 Tea & Coffee
PANEL 3: SEEING, BELIEVING AND THE THINGS IN BETWEEN
Chair/Commentator --- Ronit Yoeli Tlalim (Goldsmiths, University of London)
9: 30 -10:00 Francesca Tarocco (NYU Shanghai)
Seeing is Believing: Buddhism and Chinese Visual Culture
10:00-10: 30 Tansen Sen (NYU Shanghai/Baruch College)
Buddhas on the Move: Replanting Buddhism in its Homeland
10: 30-11: 30 Roundtable discussion
11: 45-13:00 Lunch Break
PANEL 4: THE PUBLIC LIVES OF THINGS
Chair/Commentator --- Francesca Tarocco (NYU Shanghai)
13: 00-13:30 Fabio Rambelli (University of California, Santa Barbara)
Moving Objects, Shifting Significations: The Lives and Values of Buddhist Sacred Objects
13:30-14:00 Ellen Van Goethem (Kyushu University)
Buildings on the Move: Temple Construction and Capital Relocation in Ancient Japan
14: 00-15:00 Roundtable Discussion
PANEL: 5 HEALING AND SOTERIOLOGY
Chair/Commentator --- Himanshu Prabha Ray (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
15: 30-16:00 Georgios T. Halkias (Hong Kong University)
Travelling Spells: Mystical, Healing and Soteriological Encounters with the Dhāraṇī of Aparimitāyurjñāna in Tibetan contexts
16: 00-16: 30 Ronit Yoeli Tlalim (Goldsmith, University of London)
Moving Medical Knowledge: Contextualizing the “Bower” Manuscript
16:30-17:30 Roundtable discussion and wrap up
18:00-20:00 Visit to Aurora Museum