Peter Romaskiewicz, PhD
Historian of Chinese Religions & Chinese Buddhism, interest in smell culture & aromatics; recent hummingbird whisperer, belated powerlifter, curator of Buddhas in the West Material Archive @buddhasinthewest.bsky.social
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- Photos taken by pioneering Chinese photographer Lai Afong (1838/39–1890). Held by the Getty Museum. #photofriday
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- The missionary exhibition, the World in Boston, took place in the spring of 1911 before moving to Cincinnati. Here is a souvenir postcard showing the Japan Scene in Boston, below is the same display in Cincinnati a year later. The exhibit continued to Baltimore and then Chicago in 1913.
- In 1911, to promote efforts of American missionaries abroad, an arm of the missions board sponsored a massive traveling exhibit of the world's religions. The "Japan Scene" was dominated by a replica of a Buddhist temple, traveling from Boston to Cincinnati and elsewhere. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Cincinnati
- Reposted by Peter Romaskiewicz, PhDIssue 145:4 of the JAOS is out online doi.org/10.7817/jaos... , with articles on: Yahwists in Elephantine, oracular law in Assyria, syntax in Qur'anic interpretation, r vs rr in Khotan, Mongol text of the 1413 Tyr stele, Old Chinese parts of speech, Song dynasty incense trade, and more!
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- Raphael Tuck’s complete 6 card “Oilette” set for Tibet with cover, circa 1905. Early 20th century postcards were one of the main ways images of Buddhist material culture circulated in Europe/US.
- In 1903, a titan of world postcard production, England-based Raphael Tuck & Sons, set themselves further apart by issuing the vibrantly colored Oilette Series based on commissioned oil paintings. Among the first sets released was devoted to the mysterious Himalayan nation of Tibet. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Tibet
- Photographs of Japan taken by Wilhelm Burger as member of the Imperial Austrian Expedition to East Asia in 1870. Held by the British Library.
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- Reposted by Peter Romaskiewicz, PhD#WalkForPeace update, near Jackson. www.wapt.com/article/budd...
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- Giant pair of 19th c. Japanese prayer beads with baseball-sized bead-shrines housing tiny Buddhist icons. Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
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- Laughing Buddha teapot and tea canister. Chelsea, England, c. 1745-1749. Museum of Fine Art, Boston.
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- Laughing Buddha Smoking a Pipe, made in Delft, Netherlands between 1700-1725 with Qing era Buddha in white porcelain from 1740. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
- Reposted by Peter Romaskiewicz, PhDFor anyone attending the #AARSBL in Boston, come see the Buddhas in the West Pop-Up Exhibit this Saturday at CGIS S050 at Harvard University. We look at the early European depictions of the Buddha and Buddhist monks from the 1660s to 1850s. 🗃️ 📜 #Buddhasinthewest
- Contemporary artist Tokuhiro Kawai depicts cats as furry saints! Current show "Altarpiece of Cat Adoration" in Tokyo now: tinyurl.com/2ew694rh #caturday
- Reposted by Peter Romaskiewicz, PhDThe first 108 Buddhas in the West posts are now archived, tagged, and easy to browse! 🔍 🗺 Thank you to everyone for the support! 🙏 👉 tinyurl.com/4kmcwp87
- International Dunhuang Project website launched a new "learning" resource with a variety of collected materials. idp.bl.uk/learning/dun...
- A discussion on a new publication that focus on the Chinese wu 巫. criticaldivination.org/2025/09/03/i...
- "This databank seeks to bridge this gap by providing the most up-to-date comprehensive radiocarbon database of Chinese archaeology. This effort involves a systematic review of the relevant literature ... A total number of 7,083 radiocarbon dates...were collected." www.nature.com/articles/s41...
