Tianzhu Foundation provides funding for one Ghent University graduate student to travel to East Asia to do Buddhism-related fieldwork. We are happy to announce that for the academic year 2018-2019, this award has been given to Jasper Roctus (MA student Chinese Language and Culture).·
Jasper Roctus is a Dutch student at Ghent University’s faculty of Arts and Philosophy. After finishing his bachelor of “Oriental languages and Cultures: China” with summa cum laude honors in 2018, Jasper is currently pursuing his master studies. Jasper has proven himself able to deal with complex and difficult materials including pre-modern Buddhist texts and manuscripts. For his MA course “Buddhism: Text and Material Culture”, Jasper has translated and interpreted some of the Baodingshan 宝顶山 rock carvings, connecting it to a historical framework of the development of filial piety in Chinese Buddhism. Jasper will prepare for his participation in the FROGBEAR “From the Ground Up: Buddhism and East Asian Religions” Dazu 大足 field research of May 2020 and will be going on exchange to the Renmin University (人民大学) in the People’s Republic of China during the fall semester of 2019.