CAMBRIDGE, 28–30 NOVEMBER 2013
The workshop will focus on the introduction of printing and will bring together the world specialists on early Tibetan printing, leading scholars on the materiality and technology of the book in Asia as well as experts in paper and pigment research.
The first part of the workshop will be dedicated to updating current knowledge on early Tibetan printing. It aims at exploring the introduction of this technology in the Tibetan context as a socio-cultural process, something that has never been done before. We will identify indicators to cast light on open questions such as whether Tibetan printing in the 15th and 16th century was a small scale operation or something that had broader involvement and went together with the spread of literate forms of popular religiosity, standardization of monastic curricula and the emergence of certain works as classics.
The second part of the workshop will look at the introduction of printing in Asian contexts cross-culturally, comparing and contrasting (where possible) different experiences, with an eye to recent research on the European ‘printing revolution’ and the debates surrounding it.
Limited places available, please e-mail Michela Clemente if you would like to attend.