Transcultural Cartographies: The Japanese Buddhist World Map and the Birth of Asian Studies in Europe

Lecture Series

19. Dezember 2024

Akademiegebäude am Gendarmenmarkt, Einstein-Saal, Jägerstraße 22/23, 10117 Berlin

This talk examines the significance of Japanese Buddhist cartography for the origins of the academic study of Buddhism in Europe.

It traces the intellectual history and material aspects of cartographic representations of the Buddhist world, produced in eighteenth-century Japan by monastics, intellectuals and publishers, as well as the transmission, translation, and reproduction of these maps by the founding figures of the academic disciplines of Buddhist Studies and Sinology in nineteenth-century Europe – Heinrich Julius Klaproth (1783-1835), Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat (1788-1832), and Stanislas Julien (1799-1873). In doing so, it seeks to shed light on the unrecognised contributions of Japanese Buddhist cartography to the European understanding of the geography of Buddhism in China, Central Asia and India, and to the development of Buddhist Studies in the West.


REGISTRATION

You can find the registration form for on-site participation at the bottom of the page.

For a virtual participation in the event please click here .


PROGRAM

  • Transcultural Cartographies: The Japanese Buddhist World Map and the Birth of Asian Studies in Europe
    D. Max Moerman (Columbia University, New York)

    Discussant:
    Diana Lange (Universität Hamburg)

THE LECTURE SERIES

Maps and Mapping in Global History and Culture I

11 November 2024, 6 p.m. Keynote lecture Maps and Mapping in Global Cultural Perspectives: Temporality in Map History 
5 Dezember 2024, 6 p.m. Lecture with Dialogue Visualising Time-Space in East Asia: Mapping ‘Round Heavens & Square Earth’ from Ancient Rotating Devices to Late Modern Commercial Maps
19 December 2024, 6 p.m. Lecture with Dialogue Transcultural Cartographies: The Japanese Buddhist World Map and the Birth of Asian Studies in Europe


The lecture series is jointly organised by Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte and Einstein Center Chronoi.

Franziska Urban
Veranstaltungskoordinatorin
Kommunikation
Tel.: +49 (0)30 20370 529
franziska.urban@bbaw.de 
Jägerstraße 22/23
10117 Berlin
© 2024 Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften