Landscapes of Pilgrimage: Physical, Cultural and Imagined

Landscapes of Pilgrimage: Physical, Cultural and Imagined

An international workshop at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Türkiye

15-16 February 2023

One strand of the Nara to Norwich Project is looking at sacred spaces in the landscape, both before and during the Buddhist and Christian periods. Pilgrimage is a focus of this, in terms of the context of the real and imaged landscapes through which pilgrims passed and how these—and the sacred space at their destination— evolved and were adapted over time as a result of these interactions. 

This workshop will bring in the perspective of scholars working on Islamic pilgrimage to discuss and compare ideas of the importance of sacred places and their contexts in these key Silk Road religions.

Organised by the Department of History and Asian Studies Centre, Boğaziçi University, and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Sponsored by the Toshiba International Foundation

Schedule:

Wednesday 15 February:

Arrivals and introductory dinner

Thursday 16 February:

09:00-13:00: Presentations by Nara to Norwich project members

• Professor Simon Kaner (Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and University of East Anglia): Nara to Norwich: review and future plans
• Professor Susan Whitfield (Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures and University of East Anglia): Pilgrimage on the silk roads
• Professor Chris Scull (Consultant Archaeologist): The Rendlesham project
• Professor Katy Cubitt (Emeritus Professor of Medieval History, University of East Anglia): Medieval saints on the silk road
• Professor Juhyung Rhi (Seoul National University): Pilgrimage and Buddhism

13:00-14:00: Lunch

14:00-17:00: Presentations by Turkish colleagues:

• Professor Emerita Selçuk Esenbel, editor of Japan on the Silk Roads (Brill 2019)https://mei.edu/profile/selcuk-esenbel Japan on the Silk Road
• Professor Arzu Ozturkmen, Chair Department of History, Director Asian Studies Center, specializing in anthropology and history, oral history, media studies and folklore history. Migrant Forms of Folklore: Instances from Verbal and Festive Performances along the Silk Road
• Professor  Oya Pancaroğlu, specialist visual and literary cultures of Persianate world, Medieval Islamic art and archaeology. Mongol Tomb Towers in Late Thirteenth-Century Ahlat: An Architectural Intersection on the Silk Road?
• Dr Z. Hale Eroğlu Sağer, specialist in history of Islam in China: Vernacularization of Islam on the silk roads: Muslim scholarship in China
• Assoc. Professor  Koray Durak, economic historian specialising in history of Byzantine-Islamic relations, Director of the Asian Studies Centre, Vice-director of Byzantine Studies Research Center, Istanbul The movement of pilgrims and relics between the Byzantine and Islamic worlds in the early Middle Ages
• Dr. Erdal Kucukyalcin, Bogazici University Asian Studies Center specializing on history of modern Japan and Buddhism, expeditions in Central Asia, samurai culture. Searching for the Roots of Faith- Religious Nature of Otani Expeditions
• Kiraz Perincek, Ph.D. candidate Department of History, Researcher Asian Studies Center The multilayered journey of a precious color on the ancient Silk Roads: 琉璃.