The 14th MaMa Charitable Foundation Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies Lecture 3. Cosmic Love on the Flight

Invited Speaker: Professor Eugene Y. Wang
The 14th MaMa Charitable Foundation Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies, HKU
Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Professor of Asian Art, Harvard University

Cosmic art imagines humanity’s place in the vastness of the universe. A pivotal chapter in its history unfolded in China between the fifth and ninth centuries, when the cosmos was radically reimagined in art, architecture, and visual culture. Ideas we often assume to be modern—interstellar travel, multiple worlds, and expanded cosmic horizons—were already being visualized on monumental scales.

This three-lecture series explores that remarkable moment of imagination and transformation, revealing how medieval Chinese art helped reshape humanity’s understanding of the cosmos and its possibilities.