Short Biography

I received my Mag. (= M.A., 1994) and Ph.D. (1998) titles at the Institute of Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, University of Vienna, Austria, the latter degree under the supervision of the late Maurizio Taddei (Istituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli). My research focuses on Buddhist art of India and Tibet.

Earlier work on the western Himalayas was largely based on extensive field research and documentation done in situ. Besides numerous articles on the early Buddhist monuments, artifacts and inscriptions found in or related to this region my first book, Buddhist Sculpture in Clay: Early Western Himalayan Art, late 10th to early 13th centuries, has come out with Serindia at Chicago in 2004.

More recent research concentrated on Buddhist art immediately before and during Kushana rule and was substantially funded by the Lumbini International Research Institute. In this connection I curated the exhibition "Gandhara, the Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan. Legends, Monasteries and Paradise" at the Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in Bonn together with Michael Jansen and was responsible for its catalogue.

I also was a Freeman Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley in 2004/05, Visiting Professor at Free University in Berlin 2006–08 and Numata Visiting Professor at Stanford University and UC Berkeley in the first half of 2010.

Photography

I only started to photograph when it became clear that there is plenty of art historical information in situ that has not been documented. I quickly improved my photography and made documentation a priority. All documentation of the 1990ies is currently housed in the Western Himalayan Archive Vienna (WHAV), University of Vienna, Austria, a photographic archive I have been instrumental to build.

Design

I am a very visual person, but have not received any education in this direction. Studying art history certainly had its influence, but mostly I have learned from practice, for example, with the design of my book or the different incarnations of my homepage. I am not sure how this visual strength is connected to another one, the analysis of complex (visual) matters in new ways.

Me, Myself and I

While I do appreciate the advances that it brought in many ways, I am sick of the individuality that permeates avery aspect of our modern lonely life. At the other extreme, the traditional way of hiding ones results or opinions under an academic nosism (the author's we that is often more a pluralis majestatis or 'royal we' than an inclusion of the reader) is equally appalling today, but I may be hypersensitive in this regard due to my experiences.