The project explored the relationship between Buddhist culture and technological transformations by looking at ‘the book’ as artefact, medium for communication, symbol of political authority and ritual object in the context of Tibetan Buddhism.
The project hosted an international conference and organized a major exhibition at the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology in Cambridge entitled: Buddha’s Word: The Life of Books in Tibet and Beyond, charting the story of Tibetan Buddhist scriptures, as artefacts with distinctive social lives, as sacred objects and as Buddha’s relics, with their own potency and agency. A copy of the full catalogue is available online.
AHRC project (2010–2016). Dr Uradyn Bulag, Dr Stephen Hugh-Jones and Burkhard Quessel with Dr Hildegard Diemberger.