[KS] Conference Announcement: Esoteric Buddhist Tradition in East Asia

[Robert Provine]

Esoteric Buddhist Tradition in East Asia: Text, ritual and Image
NOVEMBER 9-11, 2007
An International Conference at Yale University
Henry R. Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT
Presented by the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University with generous support 
from The Korea Foundation
Through this important gathering of international specialists at Yale University in 
November 2007, we hope to synthesize and understand one of the most influential traditions 
of religious thought and practice in the world. The conference will investigate the images 
which served for ceremonies of an esoteric character, in conjunction with a study of 
manuals and scriptures and ritual procedures, in order to examine and discover how common 
or different religious practices were established and seek to determine why diverse 
courses were pursued at different periods in China, Korea and Japan. We would like to 
explore the relationships and interdependence of revealed teachings (xianjiao) and 
esoteric images in East Asian Buddhism, to show how each of the three countries developed 
its own tradition.
Please contact eastasian.studies at yale.edu BY NOVEMBER 1, 2007 to REGISTER for this 
conference with your name, title, institutional affiliation, telephone, fax, mailing 
address, and information regarding which sessions you plan to attend.
Above Images: Details from a Koryo printed dharani, dated 1184, from Chaunsa temple, Korea

Friday, November 9
8:30 – 9:00 AM REGISTRATION
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall
9:00 – 9:15 AM WELCOME REMARKS
     Haun Saussy, Chair, Council for East Asian Studies at Yale University, Bird White 
Housum         Professor of Comparative Literature, and Professor of East Asian Languages 
and Literatures
     Youngsook Pak, Conference Organizer, Visiting Professor of History of Art and East 
Asian         Studies, Yale University

SESSION I Dharani and Relics
Chair and Discussant: Robert Gimello (The University of Notre Dame)

9:15-9:45 AM Tanaka Kimiaki (The Eastern Institute, Tokyo)
“A Mahamani-vipula-vimana-mandala from Khara-Khoto”

9:45-10:15 AM Paul Copp (University of Chicago)
“Practices, Genres, and Images of the Da Suiqiu Dharani in Late Medieval China: Some 
Preliminary Remarks”

10:15-10:30 AM COFFEE BREAK
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall

Chair and Discussant: Koichi Shinohara (Yale University)

10:30-11:00 AM Robert Sharf (University of California, Berkeley)
“The Mystery of the Silver Box: A Clue to the Ritual Culture of Famensi Reliquaries”

11:00-11:30 AM Lai Iman (The National Palace Museum, Taipei)
“Invoking the Buddha’s Relic in the Frame of Esoteric Buddhism – A Ninth-Century Reliquary 
Set Excavated from the Famen Monastery”

11:30 AM-12:00 PM Shimono Akiko (Waseda University)
“On Illustrations of Foding-zunsheng tuoluoni jing and the Dharani Pillars in Tang China”

12:00-12:30 PM DISCUSSION
12:30-2:00 PM LUNCH
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall

SESSION II Esoteric Images in Medieval Japan
Chair: Mimi Hall Yiengpruksawan (Yale University)

2:00-2:30 PM Ryuichi Abe (Harvard University)
“Capturing the Dharma at the Margins of Tangibility: On Eikyuji’s Two Dharma-Transmission 
Paintings”

2:30-3:00 PM Cynthea Bogel (University of Washington)
“Importing and Localizing Ritual Paintings in Ninth-Century Japan”

3:00-3:30 PM Lucia Dolce (SOAS, University of London)
“On 'Unorthodox' Ritual Imagery in Medieval Japan”

3:30-4:00 PM COFFEE BREAK
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall

4:00-4:30 PM DISCUSSION
4:30 PM COCKTAIL RECEPTION
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall
5:30 PM DINNER
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall

Saturday, November 10
SESSION III Iconography in China and Korea
Chair and Discussant: Stephen Teiser (Princeton University)

9:00-9:30 AM Robert Gimello (University of Notre Dame)
“Later Chinese Buddhist Esoterism”

9:30-10:00 AM Hamada Tamami (The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Waseda 
University)
“The Images and Rituals of Sahasrabhuja in the Chinese Tang and Song Periods”

10:00-10:30 AM Park Hyung-guk (Nagoya University)
“Vairocana in Korean iconography”

10:30-11:00 AM COFFEE BREAK

11:30 AM-12:00 PM Rhi Juhyung (Seoul National University)
“Monks, Dragons, and Guardians: Sacheonwangsa, an Esoteric Buddhist Temple in
the Unified Silla”

12:00-12:30 PM Henrik Sørensen (The Buddhist Research Institute, Copenhagen)
“On the Empowerment of Buddhist Images and the Use of Printed Mandalas during the Koryŏ 
Dynasty (936-1392)”

12:30-1:00 PM DISCUSSION
1:00-2:00 PM LUNCH

Chair and Discussant: Roderick Whitfield (History of Art, Yale University)

2:00-2:30 PM Wang Huimin (The Dunhuang Academy)
“Eight Bodhisattva Mandala at Dunhuang”

2:30-3:00 PM Dorothy Wong (University of Virginia)
“Early Esoteric Guanyin Images in East Asia in the Seventh and Eighth Centuries on Amoghapasa”

3:00-3:30 PM Meng Sihui (The Palace Museum, Beijing)
“A Case Study of the Yuan Esoteric Buddhist Mural - The Assembly of Tejaprabha of 
Guangsheng Temple”

3:30 PM SPECIAL VIEWING OF EAST ASIA COLLECTION AT THE YALE UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY (by 
invitation only)
5:00 PM PANELIST DINNER AT ROYAL PALACE (by invitation only)

Sunday, November 11
SESSION IV Esoteric Buddhism and Buddhist Art in Korea
Chair and Discussant: Youngsook Pak (History of Art and East Asian Studies, Yale University)

9:00-9:30 AM Kim Jongmyung (The Academy of Korean Studies)
“Esoteric Buddhist Ritual, Sojae Toryang, in the Koryŏ Period”

9:30-10:00 AM Choe Byong-hon (Seoul National University)
“Esoteric Buddhist Schools and the Publication of Esoteric Texts in the Koryo
Period”

10:00-10:30 AM Kim Jung-hee (Wongwang University)
“Study on the Vajradhatu Mandala from Korea”

10:30-11:00 AM Kim Jeong-eun (SOAS, University of London)
“The Construction of the Ritual Site as a Buddha Land”

11:00 AM GENERAL DISCUSSION
CLOSING REMARKS by Youngsook Pak, Conference Organizer
12:00 PM LUNCH
2nd Floor Common Room, Henry R. Luce Hall

-- 
Prof. Youngsook Pak
Korea Foundation Distinguished Visiting Professor
Yale University
Department of History of Art
56 High Street
New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8272
Tel: +1-203-432 8225
Fax: +1-203 432 7462
Email: youngsook.pak at yale.edu