The Silkroad Foundation and the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan will co-sponsor and conduct the second seminar on “Dunhuang Art and Society” next year at Dunhuang, China, with the support from the Dunhuang Research Academy. This seminar provides a unique opportunity for scholars and students to research and study the Dunhuang caves on the site. The invited speakers include well-known Dunhuang specialists from the United States, United Kingdom and China. In addition to the introductory lectures, in-depth case studies will be discussed.
Note: Participants of the seminar are also invited to attend an international conference on Dunhuang art and culture at Lanzhou, co-organized by Lanzhou University and University of Michigan, on their way to Dunhuang from July 13 to 14, 2001. This conference is not part of the seminar program.
Program Schedule: Two weeks from Sunday July 15 to Saturday July 28, 2001.
Format: Participants visit the Mogao caves in the daytimes and attend the lectures and discussions in the evenings.
Language: The official language of the seminar is English. Lectures by local Chinese scholars will be translated.
Invited Speakers: Invited speakers include Dr. Albert Dien, Dr. Ning Qiang and Dr. Robert Sharf from the U.S., Dr. Roderick Whitfield from the U.K., and Ms. Fan Jinshi and Dr. Li Zuixiong, from the Dunhuang Research Academy, China.
Location: The Seminar will be held at the Mogao Caves, Dunhuang, China.
Accommodation: The Guest House at the Dunhuang Research Academy - $15 per day (double occupancy). Additional $10 for 3 meals per person per day.
Seminar Fee: The seminar fee is US$500, which covers the tickets to visit the open and special caves, the expenses to use the seminar room and equipment, and to use the local library.
Optional Field Trips : Two optional field trips are scheduled for the weekend and after the seminar. The cost is not included in the seminar fee.
(1) July 21-22: Yulin Caves, West Caves of Thousand Buddhas, and Yangguan Pass.
(2) July 29-August 5: Xinjiang caves in Turfan (Tuyugou and Bozikelik) and Kucha (Kizil, Kumutula, Kezilgaha, and Shenmusaimu). The exact timeframe staying in Turfan and Kucha is not finalized until later.
Lectures at Dunhuang
1. Fan Jinshi: “Welcome remark and introduction to the Dunhuang Academy”
2. Ning Qiang: “Dunhuang art and society: introduction”
3. Roderick Whitfield: “Characteristics of the 'banner' paintings”
4. Robert Sharf: “On the role of images in Chinese Buddhist ritual”
5. Albert Dien: “Northwest China: An Historical Perspective”
6. Roderick Whitfield: “Pure Land paintings on silk and in the caves”
7. Ning Qiang: “Pictorialization of Paradise in Medieval Chinese Buddhist Art”
8. Robert Sharf: “What makes a Tantric Buddhist image ‘Tantric’?”
9. Roderick Whitfield: “Ruixiang and the transmission of the Buddha image”
10. Li Zuixiong: “Conservation of the Dunhuang caves”
Lectures at Turfan
1. Albert Dien: “Oases and the Steppes: An Ecological Perspective”
2. Wang Binghua: “Archaeological discoveries in Xinjiang”
Lectures at Kucha
1. Roderick Whitfield: “Narrative painting in context: from Kizil to Dunhuang”
2. Chen Shiliang: “Buddhist caves in the Kucha region”
Registration: The online registration should be submitted to the Silkroad Foundation by December 31, 2000.
The full payment is due by 1/31/2001 once you are accepted to the program. Maximum of thirty participants will be
accepted. For more information, please contact Prof. Ning Qiang.
To contact the Silkroad Foundation via email info@silk-road.com
Background Reading list
The Silk Road and the Caravan Trade:
Collins, Robert. East to Cathay: The Silk Road. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1968.
Franck, Irene M. and David M. Brownstone. The Silk Road: A History. New York and Oxford: Facts on File Publications, 1986.
Hartel, Herbert and Marianne Yaldiz. Along the Ancient Silk Routes, New York, 1982.
Hopkirk, Peter. Foreign Devils on the Silk Road. London: John Murray, 1980.
Liu, Xinru. Silk and Religion: An Exploration of Material Life and the Thought of People, AD 600-1200. Delhi: Oxford University
Press, 1996.
Schafer, Edward H. The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California
Press, 1963.
Stein, Sir Marc Aurel. Any of his numerous writings.
Buddhist Art and Studies:
Baker, Janet, ed. The Flowering of a Foreign Faith: New Studies in Chinese Buddhist Art. Mumbai, 1998.
Ch'en, Kenneth. Buddhism in China. Princeton, 1964
Foltz, Richard C. Religions of the Silk Road: Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. New
York, 1999.
Gies, Jacques and Monique Cohen. Serinde, Terre de Bouddha. Paris, 1995.
Swann, P. Chinese Monumental Art. Viking Press, 1963.
von le Coq, Albert. Buried Treasures of Chinese Turkestan. 1st ed., London: George Allen and Unwin Ltd., 1928. Oxford paperback,
1985.
Klimkeit, Hans-Joachim, "The Donor at Turfan," Silk Road Art and Architecture 1 (1990), pp. 177-202.
Dunhuang Art and Studies:
Baker, Janet. A Brief History of the Dunhaung Caves: A Millenium of Chinee Buddhist Art. Western Conference of the Association for
Asian Studies. Selected papers in Asian Studies. New Series, no. 50. 1994.
Gray, Basil. Buddhist Cave Paintings at Tun-huang, London, 1959.
Whitfield, Roderick. Dunhuang Caves of the Singing Sands: Buddhist Art from the Silk Road, London, 1995. 2 vols.
Whitfield, Roderick. The Art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection at the British Museum, 3 vols, Tokyo, 1982 - 85.
Whitfield, Roderick and Anne Farrer. Caves of the Thousand Buddhas: Chinese Art from the Silk Route, London, 1990.
Whitfield, Roderick, Susan Whitfield and Nevill Agnew. Cave Temples of Mogao: Art and History on the Silk Road. Los Angeles, 2000.
Xinjiang History:
History of Civilizations of Central Asia:
vol. 2. The Development of Sedentary and Nomadic Civilizations: 700 B.C. to A.D. 250. Ed. Janos Harmatta. Paris, 1994.
vol. 3. The Crossroads of Civilization: A.D. 250 to 750. Ed. B.A. Litvinsky. Paris, 1996. ³The City-states of the Tarim Basin² and
³Kocho (Kao-ch¹ang),² by Zhang Guang-da, pp. 281-314.
Mallory, J.P. and Victor Mair. The Tarim Mummies: Ancient China and the Mystery of the Earliest Peoples from the West. London:
Thames and Hudson, 2000.
