DISTINGUISHED LECTURE
Buddhist Book Roads: The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture in China and Beyond
You are invited to a distinguished lecture “Buddhist Book Roads: The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture in China and Beyond” by Professor Shih-shan Susan Huang (Rice University). Prof. Huang will graciously serve as the distinguished speaker for the 2025 FASS Distinguished Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies, organized by the FASS Research Division at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.
Programme
7:00pm Registration
7:30pm Welcome Remarks by Professor Elaine Lynn-Ee Ho, FASS Vice Dean of Research (NUS Department of Geography)
7:35pm Opening Remarks by Associate Professor Jack Meng-Tat Chia, Chair of Buddhist Studies Group (NUS Department of History)
7:40pm Lecture by Distinguished Speaker, Professor Shih-shan Susan Huang (Rice University)
8:30pm Q & A and Discussion
9:00pm Refreshments
9:30pm End of Event
Abstract
This lecture investigates the “Buddhist Book Roads,” exploring the dynamic transnational spread of Buddhist print culture through a wealth of illustrated books discovered in archaeological sites, statues, and museums. Moving beyond viewing Buddhist woodcuts as static relics, this talk examines their holistic impact within multicultural contexts and as objects transmitted across vast networks both within and beyond Asia. Examples that highlight this journey include the 868 Diamond Sutra from Dunhuang, twelfth- to fourteenth-century Lotus Sutra art from Hangzhou, printed fragments from Turfan, and the popular fifteenth-century Beijing Dharani Sutra. Moreover, the lecture will demonstrate how Buddhist woodblock images transcended Asian borders, reaching European audiences by the seventeenth century. Four copperplate etchings in a 1670 Dutch travel book, directly copied from Avatamsaka Sutra frontispieces, serve as a prime example. These illustrations mimicked traditional Chinese woodblock prints and calligraphic brushstrokes, shaping European perceptions of Chinese art, religion, and culture.
Speaker Bio
Shih-shan Susan Huang is the T. T. and W. F. Chao Professor of Transnational Asian Studies at Rice University. She is the author of Picturing the True Form: Daoist Visual Culture in Traditional China (Harvard, 2012; Chinese translation, Zhejiang, 2022) and The Dynamic Spread of Buddhist Print Culture: Mapping Buddhist Book Roads in China and Its Neighbors (Brill, 2024; paperback, 2025). She is also the co-editor of Visual and Material Cultures in Middle Period China (Brill, 2017, with Patricia Ebrey) and of the special issue “Ritual and Materiality in Buddhism and Asian Religions,” published in the Hualin International Journal of Buddhist Studies (2025, with Stephen F. Teiser).
About the FASS Distinguished Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies
The annual FASS Distinguished Lecture Series in Buddhist Studies, funded by an endowment established via a generous donation by the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple and Museum, brings a distinguished professor in Buddhist Studies to the National University of Singapore.
