Author: Mariia Lepneva

Lecture “The Contours of Paradise: Pleasure Gardens and Figurations of the Self in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three” by Prof. Daniel Stuart, April 22, 2026

We are pleased to announce the next talk in the Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series, which will also be a talk in the Spring 2026 Permanent Training in Buddhist Studies of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies.
Title:
“The Contours of Paradise: Pleasure Gardens and Figurations of the Self in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three”
Speaker:
Prof. Daniel Stuart, University of South Carolina/ Uni Hamburg
Timing:
Wednesday, April 22 @ 17.00 CET (please note this talk exceptionally occurs on a Wednesday!)
Location:
Locaal 1.13  (1st Floor Classroom)
Blandijn, Campus Boekentoren
9000 Gent, Belgium
(also online)
Abstract:
This presentation introduces newly edited Sanskrit material from a manuscript of the Saddharmasmṛtyupasthāna. This text contains the most extensive surviving Sanskrit account of Buddhist cosmology. Likely composed in Greater Gandhāra in the fourth century CE, it presents a visionary narrative in which a Buddhist yogic practitioner experiences the five realms of the cosmos: the human realm, hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, and deities. Focusing on descriptions of the heavenly realms within the sphere of sensual desire, this talk explores how these depictions relate to broader developments in Buddhist thought. In particular, it examines the relationship between traditional cosmological models, emerging scholastic taxonomies, visionary yogic practice, and conceptions of the interpenetration of phenomena that became central to major strands of Mahāyāna philosophy.
Bio:
Daniel M. Stuart is Associate Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of South Carolina and is currently a Visiting Professor at the University of Hamburg under the auspices of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He holds an MA in Sanskrit Literature and a PhD in Buddhist Studies from the University of California at Berkeley. He has worked extensively on sūtra and narrative literature, śāstric texts, and Buddhist manuscripts in various Asian languages and scripts. He works with textual materials in Sanskrit, Pāli, Hindi, Gāndhārī, Buddhist Chinese and literary Tibetan. His research focuses on the history of traditional Buddhist contemplative practices from their origins in premodern South Asia into the global present. He is the author of five books: Thinking about Cessation (2013), A Less Traveled Path (2015), The Stream of Deathless Nectar (2017), S. N. Goenka: Emissary of Insight (2020), and Insight in Perspective (2024).
All are welcome. The Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series is in-person and hybrid online. Please register for the series through this Google Form: https://forms.gle/TwffQCPuVipUpMvk6
(registering once will ensure you will receive links to all future talks in the series)

Lecture “Revisiting the Bodhisattva Maitreya in Gandhāran Art” by Christian Luczanits, April 2, 2026

We are pleased to announce the next talk in the Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series, which will also be a talk in the Spring 2026 Permanent Training in Buddhist Studies of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies.

Title: “Revisiting the Bodhisattva Maitreya in Gandhāran Art”

Speaker: Dr. Christian Luczanits, SOAS, University of London

Timing: Thursday, April 2 @ 17.00 CET

Location:  Locaal 3.30 – Camelot

Blandijn, Campus Boekentoren

9000 Gent, Belgium

All are welcome. The Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series is in-person and hybrid online. Please register for the series through this Google Form: https://forms.gle/TwffQCPuVipUpMvk6

(registering once will ensure you will receive links to all future talks in the series)

Abstract:

In my presentation, I will return to a topic that has interested me since my student days, namely the depictions and roles of the Bodhisattva and future Buddha Maitreya in Gandhāran art. I have covered some aspects of this topic in previous work, in particular in my contribution on narrative reliefs with a flask-holding Bodhisattva to the 2005 volume of East and West dedicated to Maurizio Taddei, and since have an unfinished monograph on the subject on my virtual desk.
This time, I will revisit my earlier ideas on the subject in light of more recent publications. Among other topics, I will consider the origin of Maitreya, his designation as Buddha in early inscriptions, the concepts of Maitreya’s paradises, Ketumatī and Tuṣita, as potential precursors of Pure Land Buddhism, and Maitreya as a Bodhisattva representing the brahmanic caste.

