Tibetan Studies Initiative

a program of
the ICA Tibetan Studies Fund
administered by HCBSS

Lectures on Tibetan Buddhism 2009-10
 

Christian Luczanits
Visiting Professor, Religious Studies

“From Vairocana to Akṣobhya:
The Early Development
of Alchi Monastery, Ladakh”

Thursday, January 21, 2010
5:15 p.m.
Encina Hall West 208

 
An interdisciplinary architectural, art-historical and historical analysis of the early buildings within the monastic complex (chos 'khor) of the famous monastery of Alchi, Ladakh, is highly informative in many respects. In terms of architecture, it not only reveals the gradual evolution of the complex and the historical relationship between the different buildings, but also uncovers entirely new building types that have either fallen into disuse or have later changed. In terms of art, a development cannot be extracted so easily, because each of the monuments serves a different purpose and emphasizes a different topic. Nevertheless, an overall reading demonstrates that the oscillation between favoring Buddha Vairocana or Buddha Akṣobhya places Alchi at the threshold of a new era of Tibetan Buddhism, which is reemphasized by the depiction of 'Jig rten gsum mgon (1143–1217), the founder of the 'Bri gung pa school, in some of the monuments. This and other topics further link Alchi to the general development of Tibetan Buddhist art.
 
Christian Luczanits, Visiting Professor of Religious Studies during winter 2010, is a specialist in Buddhist art, with a research focus on India and Tibet. He is the author of Buddhist Sculpture in Clay: Early Western Himalayan Art, Late 10th to Early 13th Centuries (2004) and other works on the western Himalaya, as well as numerous contributions to the literature on Buddhist art in both Indian and Tibetan cultural contexts. A graduate of the University of Vienna, Prof. Luczanits has taught at Vienna, Freie Universität, and U.C. Berkeley.