Speaker: Alexander Von Rospatt (University of California, Berkeley)
Date and time: December 17th, 2024, 3 PM (Paris)
Location: Auditorium Dumézil, Maison de la Recherche, Inalco, 2 rue de Lille, 75007 Paris
Funding: Glorisun Charitable Foundation
Link: https://zoom.us/j/98982818888
Abstract: Nepalese painted scrolls (paubhā) often serve to commemorate the performance of particular rituals. Apart from their aesthetic value, these paintings deserve close study as important witnesses for the history of Nepalese Buddhism. To substantiate this point, the talk will focus on scroll paintings (from the 15th to the 18th cent.) commemorating the donation of a new honorific parasol (chattra) to the Svayambhū caitya of Kathmandu. The paintings to be examined depict not only the stūpa itself but also the surrounding shrines, which arguably reflect the autochthonous origins of the site of Svayambhū.
About the Speaker:
Alexander von Rospatt is Professor for Buddhist and South Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. He specializes in the doctrinal history of Indian Buddhism, and in the indigenous Buddhist tradition of the Kathmandu Valley. His forthcoming book « The Svayambhu Caitya and its Renovations » complements numerous essays he has authored on various aspects of the Nepalese tradition, including its narrative and ritual literature, its art historical heritage, and its rituals and their origins and evolution.
Download the original lecture poster here.
