Animals as Guides and Messengers in the Art and Literature of Central Asian and Himalayan Societies

PROGRAMME

SEECHAC, La Société Européene pour l’Etude des Civilisations de l’Himalaya et de l’Asie Centrale

The European Society for the Study of Central Asian and Himalayan Civilisations

en collaboration avec

THE BAVARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES

TIBETISCHES WÖRTERBUCH

organisers of

the international conference

Day 1

Monday, 24 November

8:30–9:15 Registration

9:15–10:00 Opening session: Markus Schwaiger, President of the Academy, Petra Maurer, Charles Ramble, President of SEECHAC

Chair: Berthe Jansen

10:00–10:30 Brigitte Steinmann

Enemy Brothers of the Beyond: Dogs and Jackals as Messengers and Guides in Hindu and Buddhist Nepalese Cosmologies

10:30–11:00 Dan Martin

Padampa’s Animal Kingdom: Metaphorical Menagerie or Literary Bestiary?

11:00–11:30 Coffee/Tea

11:30–12:00 Nanchiket Chanchani

A Bird’s Eye View of Some Encounters, Conversations, and Co–Creative Enterprises in the Brahmaputra Valley

12:00–12:30 Fang Wang

The Horse as a Cosmological Symbol in the Cosmic Buddha Images in Chinese Central Asia

12:30–13:00 Federico Benvenuto

What Can Horses Tell Us about Tibetan ’Das Log (“Returner-from-the-Afterlife”) Narratives?

13:00–14:30 Lunch

Chair: David Andolfatto

14:30–15:00 Jean-Baptiste Georges-Picot

Decking the Dried Deer: stuffed animals as the support for votive deposits in the shrine of Tibetan protective deities

15:00–15:30 Berthe Jansen

High Peaks, Tall Tales: The Wild Men of Tibet as Oral Tradition

15:30–16:00 Judit Béres

The Horse in Tibetan Folklore Texts: Functions, Meanings, and Expressions: Functions, Meanings, and Expressions

16:00–16:30 Tea/Coffee

16:30–17:00 Judith Katalin Hollos

Messenger Birds and Helping Animals in the Traditional Tibetan Opera Tales

17:00–17:30 Zsuzsa Majer

Vultures as ākīnīs and Guides for the Consciousness of the Deceased in Burial Texts

19.00 Conference Dinner

CONVIVA im Blauen Haus, Hildegardstr. 1, 80539 München

 

 DAY 2

Tuesday, 25 November

Chair: Dan Martin

9:30–10:00 Yi Xie

Veneration Among Animals: The Kapiñjalajātaka and its Representations from Kucha to the Himalayas

10:00–10:30 Kryštof Kerndl

Predators as Mediators: Territorial Deities and Snow Leopard Attacks through the Lens of Mediality

10:30–11:00 Tenzin Woeser

The Special Symbolism of the Cuckoo in Contemporary Tibetan Patriotic Songs

11:00–11:30 Coffee/Tea

11:30–12:00 Ngawang Kunchen

Analysis of Traditional Tibetan Bird-Based Forecasting Methods

12:00–12:30 Manjiri Thakoor

Conversations from the Himalayas: Chamba Rumal – Stories in Threads

12:30–13:00 Rita Kuzder

The Moral Roles of Animals in Sakya Paṇ ḍ ita’s Legs bshad mdzod

13:00–14:30 Lunch

Chair: Brigitte Steinmann

14:30–15:00 Marc des Jardins

Spirits officials: How the chimera of the Black Phur ba are raised into action

15:00–15.30 Jorinde Ebert

A Swarm of Fish in Painted and Gilded Fragments of a 13th or 14th Century Japanese Vimalakirti Nirdesa Buddhist Picture Book (ehon) from the Collection of Maria Theresia in Schloss Schönbrunn

15:30–16:00 Tea/Coffee

16:00–16:30 Kiraz Perinçek Karavit

Serpents as Linguistic Mediators: A Symbolic Tool to Claim Legitimacy in Northern Wei (386–534 CE) Statecraft

16:30–17:00 Valentina Punzi and Naljor Tsering

Riding a Sheep in the Sky: Eastern Minyag Funerary Rituals in the Sino–Tibetan Borderlands of Southwest China

19:00 Conference Dinner

Gaststätte « Zum Franziskaner », Residenzstraße 9, 80333 München

DAY 3

Wednesday, 26 November

Chair: Marc des Jardins

9:30–10:00 Petra Maurer

Horse, Raven, and Magpie as Messengers of the Future: Similarities and Differences

10:00–10:30 Qiongying Cai

Spirit-Medium, Messenger, and Eco–Symbol: Animal Poetics in the Dongba Myth The White Bat’s Scripture Retrieval and Its Implications for the Himalayan Cultural Sphere

10:30–11:00 Charles Ramble

Man’s Best Friend: The Polyvalent Dog and its Body Parts in Tibetan Myth and Ritual

11:00–11:30 Coffee/Tea

11:30–12:00 Alla Sizova

The Vulture and the Cow: Supernatural Guardians in Tangut Royal Origin Narratives

12:00–12:30 Jill Sudbury

The Stag as Ritual Actor in Tibetan Buddhism

12:30–13:00 David Andolfatto

Birds and Equids on the Memorial Monuments of Western Nepal. Preliminary Remarks on a Medieval Himalayan Menagerie

13:00–14:30 Lunch

Chair: Jill Sudbury

14:30–15:00 Yeshi Dorje
Wind Horse and Courier Horse: The Multiple Roles of Animals as Symbols and Intermediaries in Tibetan Buddhist Art and Ritual

15:00–15:30 Li Yuhang

The myths of the bird-fish in the Upper Kham region: Legal Drama Under Narrative Mobility

15:30–16:00 Tea/Coffee

16:00–16:30 Daniel Berounský

The sacrifices of animals called shugma and the meaning of the category of Tibetan deities shug-gön

16:30–17:00 Daniel Berounský

The Sacrifice of Animals called Shugma and the Meaning of the Category of the Tibetan Deities Shug-gön