Professor FORTE, Erika
Professor FORTE, Erika
- Academic Degree
- Ph.D. in Indian and East-Asian Art, Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy
- Expertise
- Art and Archaeology of Central Asia
- Research Theme
- Ancient Buddhist material culture in Eastern Central Asia
Ancient Buddhist material culture in Eastern Central Asia
My research focuses on ancient Buddhist material culture as manifested in the various oasis-states that flourished in the Tarim Basin region along the network of routes known as the Silk Road (present-day Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, People's Republic of China). Buddhist culture began to spread in the region around the turn of the first millennium and was assimilated in different forms and at different paces in each of these centers. During this process, interactions with neighboring cultures —Indian, Chinese, Iranian, and Tibetan—were woven into each oasis culture in diverse forms. A particular point of emphasis in my research will be elucidating aspects of the last phase of Buddhist culture in this region, starting in the seventh century, when Islamic culture began to expand from Western Central Asia, leading to the eventual decline of Buddhism in the Tarim Basin.