Bio:

Christian Luczanits is David L. Snellgrove Senior Lecturer in Tibetan and Buddhist Art at SOAS. His primary research areas are early Buddhist art during and after the Kushana period (1st to 5th centuries) and early Tibetan Buddhist art (7th to 15th centuries) within its wider context. Recent research has centered around an AHRC-funded project on “Tibetan Buddhist Monastery Collections Today”, in particular the documentation and assessment of monastery collections in Mustang, Nepal, and Ladakh, India.

Lecture “Exegetical Diagrams as Scholastic Tools: Text-Image Dynamics, Production, Use, and Networks in Dunhuang” by Xiaoming Hou, March 26, 2026

We are pleased to announce the next talk in the Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series, which will also be a talk in the Spring 2026 Permanent Training in Buddhist Studies of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies.

Title: “Exegetical Diagrams as Scholastic Tools: Text-Image Dynamics, Production, Use, and Networks in Dunhuang”

Speaker: Dr. Xiaoming Hou (侯笑明), Ghent University

Timing: Thursday, March 26 @ 17.00 CET

Location: Faculteitsraadzaal, Blandijn

Campus Boekentoren

9000 Gent, Belgium

(also online)

Abstract:

Exegetical diagrams in Chinese Buddhism—whose use flourished during this period and continues to this day—are designated both as fenmen tu 分門圖 (“gate-division diagrams”) and kewen 科文 (“texts of analytical division”). This dual terminology reveals the liminal nature of this genre, which stands at the intersection of textual reasoning and visual representation. In this talk, I focus on a group of closely related Dunhuang manuscripts often labeled Tiantai fenmen tu 天台分門圖 (“Gate-Division Diagrams of the Tiantai School”). These manuscripts, which contain diagrams at various stages of completion, provide crucial evidence for understanding their connection to the commentarial literature, the editorial procedures of their production, and their intended use in the context of monastic education.

By analyzing these materials, I show how exegetical diagrams mediated the complex interplay between text and image, the schematic and the discursive, and the oral and the written, through techniques of classification, synthesis, and visualization. This approach sheds new light on the mechanisms through which intellectual knowledge was transmitted, practiced, and reconfigured in medieval Buddhist scholasticism. Finally, the talk reviews evidence linking these Tiantai exegetical diagrams to the intellectual circle of Facheng 法成 (Chos grub, d. ca. 864), the influential Sino-Tibetan translator and exegete active in Dunhuang during the first half of the ninth century. This connection situates the diagrams within local scholastic networks and underscores their role in broader cross-cultural exchanges of knowledge and technique.

Bio:

Hou Xiaoming 侯笑明 is a scholar of Chinese Buddhism specializing in Chinese Buddhist scholasticism and cross-cultural transmission. She is currently a FWO postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, Centre for Buddhist Studies, working on the project “Visualizing Doctrine: A Study of Exegetical Diagrams in Medieval Chinese Buddhism (8th–10th Centuries)”. She received her Ph.D. from EPHE/PSL (École Pratique des Hautes Études/Université Paris Sciences et Lettres) in Paris, Department of Religions and Systems of Thought in 2022. Her doctoral thesis, entitled Pratiquer le bouddhisme en chinois: traduction et reconstruction des enseignements sur la méditation bouddhique du IIe au VIe siècles en Chine, focuses on the interdependent dynamics between meditation and exegesis in early medieval China.

All are welcome. The Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series is in-person and hybrid online. Please register for the series through this Google Form: https://forms.gle/TwffQCPuVipUpMvk6

(registering once will ensure you will receive links to all future talks in the series)

Workshop “Japanese and Belgian Research on Japan: Perspectives from Tohoku University and Ghent University,” March 19-20, 2026

GCBS members Andreas Niehaus, Paride Stortini, Anna Andreeva, and Christian Uhl participated in the workshop “Japanese and Belgian Research on Japan: Perspectives from Tohoku University and Ghent University,” organized by the Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS), Tohoku University and Institute for Japanese Studies, Ghent University.  In the context of 160 Years of Friendship between Japan and Beligum, Ghent University invites Tohoku University’s Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS) to come to Ghent to introduce the newly established center and discuss future research collaboration between Japan and Belgium.

