Prof. Dr. Duojiecaidan (Dorje Tsetan – Associate Professor, Tsongkhapa Research Institute, Qinghai Minzu Univerity, PRC; Visiting Scholar, Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Oxford)Tibetan Buddhist Influence on Tangut Buddhism: The Diffusion of the “lHa chos bdun ldan”

10 July 2024

16:00, 10 July 2024. ESA-Ost, Raum 120 & Zoom

The Tibetan texts discovered from Khara-khoto are an important Tibetan cultural heritage on the Silk Road and the second largest group of multilingual texts discovered on the Silk Road after the Dunhuang texts. Most of the Tibetan texts belong to the Xixia period or the subsequent period when the Tangut script was used, and are held in three countries: Russia, UK, and China. Among them, the K.K.III.029.l text in the Stein collection of the British Library, which is extremely rare, has been identified as a combination of the four mantras of the lHa chos bdun ldan (the seven deities and teachings of the Kadam School). This suggests that the propagation of the Kadam School in the Xixia was systematic and layered, with the Kadampa’s lHa chos bdun ldan at its core. At the same time, Tibetan and Tangut texts and images related to the Kadam school have also been identified in the collection, confirming that its teaching was widespread and prevalent in Xixia.

This talk aims to understand how Tibetan Buddhist culture in Central Asia spread and developed during the period of the Second Diffusion in Tibet. It also attempts to examine Tibetan Buddhist culture in Central Asia as an example of cultural exchange and mutual understanding, sharing, and integration among the multi-ethnic peoples of the Silk Road.

The lecture will be held at ESA-Ost, Raum 120, Edmund-Siemers-Allee 1, 20146 Hamburg, and via Zoom. For those who wish to participate via Zoom and are not students/members of Universität Hamburg, please write a short email to Prof. Dr. Wangchuk one day before the event: dorji.wangchuk@uni-hamburg.de.

Click to download the invitation as a PDF

Prof. Dr. Dorji Wangchuk (Director) & Dr. Orna Almogi (Co-director)
Khyentse Center for Tibetan Buddhist Textual Scholarship (KC-TBTS)
Abteilung für Kultur und Geschichte Indiens und Tibets
Asien-Afrika-Institut
Universität Hamburg
Alsterterrasse 1
D-20354 Hamburg