Fri 14th November, 5.30pm, Sam van Schaik of the International Dunhuang Project, British Library, will speak on ‘The Married Monks of Kroraina’
The kingdom of Kroraina flourished in the middle of the Taklamakan desert in the first centuries of this millennium. Among the most important of the discoveries excavated from the kingdom were documents providing a detailed (if incomplete) picture of the daily life of Buddhist monks in the region in the 3rd to 4th centuries, revealing how Buddhism was adapted outside of India during the Gupta period. In this talk, Sam van Schaik will look at the evidence for the existence of married Buddhist monks (śramana) and will explore the reasons why this situation might have developed.
Sam van Schaik obtained a PhD in Tibetan Buddhist literature at the University of Manchester in 2000, with a dissertation on the translations of Dzogchen texts by Jigme Lingpa. Since then he has published several books on Tibet and Esoteric Buddhism and is currently part of the International Dunhuang Project, based at the British Library.
Ancient India and Iran Trust
23 Brooklands Avenue, Cambridge CB2 8BG
tel. 01223 356841
Refreshments from 5pm. All welcome