Christian Luczanits: "Early Buddhist Art from Mustang, Nepal"

Abstract:

In the course of the ongoing documentation of Buddhist monastery collections in the Mustang region, a large number of illuminated manuscripts have been recorded. These illuminations are invaluable for refining our knowledge of the early history of Buddhist art and Buddhism in the region. They also provide a crucial link between the early painted caves of Mustang, not only in stylistic terms but also in religious and social ones.

Taking the illumination programme of a recently documented Śatasāhasrikāprajñāpāramitā (‘bum) as a point of departure, I will present a more detailed account of the early artistic production in the Mustang valley. For this it is clear that while major commissions may have been executed under the leadership of artists from outside the valley, there must also have been regional production, specifically in lower Mustang. Further, I will reflect on the religious and social context that we owe these works to.

Bio:

Christian Luczanits is David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art at the Department of the History of Art and Archaeology, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His research focuses on Buddhist art of India and Tibet, the latter largely based on extensive field research and documentation done in situ. Before joining SOAS in 2014, he was Senior Curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York. Since 2012, he leads a research project on “Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Collections Today”, which includes the documentation in Mustang.