Events

The Asian Civilisations Museum, in collaboration with the Courtauld Institute, the Asia Research Institute (National University of Singapore), the Harvard-Yenching Institute, and the Dunhuang Foundation, will host a three-day international conference in Singapore from 8 to 10 January 2027. The conference will be held in conjunction with the special exhibition, Sacred Caves: Dunhuang, Buddhism, and the Silk Road, at the Asian Civilisations Museum.

This conference seeks to advance new scholarship on Dunhuang as a dynamic node of transregional exchange, situating it within broader networks of Buddhist, artistic, and intellectual circulation across Asia and beyond. While highlighting recent research on this UNESCO World Heritage site, the conference also aims to rethink Dunhuang’s place within a wider Buddhist world by foregrounding its global connections—across regions, media, and historical periods.

We invite paper proposals that engage with Dunhuang from interdisciplinary and comparative perspectives. Topics that are of special interest are:

• Dunhuang site-based studies, including archaeology, material culture, and conservation
• Dunhuang manuscripts, texts, and literary cultures
• Dunhuang’s connections with Asia and the broader Indian Ocean world
• Transmission of ideas, practices, and iconographies through Dunhuang
• Histories of collecting and dispersal of Dunhuang materials
• Curation and stewardship of Dunhuang and related material cultures
• Contemporary engagements with Dunhuang in museums, galleries, and digital humanities projects

We particularly encourage proposals that offer new conceptual, methodological, or comparative perspectives on Dunhuang and its global significance.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

The Call for Papers is now closed. Authors of selected proposals will be notified by mid-September 2026.

If your paper is selected, we are happy to offer full or partial airfare funding for our international presenters, along with four nights of accommodation in Singapore. You will be required to submit a draft paper of between 3,000 and 5,000 words by 15 December 2026. These draft papers will be shared with fellow speakers and chairpersons prior to the conference.

If you have any further questions, please reach out to Valerie Yeo at valerie.yeo@nus.edu.sg or Professor Tansen Sen at tansen.sen@nyu.edu.