Author: Mariia Lepneva

From 21 September 2024 to 11 May 2025, the Domain & Royal Museum of Mariemont, in cooperation with the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, presented the exhibition Sensing the Buddha — an unprecedented, multisensory immersion into the world of Buddhism.

Although the exhibition has now closed, you can still experience it through the Virtual Tour: 🔗 Start your visit here

For the English version, simply select your language in the upper left corner of the screen. Then switch to full-screen mode, explore the 3D map, move through the space, zoom in on objects, read exhibition panels, and enjoy the embedded audio and video content. You can even try the “dollhouse view” for a unique overview of the exhibition layout.

🎥 Highlights from the virtual experience:

• Video: The Life of the Buddha → Watch on YouTube

• Interview: Aaron Ponce on the concept of Dana → Listen here

• Interview: Sayalay Vajiranani on the concept of Karma → Listen here

Step inside Sensing the Buddha—no matter where you are—and discover a rich world of history, art, and spiritual insight.

We are hiring! One fully funded four-year PhD fellowship is now available in the ERC-funded project “Corpora in Greater Gandhāra: Tracing the Development of Buddhist Textuality and Gilgit/Bamiyan Manuscript Networks in the First Millennium of the Common Era” led by Professor Charles DiSimone at the Department of Languages and Cultures, Ghent University located in the center of the beautiful and historic city of Ghent, Belgium.

We warmly invite applications from MA graduates, particularly those interested in pursuing research on Buddhist textual traditions in classical languages. The successful candidate will join a dynamic and collegial team of international scholars.

📅 Application deadline: August 15
🔗 For the official announcement, please visit the website of the Ghent University.

Job description

In the last several years, fantastic manuscript finds have surfaced opening new windows into the scholarly study of the development of Buddhist literature. Gandhāra Corpora represents a multifaceted, holistic approach to the study of an important and voluminous genre of manuscript witnesses from an early era of Buddhist textual transmission composed mainly in Sanskrit in the Gilgit/Bamiyan type scripts from the historic region of Greater Gandhāra covering modern day Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Northern India. The advertised PhD fellowship offers an opportunity for a young scholar to situate themselves within the field of the philological study of Buddhist manuscript cultures specifically and Buddhist Studies broadly.

In the Gandhāra Corpora project, the researcher will join an international team of scholars working on manuscript materials recently uncovered from the historic area of Greater Gandhāra and contribute to the study and preservation of this material. Within the department, the Pre-doctoral researcher will be a member of both the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies (https://www.cbs.ugent.be/) and the Ghent Centre for South Asian Studies research groups (https://www.india.ugent.be/english/). A project website will be up this fall but brief project details may be found here: https://research.flw.ugent.be/en/projects/corpora-greater-gandh%C4%81ra-tracing-development-buddhist-textuality-and-gilgitbamiyan

All nationalities are welcome to apply.

You will contribute to the project in the following ways:

1. You will complete a doctoral dissertation on a Buddhist Studies project for a degree in Oriental Languages and Cultures.

2. Your dissertation will consist of an original research project based upon your research interests within the scope of the Gandhāra Corpora project. The topic will be agreed upon in the early stages of your fellowship. While no particular dissertation topic is anticipated, projects on Buddhist sūtra literature and textual transmissions are most welcome.

3. You will contribute to the project’s goals including but not limited to the digitization of manuscript materials in the field, the development of a database of akṣara usage in the manuscripts the project is focused upon, the creation of a digital archive of Buddhist and secular textual materials from the area of Greater Gandhāra, cataloging of manuscript witnesses, and additional research goals as deemed relevant to your doctoral project.

4. You will work closely with the research carried out by the project supervisor, post-doctoral fellows, and with the other project members including expert research partners stationed around the globe consisting of scholars in Europe and Asia and our partners at the Archaeology Institute of Afghanistan in Kabul consisting of a dedicated team of archeologists and conservationists.