🗓️ 19-20 March 2026
📍 Ghent University, Faculty Board Room, Faculty of Arts and Philosohpy, Blanfijnberg 2

Day 1

Wednesday 18 March

13:00 Visit Book Tour

14:00–16:00 Campus Tour

Day 2

Thursday 19 March

Venue: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Facultyboard Room, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Ghent

10:00 Introduction of Ghent University and the Institute for Japanese, Andreas Niehaus

11:00–11:30 Coffee Break

11:30–13:00 Introduction of the Tohoku University Center for Integrated Japanese Studies (CIJS), Director Adachi Hiroaki

13:00–14:00 Lunch Break

14:00–14:45 Luca Milasi “Searching for ‘Adam’s Perfect Speech’: The Phonograph/Logograph Divide and the Roman Catholic Archives as a Laboratory for Early Japanese Studies”

14:45–15:30 Mick Deneckere “From Paris to Meiji Japan: De Rosny, Renan, and Burnouf’s Impact on Ishikawa Shuntai and the Birth of Religious Studies in Japan”

15:30–16:00 Coffee Break

16:00–16:45 Ran Wei “Theorizing Postwar Grotesque: Representations of Military Ruins and Apache Tribe in Kaikō Takeshi’s Japan’s Three Penny Opera (1959)”

16:45–17:30 Hannah Dahlberg-Dodd “Characterological Engagement and Digital Fan Practice: Linguistic Insights from a Vtuber Fandom”

17:30–18:30 John D’Amico “Borrowing Trouble in Early Modern Japan”

18:30 Reception

Day 3

Friday 20 March

Venue: Faculty of Arts and Philosophy, Facultyboard Room, Blandijnberg 2, 9000 Ghent

9:00–9:45 Paride Stortini “Relive Nara Cosmopolitanism: Nostalgia, Aesthetics, and Community Building at Yakushiji”

9:45–10:30 Marlies Holvoet “Ikebana as a Global Practice: (Re-)Arranging Boundaries”

10:30–11:00 Coffee break 

11:00–11:45 Oguma Rie “Japanese Film Subtitling Project by Belgian University Students: Project‑Based Language Learning and Its Effects”

11:45–12:30 Sebastian Nehrdich “Dharmamitra: A Platform to Support Research across Language Boundaries on Buddhist Textual Material”

12:30–13:15 Felix Spremberg “Japan’s ‘Super Smart’ Society 5.0 and Toyota’s Woven City as a Technocratic Site of Knowledge Production”

13:15–14:30 Lunch Break

14:30-15:00 Andreas Niehaus “Emotional, Social and Political Spaces: Food on the Move in Hayashi Fumiko’s travelogue Santō Ryokōki (1933)”

15:00–15:30 30 Anna Andreeva “Buddhist knowledge on women’s reproductive health in early medieval Japan”

15:30–16:00 Justin Stein “Ancient Mountain, Modern Spiritualities: Mount Kurama as a Site for Contemporary Pilgrimage”

16:00-16:30 Coffee Break

16:00–16:45 Christian Uhl “Unevenness, Non-Contemporaneity and the Everyday in Ishikawa Takuboku’s poetry and poetology”

16:45–17:30 Tianyang Huang “Deadly or Remediable? Gender, Science, and the Ambivalence about Harm in the Trial of A Woman Doctor, 1939–1940”

17:30 Closing Remarks

Guest lecture “DharmaNexus as a Multilingual Graph of Buddhist Intertextuality: Design Choices, Research Uses, and Future Applications” by Sebastian Nehrdich, March 17, 2026

We are pleased to announce the next talk in the Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series, which will also be the first talk in the Spring 2026 Permanent Training in Buddhist Studies of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies.

Title: “DharmaNexus as a Multilingual Graph of Buddhist Intertextuality: Design Choices, Research Uses, and Future Applications”

Speaker: Professor Sebastian Nehrdich, Tohoku University

Timing: Tuesday, March 17 @ 17.00 CET (in-person and online!)

Location: Vergaderzaal 0.1 Simon Stevin,
Plateau – Rozier, Campus Boekentoren
9000 Gent, Belgium

All are welcome. The Gandhāra Corpora Lecture Series is in-person and hybrid online. Please register for the series through this Google Form: https://forms.gle/TwffQCPuVipUpMvk6

Abstract:

Locating textual parallels, translations, citations, and topically related passages across vast collections of texts in multiple languages is a basic requirement of philological work in Buddhist Studies. Recent advances in digitization, OCR, and cross-lingual information retrieval have fundamentally changed access to this kind of evidence, with far-reaching implications for how philological research can be conducted. A central component in this context is DharmaNexus: a database that stores intertextual relationships between passages across languages and sources, and that supports the retrieval and comparison functions used in the Dharmamitra tool ecosystem.

