This project analyzes the interactions between religion and cultural heritage in twentieth century Japan as a venue to investigate the legacy of imperialism in the construction of modern ideas and ...read more
Mourning texts (āi jìwén 哀祭文) are an important genre of Dūnhuáng 敦煌 literature and are usually regarded as a subgenre of Dūnhuáng "prayer texts” (yuànwén 願文). More than 230 mourning texts are ...read more
The main objective of this research are the flying apsaras in the grottoes of the Northern Wei Dynasty, focusing on the three main royal grottoes, Yungang Grottoes, Longmen Grottoes and Gongyi ...read more
This project investigates views on the internal body in premodern Japan. In particular, the theory of the five viscera, or gozôron will be of interest. Several handwritten sources from the ...read more
This project investigates the impact of medical and religious concepts and theories on the formation of knowledge about human organs and gendered health in premodern Japan. Its aim is to ...read more
“Encounter dialogue” is perhaps the most recognizable of all (Zen) Buddhist genres. Better known under their abbreviated form as kōan, these texts portray mysterious verbal sparring bouts between Zen masters ...read more
Recently, the Department of Languages and Cultures with the Centre for Buddhist Studies at Ghent University has joined a large multidisciplinary project on East Asian religions (for a short abstract, ...read more
The Zutang ji 祖堂集 (Collection of the Patriarchal Hall) is the earliest extant “lamp record” (denglu 燈錄) of the Chan tradition arranged around a full-fledged genealogical framework. Initially compiled as ...read more