You would like to do a doctorate in one of our research areas? Then find out here about the responsibilities, the procedure and the various supervision options.
You want to do a PhD on a topic from our profile? Then first apply with an exposé on your topic and a short scientific curriculum vitae to a professor of our institute for a supervision. With the supervision agreement, you contact the Faculty of History, Art and Area Studies, which is responsible for the further procedure.
Supervisors for Your Doctorate
Our Doctoral Students
At our institute, PhD students are researching interesting topics. Find out here about their research projects and how to get in touch with them.
Dissertation
Title: Inventory and Survey of Musical Instruments in Ajanta and Kucha cave paintings: their influence and resemblance in context of musical practices of India and Central Asia
Description:
This study delves into the rich world of musical instruments portrayed in the mural-adorned cave temples of two globally renowned Buddhist centers: Ajanta in India and Kucha in China, separated by approximately 2000 kilometers. Despite their geographical distance, these sites share striking similarities in narrative depictions and painting styles. The caves, dating back to the 5th and 5th-8th centuries for Ajanta and Kucha, respectively, belong to the same Buddhist school, showcasing significant cultural influences from Central India to Central Asia.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Zin
Dissertation
Title: Kucha Caves and Rituals: An Attempt at Linking Paintings and Texts of Defensive Magic
Description:
My dissertation focuses on studying the utilization of cave monasteries in the ancient Kucha Kingdom. This remains a highly controversial topic requiring further investigation, particularly concerning Buddhist magic. The core of my research centers on the examination of image representations related to Buddhist rituals, with a specific emphasis on protective spells and invocation texts found in the region. These texts may include magical dhāraṇīs (formulas for defense or healing) and are often associated with various depictions of gods and spirits. Additionally, I concentrate on rituals related to defensive magic and protection that might have taken place in the Kucha caves between the 5th and 10th centuries.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Zin
Dissertation
Title: Dress Code in the Early Medieval Kucha Paintings
Description:
My dissertation examines the clothing of the donors depicted in the cave monasteries of the ancient Kucha Kingdom (5th to 7th century CE) in two painting styles, the 1st and the 2nd Indo-Iranian Style. These portraits were mainly presented as single subjects separate from the Buddhist narrative illustrations. Nevertheless, references to Buddhism are discernible, e.g. in the cloth patterns corresponding to Xinjiang silks from neighbouring Turfan, where they were ethically produced according to Buddhist principles. The project records all known donor images, identifies the individual components of the clothing and contextualises them through comparisons with contemporary representations and archaeological finds from cultures that were connected with Kucha along the Silk Road.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Zin
Dissertation
Title: The “Devils’ Cave with Annexes” in Kizil
Description:
The “Devils’ Cave with Annexes” is located in the cave complex of Kizil, dated between the 4th and 7th centuries CE and, with over 300 caves, one of the most important Buddhist cave complexes on the Northern Silk Road. Only about a third of its caves are decorated with wall paintings, many of them deteriorated over time, while others were removed with the beginning of the 20th century, during the German Turfan Expeditions, among others. The pictorial programme of the “Devils’ Cave” was once abundant and, above all, unusual. My research work will not only examine the pictorial programme of this cave group, based on the painting fragments still preserved in situ and also the pieces preserved in various museums. By the analysis of these wall paintings, inter alia, the Jātaka representations, which specifically characterized the side corridors as well as the vaulted ceiling of this cave group, a dating of this cave group will be carried out.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Zin
Dissertation
Title: Pramāṇavārttikavṛtti ad Pramāṇavārttika 3.123-193
Description:
My research project examines part of the perception (pratyakṣa) chapter in the Pramāṇavārttika, written in the sixth century by Dharmakīrti. Specifically, the study covers stanzas 123–193, in which Dharmakīrti defines perception, and I attempt to interpret these stanzas using the Pramāṇavārttikavṛtti by Manorathanandin. A central task of this project is to prepare critical editions of the respective sections of both works as well as annotated translations.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Eli Franco
Dissertation
Title: Dharmakīrti’s Criticism of the Six Characteristics of Reason (ṣaḍlakṣaṇahetutva)
Description:
This research is an inquiry into a chapter of Dharmakīrti's Hetubindu (“Hetvābhāsanirūpaṇam”), based on Arcaṭa's Hetubinduṭīkā. In this research, I examine the relation of the Buddhist pramāṇa tradition to the other Indian philosophical schools, such as Nyāya, Mīmāṃsā, etc., focusing on the hetulakṣaṇa controversy.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Eli Franco
Dissertation
Title: Women in ancient India as depicted in the Ajanta paintings
Description:
The paintings in the Buddhist monastery caves in Ajanta reflect the place of women in ancient Indian society, sometimes coinciding with literary sources, sometimes giving new information or even contradicting these texts. Even though women did not enjoy the same rights as men did, these ancient paintings show that they were not oppressed in Buddhist India, but instead enjoyed a certain freedom and independency.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Zin
Dissertation
Title: Yogācāra Exposition of “Conceptuality” in the Cognitive Process
Description:
My dissertation examines the role of conceptuality in perception and cognition. Investigating the usages and connotations of prapañca (conceptual proliferation), vikalpa (conceptualization, discrimination), and other relevant terms from the early to middle Yogācāra treatises, this research aims to shed light on the unignorable significance of concepts and language in terms of shaping the perceptual world, and in the meantime, to address the philosophical problem of intersubjectivity on one hand, and subjectivity on the other from a Buddhist perspective.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jowita Kramer
Dissertation
Title: An Investigation and Annotated Translation of the Section on “Factors Dissociated from the Mind” in the Abhidharmadīpa with Vibhāṣāprabhāvṛtti
Description:
My PhD project falls into two major parts. The first part offers an annotated English translation of the section on the factors dissociated from the mind (citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra) in the Abhidharmadīpa with Vibhāṣāprabhāvṛtti. In the second part, the thesis will examine the various connotations of the factors dissociated from the mind from both the philological and philosophical perspectives in the Sarvāstivada Abhidharmic texts, which include seven canonical treatises, Vibhāṣā-related texts and commentaries representing standpoints of the orthodox Vaibhāṣika. This thesis also contains research on the controversies and debates over this category among various Buddhist sects and schools.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Jowita Kramer
Dissertation
Title: Representations of Monks and Nuns in the Buddhist Cave Monasteries of Kucha
Description:
The cave monasteries of the ancient Kucha Kingdom between the fourth and seventh centuries of the Common Era were decorated with the Buddha’s present and former life stories painted in the 1st and 2nd Indo-Iranian Styles. Among those were images of monks and nuns appearing in the narrative and non-narrative illustrations. Powerful patrons supported the carving and painting of the cave. These images show how the monastics aimed to represent themselves to the patrons as worthy fields of merit that could generate benefit for the laypeople’s future lives by receiving offerings from them. The project focuses on the contextualisation and identification of those images while exploring how the images may reflect the realities of contemporary religion and culture.
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Monika Zin