Buddhist Inscriptions and Petroglyphs of the Upper Indus Transit Zone in Northern Pakistan

Prof. Jason Neelis (Wilfrid Laurier University)

Abstract

In this seminar, participants will examine selected Kharoṣṭhī and Brāhmī inscriptions and samples of Buddhist petroglyphs of stūpas, Buddha and Bodhisattva figures, and jātaka illustrations from Shatial and other sites along the Karakorum Highway in Gilgit-Baltistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa provinces. A preliminary report on the initial season of fieldwork in April 2018 for a project on “Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan” will highlight efforts to apply advances in imaging methods, including photogrammetry, RTI, and 3D scanning and modeling.

Bio

Jason Neelis, Associate Professor, Religion and Culture Department, Wilfrid Laurier University (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada), is currently visiting Vienna University as a Numata Buddhist Studies Chair. In Early Buddhist Transmission and Trade Networks (Brill 2011) and in other publications, he seeks to understand patterns of early Buddhist transmission in historical, economic and material contexts with an emphasis on issues related to processes of cross-cultural mobility and exchange. He coordinated a project on Buddhist rebirth narratives in literary and visual cultures of Gandhara with support from a collaborative research grant from the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation for Buddhist Studies and is co-editing avadānas in 1st century CE Gāndhārī manuscripts of the British Library collection with Timothy Lenz. He directs a recently initiated project on Upper Indus Petroglyphs and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan: A partnership for cultural heritage preservation and promotion, funded by a Partnership Development Grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.