5. You will be encouraged and expected to disseminate research results together with the research team via publications in international peer-reviewed journals, the participation in international conferences, etc.

6. You will contribute to the research environment in South Asian and Buddhist Studies at Ghent University through participation in reading groups, workshops, and other scholarly events.

Job profile

Your profile includes the following items:

• You hold a master’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Buddhist Studies, Religious Studies, South Asian Studies, Indology, Sanskrit, etc.).
• You have a good or above proficiency in Sanskrit.
• You have some background in the study Buddhist textual transmissions.
• You have the ability to develop an original research project.
• You have an excellent command of written and spoken English.
• You are a dynamic and enthusiastic person looking to do something you love in a thriving research community where you are valued.

Additional desirable qualifications (not required but viewed positively):

• Proficiency in any of the historic languages of Buddhist textual transmission beyond Sanskrit (Classical Chinese, Classical Tibetan, Pali, Gāndhārī, etc.), proficiency in Japanese or Bactrian, knowledge of any Brahmic scripts.
• An interest in the philological and paleographical study of Buddhist texts and/or North Indian/Central Asian textual history broadly.
• An interest in archeology and the preservation of objects of historic and cultural significance.
• Any previous background in the Digital Humanities or an interest in developing such skills.

CONDITIONS AND BENEFITS

• We offer a full-time position as a doctoral fellow, consisting of an initial period of 12 months, which – after a positive evaluation, will be extended to a total maximum of 48 months.
• Your contract will start on October 1, 2025 at the earliest.
• The scholarship amount is quite generous at 100% of the net salary of an AAP (Academic Assistant Personnel) member in equal family circumstances. The individual scholarship amount is determined by the DPO (Department of Personnel and Organization) on the basis of family circumstances and seniority. A grant that meets the conditions and criteria of the regulations for doctoral scholarships is considered free of personal income tax. More information about our salary scales may be found here: https://www.ugent.be/en/work/talent/welcoming-new-staff/salaryscales
• All Ghent University staff members enjoy a number of benefits, such as a wide range of training and education opportunities, 36 days of holiday leave (on an annual basis for a full-time job) supplemented by annual fixed bridge days, bicycle allowance and eco vouchers. Click here for a complete overview of all the staff benefits see here: https://www.ugent.be/en/work/talent/considering and here (in Dutch): https://www.ugent.be/nl/jobs/personeelsvoordelen.htm
• The City of Ghent is truly unique. The campuses of Ghent University are integrated in the medieval town and 19th century districts that circumvent the medieval part of the city. Ghent has a lively art scene and numerous world-class museums, covering ancient, modern and contemporary art, folklore and industrial heritage. The city is also home to a wide range of performing arts centers. The vibrant cultural scene of the city fuses in with the daily life of Ghent people and the city’s more than 70,000 students who together enjoy one of Europe’s largest pedestrian areas. This unique combination of old and new has made Ghent a cultural hot spot with Brussels, Amsterdam, Paris, London and Cologne only a few hours (or less) away by train.

How to apply

To apply submit the following materials in pdf format directly via email to Prof. Charles DiSimone (Charles.DiSimone@UGent.be) with the subject header “LAST NAME Gandhāra Corpora PHD 2025” cc project coordinator Els Bourgeois (Els.Bourgeois@UGent.be).

• Your complete CV and an overview of your study results.
• Your MA diploma (if already in hand) and transcripts of your studies at the undergraduate and MA level (official or unofficial).
• A cover letter outlining your experience and interest in undertaking doctoral studies at Ghent University in the Gandhāra Corpora project.
• A research statement or NO MORE THAN 1500 words (excluding bibliography) outlining your research interests and past experiences including any potential dissertation project you may be interested in undertaking within the broader aims of the Gandhāra Corpora project.
• Up to two samples of academic work (journal articles, research papers, a chapter of your MA thesis, etc.).
• Names and contact details of two or three referees (do not include reference letters).

