HAA 282k | Department of History of Art and Architecture

Semester: Fall

Year offered: 2018

Link: Course Website

Indian Esoteric Buddhism
Jinah Kim
Wednesday 12-2:45pm
This seminar explores the art of Indian Esoteric Buddhism from various interpretive vantage points. After a brief historiographical introduction, the discussion will focus on unpacking recent scholarly discourses on Esoteric or Tantric Buddhism in relation to the artistic productions in medieval South Asia (ca. 800-1200CE). The two main topics for this semester will be 1) Saiva-Buddhist interactions as manifested in iconographic (and artistic) articulations, and 2) trans-regional connections across Asia. Students will engage in case studies exploring a historical relationship between ritual practices and artistic outputs in various Esoteric Buddhist contexts, which include comparative examples from outside the Indian sub-continent.