In this presentation, I will discuss DharmaNexus as a verifiable “evidence layer” for AI-assisted multilingual research. I will highlight key design choices and show how intertextual relationships are determined and represented. I will also demonstrate how this data is already used in research-facing tools for discovering and inspecting parallels and reuse patterns in Buddhist literature. Finally, I will address limitations and risks that can arise from over-reliance on these systems, and outline further possible research applications enabled by this architecture.

Bio:

Sebastian Nehrdich is a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Tohoku University. He completed his PhD in Computational Linguistics at the University of Düsseldorf, co-supervised by Oliver Hellwig and Kurt Keutzer. He holds an MA in Buddhist Studies from the University of Hamburg. His work integrates digital philology, Buddhist textual analysis, and machine learning. He serves as Director of the Dharmamitra project that was founded at the Berkeley AI Research Lab (BAIR), has managed the ML infrastructure of the ChronBMM project, and has led the development of the BuddhaNexus platform 2018-2023, now continued as DharmaNexus.

 

Publication highlights (Q1 2026): Observances, Feasts, and Scripts

GCBS’s former member Dr. Yi Ding published his new book “Observances, Feasts, and Scripts: The Varieties of Zhai in Chinese Buddhism from the Second to the Tenth Century” as part of the Kuroda Studies in East Asian Buddhism.

This book is the first monograph written in English to offer a comprehensive analysis of the varieties of zhai, a multifaceted term with deep historical and religious significance in Chinese Buddhism. Drawing on a wide array of sources—including canonical texts, apocryphal writings, hagiographies, and ritual documents—this book unveils zhai as a ritual complex encompassing temporary observances, communal feasts, and modes of interaction between the seen and unseen realms. These practices, rooted in both lay and monastic traditions, illustrate the intricate interplay between food, community, and ritual in Indian and Chinese Buddhism.

Part I traces how Indian Buddhist temporary observances were adapted, debated, and reimagined in the Chinese context. Part II explains the sponsored feast as a mechanism for lay-monastic interaction and merit-making. It also examines how Buddhists engaged with deities and spirit saints through remote invitations and ritual offerings. Part III focuses on “scripts” used for receiving the Eightfold Observance and conducting sponsored feasts, thus revealing their evolution from simple master-disciple interactions to complex communal events.

Observances, Feasts, and Scripts is an essential resource for scholars interested in food-related religious practices and the history of Buddhism. Through its meticulous examination of Chinese, Pāli, Sanskrit, and Tibetan materials, the book offers a fresh perspective on Chinese Buddhism as an intercultural endeavor. It sheds light on relevant scholastic debates, the creation of apocrypha, translation strategies, and ritual innovations in medieval China. By moving beyond teleological frameworks such as Sinicization, it emphasizes the agency of cultural, doctrinal, and social factors in shaping these practices. Additionally, it engages with the cognitive dimensions of ritual and highlights ritual logic as a cross-cultural analytical lens.

Citation: Ding, Yi. Observances, Feasts, and Scripts: The Varieties of Zhai in Chinese Buddhism from the Second to the Tenth Century. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2026.

GCBS professors contribute to Japan Lecture Café Series 2026

On 3 March 2026, members of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies, Prof. Anna Andreeva and Prof. Andreas Niehaus, will deliver two lectures—“Japanese–Belgian/Ghent Relations” and “Japanese Art Objects in Belgium”—as part of the Japan Lecture Café Series 2026. The lecture series is organized on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of friendship between Japan and Belgium and brings together scholars and the wider public to reflect on the long-standing cultural and historical connections between the two countries.

Within the framework of this series, the East Asia Platform, in cooperation with Ghent University’s Institute for Japanese Studies (Department of Languages and Cultures, Faculty of Arts and Philosophy), is organizing five lunchtime lectures in the Sint-Baafshuis (Kapel) in the city centre of Ghent. The first lecture took place on 10 February. Each session runs from 12:00 to 14:00 and consists of a one-hour lecture in the Kapel, followed by a one-hour networking reception in the Foyer. The events are held at Kapittelstraat, 9000 Ghent, and offer an opportunity for academic exchange as well as informal discussion.