Shortlisted candidates will be contacted shortly after the application deadline for an online interview with the results announced soon thereafter. Any questions about this vacancy may be sent by email directly to Prof. DiSimone. Interested parties are welcome to initiate contact before submitting their application.

The third lecture in the Gandhāra Corpora Project Lecture Series was delivered by Dr. Stefan Baums from the University of Munich on June 18, 2025, and focused on the formation, structure, and analysis of a comprehensive corpus of Gāndhārī manuscripts and inscriptions within the database gandhari.org. Covering a time span of over 500 years—from the 4th century BCE to the 2nd century CE—the corpus includes inscriptions, manuscripts, documents, and coins, all written in the Kharoṣṭhī script, which serves as the main defining criterion for inclusion in the corpus. These materials trace the spread of Gāndhārī writing culture from Gandhāra across Central and South Asia, including as far east as Luoyang and Chang’an in China, where Indian expatriate Buddhist communities left their marks. Dr. Baums discussed methodological innovations such as high-resolution 3D visualization of relic inscriptions, and introduced digital tools like the READ software (Research Environment for Ansient Documents, available on GitHub) for analyzing ancient documents.

Thursday, June 5, 2025, saw the presentation of an insightful talk, “Visualising Rituals in Gandhara” by Dr. Ashwini Lakshminarayanan, which inaugurated The Gandhāra Corpora Project Lecture Series organized by GCBS’s Prof. Charles DiSimone.

In her lecture, Dr. Lakshminarayanan presented her ongoing research on Gandharan Buddhist imagery, highlighting a shift in scholarly focus from purely art historical approaches—such as examining Greco-Roman influences—to exploring the social context of these artifacts. Central to her work is the GRAVE (Gandharan Relic rituals And Veneration Explored) database, which she built using the software Tropy, which allows her to tag images and conduct statistical analysis. Her current research centers on the pedestals of statues, particularly those depicting donors. By examining kinship ties and the monastic or lay status of these figures, she revealed patterns in donor representation. Noting generic stylistic features and occasional discrepancies between inscriptions and images, she proposed that the images were likely produced in advance, with inscriptions added later by those wishing to dedicate them. The lecture concluded with a lively discussion on topics such as the relationship between pedestals and the main image, the depiction of fire offering rituals, and the broader ritual functions of pedestal scenes.

We are very happy to announce the publication of a new issue of the “Newsletter of the Database of Medieval Chinese texts (DMCT)” (ISSN: 2952-8534), a collaborative project of the Department of Languages and Cultures / GCBS, Ghent University, and the Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts (DILA)! The newsletter can be downloaded from the frontpage of the DMCT. or by the link Newsletter of the Database of Medieval Chinese texts_2025.05 .
The current issue includes research papers and reports. Here is an overview of the contents:
1: Message from the editor-in-chief (p. 1-4)
2: Featured research paper “The Interpretation and Lexicographical Compilation of Idioms in Chán Buddhist Literature”, by Zeng Chen (p. 4-10)
3: Report by project Co-director Lin Ching-hui 林靜慧 (DILA) (p. 11)
4: Introduction to DMCT in Chinese by 林靜慧 and 洪振洲 (DILA) (p. 11-23)
5: Introduction to newly marked-up manuscript texts 寫卷說明2022&2023 by 林靜慧 (p. 23-31)
6: News from our members: contributions by Laurent Van Cutsem and Liang Litian (p. 32-34)
7: Poster session (p. 34-37)
8: Newly funded projects (p. 38-40)
9: Internship report by Wu Taoyu 吴韬玉, featuring an edition of the earliest dated Dunhuang manuscript, a rendering of the Ten Recitations Prātimokṣa sūtra based on Ms. Or.8210/S.797r (p. 39-52)
10: News from our partners, with contributions by Manuel Sassmann concerning our new collaboration with Buddhist Stone Sutras in China project (Heidelberg Academy of Science), a paper by Marcus Bingenheimer on encoding Buddhist texts using DNA, and a thorough introduction to the Thesaurus Linguae Sericae (TLS) database by Christian Wittern (p. 52-59)
11: MA thesis reports, introducing a selection of recent MA theses, “Words with Alternative Pronunciations in Modern Chinese and the Reading Traditions of Pre-modern Chinese Poetry” by Wu Taoyu, “A Study of Popular Character Forms (súzì 俗字) in the Dūnhuáng Manuscripts of Sōushén jì 搜神记” by Yang Yuting, and “A Study of Proper Names in the Chinese translations of the Mūlasarvāstivāda Vinaya Saṃghabheda-vastu” by Zhang Longyu (p. 59-65)
12: Publications and lectures (selection) (p. 66-67)
WE WISH YOU ALL A PLEASANT READING EXPERIENCE!

