Deborah Klimburg-Salter is an art historian and emeritus professor for non-European art history at the Department of Art History of the University of Vienna. She was also director of the research platform Center for Research and Documentation of Inner and South Asia (CIRDIS). Currently she directs the project "Cultural Formation and Transformation: Shahi Art and Architecture from Afghanistan to the Western Frontier at the Dawn of the Islamic Era" financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and dedicated to transdisciplinary research. [1]
Deborah Klimburg-Salter received her PhD in art history (South Asian and Islamic art) from Harvard University in 1976 and her habilitation in Asian art history from the University of Vienna in 1989. [2]
She was assistant professor at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1978 to 1985 and taught at the Institute for Tibetan and Buddhist Studies in Vienna from 1994 to 2015. [3]
From 1996 Deborah Klimburg-Salter was a professor of non-European art history at the Institute of Art History at the University of Vienna and since 2013 emerita. [4] From 2006 until 2015 she was the founding Director of CIRDIS (Center for Interdisciplinary Research and Documentation of Inner and South Asian Cultural History). [5] Since 2014 she has been an Associate at the Department of South Asian Studies, Harvard University, and since 2018 she is again visiting professor in Asian art history at the Department of Art History at the University of Vienna. [6]
2020 she was appointed visiting professor at the Institute of Tibetan Cultural Heritage, Palace Museum, Beijing. [7] She has also taught as visiting professor at the University of Pennsylvania, the Oriental Institute of the University of Oxford, the Ecole Pratique des Haute Etudes in Paris, and Queen's University in Canada.
Mentioned here are only books and catalogues, for complete list of publications see Publications.
During the 1970s study in Afghanistan and Pakistan, India, Central Asia:
After the occupation of Afghanistan and following an invitation from the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 1978, she began research on Tabo Monastery in the Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, India. From 1984 to 2000 she was research director for a joint research project on the extensive archive of Giuseppe Tucci between the University of Vienna and the Istituto italiano per il Medio ed Estremo Oriente, and at the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale 'Giuseppe Tucci' on the Tucci-Tangka collection. Following in Tucci's footsteps led to research in the early Buddhist monasteries of Himachal Pradesh and Tibet:
Generous grants from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) from 1985 until the present enabled extensive field research in Tibet and northern India. This interdisciplinary research conducted with scholars of different disciplines and young researchers is reflected in eight co-edited volumes:
Research on Tibetan art resulted in two exhibition and catalogues:
Klimburg-Salter used her primary research to the benefit of the Heritage Preservation in the areas in which she worked. Thus, working with both international and local organisations:
In collaboration with the National Museum of Afghanistan, Kabul, from 2005 until today, "Kabul Museum Project" supported by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, in cooperation with the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, the Austrian Academy of Sciences (ÖAW) as well as Kyoto University, courses and workshops lasting several weeks have been held with Kabul Museum curators in Kabul, Vienna, New Delhi and Kyoto. [12]
Giuseppe Tucci was an Italian orientalist, Indologist and scholar of East Asian studies, specializing in Tibetan culture and the history of Buddhism. During its zenith, Tucci was a supporter of Italian fascism, and he used idealized portrayals of Asian traditions to support Italian ideological campaigns. Tucci was fluent in several European languages, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan and he taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death. He is considered one of the founders of the field of Buddhist Studies.
The Tibetan Buddhist canon is a defined collection of sacred texts recognized by various schools of Tibetan Buddhism, comprising the Kangyur and the Tengyur. The Kangyur or Kanjur is Buddha's recorded teachings, and the Tengyur or Tanjur is the commentaries by great masters on Buddha's teachings.
Tibetology refers to the study of things related to Tibet, including its history, religion, language, culture, politics and the collection of Tibetan articles of historical, cultural and religious significance. The last may mean a collection of Tibetan statues, shrines, Buddhist icons and holy scripts, Thangka embroideries, paintings and tapestries, jewellery, masks and other objects of fine Tibetan art and craftsmanship.
The Tibetan Empire was an empire centered on the Tibetan Plateau, formed as a result of imperial expansion under the Yarlung dynasty heralded by its 33rd king, Songtsen Gampo, in the 7th century. The empire further expanded under the 38th king, Trisong Detsen, and expanded to its greatest extent under the 41st king, Rapalchen, whose 821–823 treaty was concluded between the Tibetan Empire and the Tang dynasty. This treaty, carved into the Jokhang Pillar, delineated Tibet as being in possession of an area larger than the Tibetan Plateau, stretching east to Chang'an, west beyond modern Afghanistan.
Per Kværne is a Norwegian tibetologist and historian of religion.
Lochen Rinchen Zangpo, also known as Mahaguru, was a principal lotsawa or translator of Sanskrit Buddhist texts into Tibetan during the second diffusion of Buddhism in Tibet, variously called the New Translation School, New Mantra School or New Tantra Tradition School. He was a student of the famous Indian master, Atisha. His associates included (Locheng) Legpai Sherab. Zangpo's disciple Guge Kyithangpa Yeshepal wrote Zangpo's biography. He is said to have built over one hundred monasteries in Western Tibet, including the famous Tabo Monastery in Spiti, Himachal Pradesh, Poo in Kinnaur and Rinchenling monastery in Nepal.
