Central Tibet
Kate S. Buckingham Fund
Thangkas, the portable painted banners of Tibetan Buddhism, are visually distinctive both as physical objects and for their representation of evolving styles and traditions. But while it’s easy to see thangkas’ utility as portable paintings, their stylistic diversity and varied subjects make it more challenging to understand their function and purpose. Why were these thangkas created? How were they used in the Buddhist context?
Join scholar Kris L. Anderson to explore the role of thangkas in Himalayan Buddhist culture through the Art Institute’s collection.
Kris L. Anderson is the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Buddhism Public Scholar at the Art Institute of Chicago. She specializes in Tibetan, Newar, and Indian Buddhism and holds a PhD in Buddhist studies from Berkeley. At the Art Institute, she is documenting and studying the Tibetan thangkas in the Arts of Asia collection. Her previous research focused on Buddhist tantric funerary rituals in Tibet and Nepal. She has also worked for 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, for which she translated both versions of the Tantra Purifying Evil Destinies (Sarvadurgati Pariśodhana Tantra).
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Closed captioning will be available for this program. For questions related to accessibility accommodations, please email [email protected].