We are delighted to share that two researchers will be joining the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies in the fall having both been awarded prestigious FWO Junior Postdoctoral Fellowships in the 2025 competition under the supervision of Professor Charles DiSimone. Congratulations to Dr. Xiaoming Hou and Dr. Kikee Bhutia! We are excited to welcome them into our research group in the Fall.

Dr. Hou joins us from UC Berkeley with the project: Visualizing Doctrine: A Study of Exegetical Diagrams in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (8^th–10^th Centuries)

 Abstract:

This research project investigates the technical and pedagogical practices of medieval Chinese Buddhism by focusing on exegetical diagrams preserved in Dunhuang from the 8th to 10th centuries. Known both as fenmen tu 分門圖 (“diagram of gate-division”) and kewen 科文 (“text of analytical division”), these diagrams exemplify the liminal nature of this unique genre, which bridges the boundaries between image and text. Flourishing in medieval China and persisting into modern Buddhist practice, these diagrams provide critical insights into the epistemological foundations of Chinese Buddhist scholasticism. The study addresses three key questions: (1) What are the defining features and functions of these diagrams, and how do they facilitate knowledge organization? (2) How were they produced, transmitted, and utilized in their manuscript contexts, and what do these practices reveal about their pedagogical roles? (3) What do these diagrams disclose about the social and institutional networks of their producers and users? The project also situates Buddhist exegetical diagrams within the broader Chinese tu 圖 tradition, comparing them with diagrams from non-Buddhist traditions to analyze their divergences as scholastic tools. By exploring these diagrams as technical devices for knowledge transmission, this research shifts scholarly focus from doctrinal content to the technical savoir-faire underpinning intellectual traditions.

Dr. Bhutia joins us from the University of Tartu with the project: Local Deities, Natural Disaster, and Ritual Waste in Vernacular Buddhist Practices in the Himalayas

Abstract:

This project examines the intersection of local religious practices, environmental policies, and waste management in Sikkim, with a particular emphasis on the influence of Buddhist rituals and beliefs on the community’s approach to sustainability. Despite its relatively small geographic size, Sikkim has emerged as a leader in environmental initiatives, including the prohibition of plastic and the promotion of eco-friendly practices. However, traditional rituals, such as the tying of prayer flags and the use of synthetic materials in religious offerings, pose significant challenges to environmental conservation. This research investigates the roles of local deities, vernacular Buddhist practices, and monastic institutions in waste management, analyzing how religious concepts are integrated into environmental policies. Utilizing ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, and archival research, this study will explore how communities navigate the complexities of modernization and tradition, thereby contributing to academic discussions on waste, religion, and sustainability in the Himalayas. The project aims to produce scholarly articles, presentations, and public outreach materials, thereby fostering both academic and social engagement.

On May 15, 2025, the King of the Belgians received a special royal gift from the King of Thailand: a beautifully bound edition of the Pali Tipitaka, the foundational scripture of the Theravāda Buddhist tradition. The gift symbolizes the long-standing friendship and cultural ties between Thailand and Belgium, and highlights the importance of interreligious dialogue and mutual respect. This meaningful gesture reflects the shared value both countries place on preserving and honoring religious heritage. Head of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies Prof. Dr. Ann Heirman attended the ceremony.