Relics or Sacred Burials?
Professor Karel van Kooij of the Kern Institute, University of Leiden and Dr Janice Stargardt, Cambridge Project on Ancient Civilization in Southeast Asia, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge are running a Joint Project on 'Relic Worship and Sacred Burials in Early Buddhism of India and Burma.'
The Project was launched in 1998-1999 with an exchange of visits supported by the British Council and the NWO for the Netherlands. This exploratory stage established that both the research experience, interests, and research archives of the two scholars were complementary and together formed a basis for a detailed investigation of this subject. The second stage of the Project has now begun with a three-month research visit by Dr Stargardt to The Netherlands, with financial support of the NWO and the British Academy, and with research facilities provided by the International Institute of Asia Studies, who have made her an Affiliated Fellow during the course of her stay in Leiden. This stage of the project involves intensive use of the research facilities of the magnificent library of the Kern Institute, including its Photographic Project.
During this stage research discussions have focused on redefining relics and sacred burials in a Buddhist context, and re-examining a great deal of primary data from early excavations of ancient Buddhist sites in North and Central India. These data have been compared with and contrasted to the evidence from some of the earliest Buddhist sites outside India the Pyu sites of Central Burma, where excavations have revealed relics, burials in sacred places, and possibly sacred burials (Stargardt, 1990, 1992a and 1992b).
Both researchers are going on fieldwork early in the New Year. Professor van Kooij to South India and Sri Lanka; Dr Stargardt to Thailand and Burma. They will collate and compare their research data by e-mail during 2000, reinforced by the return visit to Cambridge by Professor van Kooij in the autumn of 2000.
As this Project develops it is envisaged that its scope will be widened a little to include a small network of scholars with closely related research interests, so that intensive discussions can be continued. *
Professor K. van Kooij can be contacted at:
E-mail: krvankooij@let.leidenuniv.nl
and Dr Janice Stargardt can be contacted at:
E-mail: JS119@cam.ac.uk