Stephen F. Teiser
Princeton University

The Wheel of Rebirth in Buddhist Temples
(La roue de la vie dans les temples bouddhiques)

One of the first sights encountered by visitors to Buddhist temples is a large painting of the wheel of rebirth, depicting in horrific detail the pains (less often the pleasures) that await people after death.  In this illustrated talk, Stephen F. Teiser explains how these representations of the Buddhist worldview have been imagined in Buddhist art over the centuries.  The lecture offers an introduction to Buddhist cosmology, Buddhist art, and the spatial and ritual organization of Buddhist temples in India, central Asia, China, and Tibet.

Stephen F. Teiser is D.T. Suzuki Professor in Buddhist Studies and Professor of Religion at Princeton University (U.S.).  He is a specialist in Chinese Buddhism and collaborates closely with colleagues in Europe, China, and Japan.  He is interested in how the fundamental concepts of Buddhism are understood and practiced on a broad scale by common people in traditional Asian civilizations.  He began the research for his most recent book, Reinventing the Wheel: Paintings of Rebirth in Medieval Buddhist Temples (2006), which was awarded the Prix Stanislas Julien by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Institut de France), when he taught as a visiting professor at the École pratique des Hautes Études in 1996.

Grâce au soutien de LVMH / Moët Hennessy.Louis Vuitton