I am writing to invite anyone to consider participating in a panel on Tibetan studies in Italy as part of the Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Group in the next meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) in San Francisco, CA. Considering that this year the regional theme is religion in the Mediterranean, this panel is tentatively titled “Looking at Tibet from the ‘Bel Paese’: Reflections on Religion, Scholarship, and Popular Practice in Tibet and Italy.”

This panel will explore trends, ideas, and scholarship on the religions of Tibet and the Himalayas including Bön and Buddhist theory and praxis, ritual studies, art history, social science, and popular religion. Also, we welcome comparative studies exploring the intersections between Italian and Tibetan religious practice concerning lived religion, i.e., local cults of saints, relics, shrines, miracles, and other manifestations of religious devotion. Additionally, this panel could include papers that explore the contributions of major Italian figures and scholars from the early Jesuits to modern authors and teachers who lay the foundation of Tibetan Studies in Italy such as Professors Giuseppe Tucci (1894–1984), Luciano Petech (1914–2010), and Namkhai Norbu.

If you are working on something related to these topics and would like to join this panel, please send an e-mail with the title and a 150 words abstract to me at a-terrone@northwestern.edu

Warmly
Antonio Terrone