Great Sage Bamboo Monastery 大聖竹林寺
Mount Wutai 五臺山, Shanxi 山西, China
(June 17–24, 2025)
This intensive program is sponsored and organized by The Wutai Shan Institute of Buddhism and Eastern Asian Culture 五臺山東方佛教文化研究院 in Shanxi, China, co-organized by the From the Ground Up project based at the University of British Columbia (www.frogbear.org), Tsinghua Institute for Ethics and Religions Studies (IERS) 清華大學倫理與宗教研究院, and hosted by the Great Sage Bamboo Monastery 大聖竹林寺 at Mount Wutai 五臺山 in Shanxi, China. Lasting from June 17, 2025 to June 24, 2025, this program includes an international conference (June 18–19) and field visit (June 23).
| Schedule | Seminar and Lecture Series | Lecturers | Conference |
| Student Participants | Reports |
The backbone of this program consists of three seminars (lecture series) and three lectures delivered by eleven scholars (listed by the alphabetical order of the speakers’ family names):
- Mark BLUM 貝萬合 (University of California, Berkeley 美國加州大學柏克萊分校): A Brief History of Nianfo, From Mindfulness Practice to an Object of Faith | 念佛簡史：從正念實踐到信仰對象 (lecture);
- Benjamin BROSE 本博澤 (University of Michigan 密西根大學): History, Fiction, and Ritual: Xuanzang’s Infinite Incarnations | 歷史、小說與儀式：玄奘的無量化身 (lecture series);
- Jinhua CHEN 陳金華 (The University of British Columbia 加拿大英屬哥倫比亞大學): The Marginal vs the Mainstream, the Irregular vs Regular: Mobs, Witches and Monk-spies in East Asian Buddhism | 邊中轉換、奇正相倚：東亞佛教中的流民、巫覡與僧諜 (lecture series);
- Lucia DOLCE 鐸鷺霞 (SOAS, University of London 英國倫敦大學亞非學院): Visualizing Śākyamuni’s Pure Land: Images from the Lotus tradition | 關照釋迦牟尼之淨土：源自法華傳統的圖像 (lecture);
- SHENG Kai 聖凱 (Tsinghua University 清華大學): 從淨土教到淨土宗：五台山信仰與唐宋佛教轉型作為背景 | From the Teachings of Pure Land to the School of Pure Land: Against the Backdrops of the Wutai Faith and Buddhism’s Tang-Song Transition (lecture series);
- Huiming ZHANG 張惠明 (China National Academy of Painting 中國國家畫院): 從那竭到于闐的早期大乘佛教護法鬼神圖像資料——哈達與和田出土的兩件龍王塑像札記 | Iconographic Materials of the “Defenders of the Law” (Dharmapāla) of Early Mahayana Buddhism from Nagarahāra to Khotan: Notes about Two Statues of Dragon King Excavated in Hadda and Hetian (lecture).
The theme for the international conference (scheduled for June 18–19) is “From Huiyuan at Mount Lu to Fazhao at Mount Wutai: The Origins and Development of the Pure Land Tradition through the Lens of Sacred Site Transference”. The conference will bring together 30–35 top scholars from all over the world. Student participants are expected to attend all sessions and, if they have relevant papers, may also be invited to present at the conference.
Senior undergraduate students and graduate students specialising in any Buddhist tradition(s), and postdoctoral fellows working in relevant fields, are encouraged to apply. Please direct applications and inquiries to FrogBear.Project@ubc.ca. Please submit applications before February 15, 2025. Each application should include: (1) an application form, available here; (2) updated curriculum vitae, (3) one writing sample in either Chinese or English, and (4) a reference letter (to be emailed by the referee directly to the above email address).
To guarantee sufficient interaction of student participants with instructors, and between student participants themselves, student enrollment is limited to 60. Tuition Fees will be waived for successful applicants, who will be provided by free accommodation and meals during the program, although transportation fees will be theirs. Additionally, students with successful proposals to the conference may receive a limited amount of travel subsidy depending on his or her individual needs and the distance s/he has to travel for the program. Details of the conference are available here https://frogbear.org/from-huiyuan-to-fazhao/.