H.W.A. (Henk) Blezer is a Dutch Tibetologist, Indologist, and scholar of Buddhist studies.
Tabo Monastery is located in the Tabo village of Spiti Valley, Himachal Pradesh, northern India. It was founded in 996 CE in the Tibetan year of the Fire Ape by the Tibetan Buddhist lotsawa (translator) Rinchen Zangpo, on behalf of the king of western Himalayan Kingdom of Guge, Yeshe-Ö. Tabo is noted for being the oldest continuously operating Buddhist enclave in both India and the Himalayas. A large number of frescoes displayed on its walls depict tales from the Buddhist pantheon. There are many priceless collections of thankas, manuscripts, well-preserved statues, frescos and extensive murals which cover almost every wall. The monastery is in need of refurbishing as the wooden structures are aging and the thanka scroll paintings are fading. After the earthquake of 1975, the monastery was rebuilt, and in 1983 a new Du-kang or Assembly Hall was constructed. It is here that the 14th Dalai Lama held the Kalachakra ceremonies in 1983 and 1996. The monastery is protected by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as a national historic treasure of India.
Zunbil, also written as Zhunbil, or Rutbils of Zabulistan, was a royal dynasty south of the Hindu Kush in present southern Afghanistan region. They were a dynasty of Hephthalite origin. They ruled from circa 680 AD until the Saffarid conquest in 870 AD. The Zunbil dynasty was founded by Rutbil, the elder brother of the Turk Shahi ruler, who ruled over the Hephthalite kingdom from his capital in Kabul. The Zunbils are described as having Turkish troops in their service by Arabic sources like Tarikh al-Tabari and Tarikh-i Sistan. However the term "Turk" was used in an inaccurate and loose way.
David Llewellyn Snellgrove, FBA was a British Tibetologist noted for his pioneering work on Buddhism in Tibet as well as his many travelogues.
David Francis Germano is an American Tibetologist and professor of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies at the University of Virginia (UVA), where he has dual appointments in its School of Nursing and Department of Religious Studies. Germano is a former board member of the International Association of Tibetan Studies, and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for The Journal of the International Association of Tibetan Studies (JIATS), a journal of Tibetology.
Per Kjeld Sørensen is a prominent Danish Tibetologist who specialises in Tibetan and Himalayan history, literature and culture. Since 1994 he has been Professor of Central Asian Studies at Leipzig University, Germany.
The Turk Shahis or Kabul Shahis were a dynasty of Western Turk, or mixed Turko-Hephthalite, or a group of Hephthalites origin, that ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries AD. They may have been of Khalaj ethnicity. The Gandhara territory may have been bordering the Kashmir kingdom and the Kannauj kingdom to the east. From the 560s, the Western Turks had gradually expanded southeasterward from Transoxonia, and occupied Bactria and the Hindu-Kush region, forming largely independent polities. The Turk Shahis may have been a political extension of the neighbouring Western Turk Yabghus of Tokharistan. In the Hindu-Kush region, they replaced the Nezak Huns – the last dynasty of Bactrian rulers with origins among the Xwn (Xionite) and/or Huna peoples.
Elizabeth Errington is a specialist on the archaeology of Gandhara and the collections of Charles Masson, and a numismatist specialising in Asian coins.
The Tokhara Yabghus or Yabghus of Tokharistan were a dynasty of Western Turk–Hephtalite sub-kings with the title "Yabghus", who ruled from 625 CE in the area of Tokharistan north and south of the Oxus River, with some smaller remnants surviving in the area of Badakhshan until 758 CE. Their legacy extended to the southeast where it came into contact with the Turk Shahis and the Zunbils until the 9th century CE.
Fromo or Phromo Kesaro was a king of the Turk Shahis, a dynasty of Western Turk or mixed Western Turk-Hephthalite origin, who ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries. In Chinese sources "Fromo Kesaro" was transcribed 拂菻罽娑, "Fulin" ([[wikt:拂菻|拂菻]]) being the standard Tang dynasty name for "Byzantine Empire".
Shahi Tegin, Tegin Shah or Sri Shahi was a king of the Turk Shahis, a dynasty of Western Turk or mixed Western Turk-Hephthalite origin who ruled from Kabul and Kapisa to Gandhara in the 7th to 9th centuries.
The Fondukistan monastery was a Buddhist monastery located at the very top of a conical hill next to the Ghorband Valley, Parwan Province, about 50 kilometers northwest of Kabul. The monastery dates to the early 8th century CE, with a terminus post quem in 689 CE obtained through numismatic evidence, so that the Buddhist art of the site has been estimated to around 700 CE. This is the only secure date for this artistic period in the Hindu Kush, and it serves as an important chronological reference point.
John Clarke (1954-2020) was a British specialist in Ladakhi and Tibetan metalwork. He was Curator of Himalayan and Southeast Asian Art at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Barha Tegin was the first ruler of the Turk Shahis. He is only known in name from the accounts of the Muslim historian Al-Biruni and reconstructions from Chinese sources, and the identification of his coinage remains conjectural.