Kyoto still preserves its ancient cultural tradition as one of Japan's major academic centers and a meeting place for scholars from around the world. Organized in collaboration with the École Française d’Extrême-Orient and the Institute for Research in Humanities at Kyoto University, the Kyoto Lectures offer specialists in East Asian cultures and societies the opportunity to present their ongoing research results in Kyoto.
An Early Modern Tradition in Perspective Nyaungyan Buddhist Narrative Murals of Burma (c. 1580-1800)
Cristophe Munier-Gaillard
Organisé par
EFEO | ISEAS | Institute for Research in Humanities, Kyoto University
18 MAR. 2025 À 18H00 (JTS)
EFEO Kyoto | Online
Burmese mural painting is best known from the Pagan period of the 11th-13th centuries, whose corpus of over 300 monuments is the largest in Southeast Asia. This lecture shows that the Nyaungyan mural tradition is not a continuation of this first pictorial tradition, but represents a foundational change, heralding the modern era. Not subject to any major foreign influence, its fundamentals reflect a simplified program and graphism, a new iconography, and a new structuration of the mural space. These developments ultimately led to a new way to teach Buddhist moral precepts through entertaining scenes highlighting Portuguese and Indian gatekeepers.
Cristophe Munier-Gaillard is an associate member of the Centre de Recherche sur l’Extrême-Orient de Paris-Sorbonne. His research focuses on the narrative technique and styles of early modern Burmese Buddhist murals. He edited Mural Art: Studies on Paintings in Asia (River Books, 2017).
source: iseas-kyoto.org
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