Tracy Stilerman: "A Tibetan Lama in the Emperor’s Garden: Translating Space in the Work of Tukwan Lozang Chökyi Nyima (1737-1802)"

Abstract:

The Qing imperial gardens were powerful symbols of political authority—but what happens when a Buddhist lama from Tibet encounters them? This talk explores the writings and landscape projects of the Third Tukwan Lozang Chökyi Nyima (1737–1802), a Gelukpa scholar and imperial preceptor who moved between Beijing and Amdo. His Tibetan praise of the Summer Palace transforms the emperor’s garden into a Buddhist paradise, reimagining imperial space in religious terms, while his own Amdo garden blended Qing models with Indic Buddhist imagery. Tracing his work from courtly landscapes to local practice, I show how Tibetan lamas creatively translated and reconfigured imperial culture, using gardens as a medium to center Amdo as a site of Buddhist authority, practice, and innovation.

Bio:

Tracy Stilerman received her PhD from Columbia University in 2023. Her research interests include guidebook literature, the creation and mapping of Buddhist space in Tibet, and the impact of Qing imperial patronage on Tibetan Buddhist practice and institutions. She has been a visiting lecturer at Stanford since 2023.