Sixth Aris Lecture

Abstract:

As scholars continue to explore Tibet’s imperial and pre-imperial history, it becomes increasingly clear how closely its culture was related with that of its Iranian, Turkic, and Sinitic neighbours to the north, as distinguished from those of South Asia. Following on from themes of my exhibition that opened in July 2019 at Dunhuang Research Academy in Gansu, this lecture will focus on the topic of cultural exchange along the Silk Road and specifically on the material culture of the royal Tibetan court. A key focus will be on the cosmopolitan nature of the Tibetan court and the ways in which it appropriated and adapted ideas, technologies, and motifs from the cultures around them in order to project its own power to its neighbours and foreign subjects in a manner that was both understood internationally, as well as being distinctly Tibetan.

 

About:

Dr David Pritzker received his D.Phil. from the University of Oxford with a focus on early Tibetan historiography. He is now Director of the Pritzker Art Collaborative based in Chicago. He co-curated the exhibition “Cultural Exchange Along the Silk Road: Masterpieces of the Tubo Period (7–9 Centuries)” with Dr Wang Xudong, Director of the Palace Museum (Beijing). The exhibition ran from July-October 2019 at the Dunhuang Academy Exhibition Center and attracted more than 461,000 visitors.