Textuality and Materiality
What is the physical basis of a work of art and how does its material existence represent the process of its creation? Ben Nourse (University of Denver) and Alexander Gardner (Treasury of Lives) meander through various examples of physical objects embodying abstract work in this breakout session. Discussion about the constellation of objects around a book or a text considers that community endeavor could be important in creating material culture and that the appreciation and exploration of a physical location can enrich a translation of a certain text.
Event: Lotsawa Translation Workshop – Breakout Session
Date: October 8, 2018 – 11:00 am
Speakers: Alexander Gardner, Ben Nourse
Topics: Translation, Transmission
Ben Nourse
University of Denver
Ben Nourse is assistant professor of Buddhist Studies at the University of Denver, where he teaches an assortment of courses on Buddhism and Asian Religions, and a Senior Fellow with the Andrew W. Mellon Society of Fellows in Critical Bibliography at the Rare Book School. He received a BA in Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia. He is currently at work on a book-length study of the growth and impact of Tibetan woodblock publishing from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. Most of his other projects are related to the history of Buddhist scriptures, including the history of the Tibetan Buddhist Canon (the Kangyur and Tengyur) and a study of the Dunhuang manuscripts of the Heart Sūtra in Chinese and Tibetan. He has been active in promoting the study of Tibetan book history through the hosting of conferences such as The Symposium on the Tibetan Book (University of Virginia, 2014) and Buddhist Book Cultures (University of Denver, 2017) as well as co-editing a forthcoming volume on material approaches to the study of Tibetan books. Ben has lived and conducted research in India, Nepal, and China, including as a Fulbright-Hays Fellow in China. He enjoys translating Tibetan literature and has been working for some time on a translation and study of Könchok Jikmé Wangpo's (Dkon mchog 'jigs med dbang po, 1728-1791) history of the kingdom of Choné (Co ne) found in his catalog to the Choné Tengyur.
Alexander Gardner
Treasury of Lives, Tsadra Foundation
Alexander Gardner is the Director and Chief Editor of the Treasury of Lives, an online biographical encyclopedia of Tibet and the Himalayan Region. He completed his PhD in Buddhist Studies at the University of Michigan in 2007. From 2007 to 2016 he worked at the Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, serving as their Executive Director from 2013 to 2016. His research interests are in Tibetan life writing and the cultural history of Kham in the nineteenth century.
