Centre for Tantric Studies

We are pleased to announce the commencement of a new research project with a tantric studies component — Early Śaiva Mythology: A study of the formative period of an integrated religious vision.

This project, a collaboration between Peter Bisschop at the University of Edinburgh and Harunaga Isaacson, is funded by the DFG and the AHRC. It aims to investigate developments culminating in the production of the first Śaiva Purāṇas through the study of a variety of sources, including representatives of the epic, Purāṇic, poetic (kāvya), and tantric genres. It will be carried out over the next three years.

• For further information, please see the Early Śaiva Mythology project.

Dr. Hong Luo, from the China Tibetology Research Center, visited the CTS during February and March 2009, and again briefly in
May-June 2009 in order to further the joint project on Abhayākaragupta’s Abhayapaddhati. Dr. Luo is reading sections of the Abhayapaddhati with Prof. Harunaga Isaacson and a number of CTS associates. The project members are preparing an edition and translation of this important commentary on the Buddhakapālatantra (see here for further information).

We are pleased to announce recent appointments in projects connected with the Centre for Tantric Studies:

• The Early Tantra project brings Dr. Martin Delhey to the ‘Nepalese Manuscript of the Mañjuśrīmūlakalpa‘ sub-project.
• The Manuscript Cultures Research Group has two sub-projects of relevance to tantric studies. Mr. Camillo Formigatti, M.A., comes to Hamburg for the ‘Indian and Nepalese Manuscript Annotations‘ sub-project. Dr. Orna Almogi is attached to the ‘Variants in Manuscripts of the rNying ma rgyud ‘bum‘ sub-project.

For further information, please see our page on research projects.