Guest lecture “Unmarried Women in Early Indian Texts: From the Ṛgveda to Buddhist Literature” by Mau Das Gupta, March 2, 2026

The Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies is pleased to announce an upcoming guest lecture titled “Unmarried Women in Early Indian Texts: From the Ṛgveda to Buddhist Literature” by Prof. Dr. Mau Das Gupta (University of Calcutta), a distinguished scholar of Sanskrit and early Indian religious literature.

This lecture will explore representations of unmarried women across a wide range of early Indian sources, tracing developments from the Ṛgveda to Buddhist texts. The talk will examine changing ideas about women’s autonomy, ritual participation, and spiritual agency, highlighting the complex and non-linear history of gender roles in early Indian religious traditions. The lecture will take place on Monday, March 2nd at 16:00 CET and can be attended both on campus (Blandijnberg 2, room 0.8, Ghent) and online via MS Teams.

GCBS Research Forum: Meeting with Professor Aike Rots, February 18, 2026

On February 18, 2026, early career researchers of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies participated in a meeting with Aike Rots, Professor of East Asian Religions at the University of Oslo. The discussion was moderated by GCBS member Dr. Paride Stortini. Professor Rots introduced his current and upcoming externally funded projects, including the ERC Consolidator Grant project Maritime Goddesses: Transnational Connections, Blue Environments, and Ritual Care in East and Southeast Asia (MARGO; 2026–2031), and Coastal Lives in Flux: Environmental Crisis, Resistance, and Ritual Innovation Across Asia (CLiF; 2026–2030), funded by the Norwegian Research Council (FRIPRO). Earlier in his career, he was awarded an ERC Starting Grant for the project Whales of Power: Aquatic Mammals, Devotional Practices, and Environmental Change in Maritime East Asia (WhoP; 2019–2025), which is now resulting in a monograph. He is also the author of Shinto, Nature and Ideology in Contemporary Japan: Making Sacred Forests (Bloomsbury, 2017).

Drawing on his extensive experience with competitive funding, Professor Rots shared practical advice on writing strong grant proposals, especially for applicants to the European Research Council grants and Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowships. He noted that one common pitfall is that proposals can become too heavy with theory or specialized jargon, making it difficult for reviewers to clearly grasp the core idea of the project. Clear and straightforward language helps reviewers quickly understand what the project is about and why it matters. He also encouraged applicants to make sure they are proposing a project they truly want to carry out and can realistically complete within the given timeframe.

Professor Rots further emphasized the importance of being concrete about how time and funding will be used. A strong proposal should clearly describe planned activities, such as research tasks, collaboration with PhD students or postdoctoral researchers, fieldwork, and publication strategies, including open-access dissemination where relevant. For individual fellowships in particular, it is crucial to demonstrate a good fit with the host institution and supervisors, and to explain how both sides will benefit from the collaboration. He also suggested reading successful proposals when possible and politely asking colleagues for advice, while respecting confidentiality.

The meeting concluded with an extended Q&A session, during which participants discussed their own project ideas and raised practical questions about application procedures. The exchange provided valuable insights and inspiration for researchers preparing future grant applications.

Reading group meeting, presentation by Yuchen Liou, February 13, 2026

The first meeting of the Chinese Reading Group of the Ghent Centre for Buddhist Studies this year featured a presentation by Yuchen Liou, a joint PhD candidate at National Chengchi University and Ghent University. Her research focuses on Chinese Buddhism, particularly Esoteric Buddhism of the Tang dynasty. Her dissertation, “Tang Society and the Formation of Chinese Buddhist Rituals: Contrasting Royal and Local Rituals,” examines rituals for “Protecting the Country and Preventing Calamities,” with special attention to the role of astrology in ritual practice.

In this and several upcoming sessions, the reading group is studying the esoteric ritual manual “Supreme Buddha Crown Buddha Cultivation Ritual Manual” 尊勝佛頂脩瑜伽法軌儀, translated by Śubhakarasiṃha (善無畏, 637–735). The meeting provided a forum for close reading of primary sources, focusing this time of the opening verses of the text, and stimulated discussion of methods for studying Chinese Esoteric Buddhist ritual texts, emphasizing the need to compare electronic versions available through CBETA with earlier witnesses preserved amid Dunhuang manuscripts.