AGENDA
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: Petra Maurer; President of the Academy;
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 ḍākīnīs and Guides for the Consciousness of the Deceased in Burial Texts
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 Lobzang Samdup (not confirmed)
Animals in Buddhist Art, Folklore, and Shamanic Practices of Western Himalyan, Ladakh
DAY 3
Wednesday, 26 November
Chair: Marc des Jardins
9:30–10:00 Petra Maurer
Crows and Ravens (TBA)
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 Valentina Punzi and Naljor Tsering
Riding a Sheep in the Sky: Eastern Minyag Funerary Rituals in the Sino–Tibetan Borderlands
of Southwest China
15:30–16:00 Yeshi Dorje
Wind Horse and Courier Horse: The Multiple Roles of Animals as Symbols and
Intermediaries in Tibetan Buddhist Art and Ritual
16:00–16:30 Li Yuhang
The Old Tibetan Myths of the Bird-fish in Upper Kham: Mobile Geographical Narratives
16:30–17:00 Ten Tsok (not confirmed)
An Analysis of Gonpo Jadang, the Protective Deity (Gyadang)