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- At the #Shōsōin Exhibition: Very large brush used by Bodhisena to dot the eyes of the Great Buddha in Nara during the eye-opening consecration ceremony in 752. Also, the blue cord attached to the brush which observers held to receive merit for the act. www.shosoin-ten.jp/info/treasur... #正倉院
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- On display at the #Shōsōin Exhibition in Nara: 8th century bronze mirror inlaid with mother-of-pearl, turquoise, and lapis lazuli. Chemical analysis shows mirror was made in China before becoming part of the collection of Emperor Shōmu (r. 724–749). www.shosoin-ten.jp/info/treasur... #正倉院
- The Asian Art Museum in San Francisco: "Through x-ray imaging, our conservators reveal the hidden structures and stories sealed inside these centuries-old sculptures. For the first time, we offer a hauntingly beautiful glimpse inside some of the museum’s oldest objects." (on IG)
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- Contemporary artist Yuma Matsumoto makes giant figures out of straw. His most recent was a giant cat. Recent work: awrd.com/creatives/us... #caturday
- This article mentions research performed this year shows the tree that produced the Ranjatai aloeswood was felled in the 8th or 9th century. #正倉院 #蘭奢待 www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/kansai...
- Another recent article noting the use of radiocarbon dating to place the age more specifically between 772 and 885. www.yomiuri.co.jp/local/kansai...
- The 77th Annual Exhibition of Shōsō-in Treasures opens today and includes a large piece of scented aloeswood, said to be the “World’s Most Famous Aromatic.” It can be dated to the 12th century, although some believe it's much older. #正倉院 #蘭奢待
- Hello all, I currently doing research on medieval Chinese religions and smell culture. I'll share a recent fun essay I made for the Shōsō-in exhibit that opened last week, its about my favorite item in the collection - an ancient hunk of aloeswood. peterromaskiewicz.com/2024/09/24/r...
- Engravings of Kamakura's Hachiman Shrine pagoda were used in Aimé Humbert's works on Japan in the 1860s/70s. The Parisian lithographer copied the same image decades later, likely unaware the pagoda had been destroyed in 1870.
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- Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, LA #31daysofgraves #cross
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- Johnston & Hoffmann, c. 1890s.
- Tibetan ritual cham dances were often called "Devil Dances" by Western scholars and travelers through the turn of the 20th century. Dressed in the ceremonial regalia of masked dance, performing monks became a popular visual motif for representing Tibetan Buddhism. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Tibet
- Woljeongsa Temple, Odesan, South Korea Buddhist monastics and practitioners bury their hair after tonsure at this memorial site in the forest. #31daysofgraves #landscape
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- Wonderful discussion of how the National Park Service Museum does paper conservation. 📜 🗃 www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3J-...
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- "These objects were created with precious materials using highly sophisticated techniques... Among them are exotic items such as the Red Sandalwood Sugoroku Board...used by Emperor Shomu himself; the exquisite Blue Glass Cup...and the famous Aloeswood Incense..."Ranjatai." 👀 shosoin-ten.jp/en/
- Greenwood Cemetery, New Orleans, LA, January 2025 #31daysofgraves
- This early Hollywood portrayal of Buddhism includes the curious "Seven Fold" Path...
- Two figures seen here in the shadows emerged in the 1920s and 30s as part of the cinematic shorthand for American Chinatowns. One, the murderous hatchet man, can be seen in the back alley, while other is seen peering out the curio shop window: an icon of a buddha. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Chinatown
- Gade 嘎德, "New Buddha Series: Mickey Mouse," 2008. ...Namu Amida Mousu 🌺
- Recently stumbled across the contemporary work of Tibetan artist Gade (b. 1971). "The New Scripture: An end of year resumé of van Gogh," 2005.
- A newly launched video podcast series dedicated to Chinese Buddhist Studies begins with the edited volume, Readings of the Gateless Barrier. The book has nine chapters, and for each chapter a scholar of Buddhist studies interviews the author. www.youtube.com/@ChineseBudd... #koan #zen
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- New French watercolor ink and innovative "linen" embossed cardstock transformed the postcard industry in the 1930s into a hyperreal fantasy world. Less use of black ink meant darker colors had to enhance tonality. www.collectorsweekly.com/articles/how...
- The Ling Long Chinese Museum in Chicago opened prior to the 1934 World's Fair hoping to draw visitors and help erase the popular view that US Chinatowns were "immoral and dangerous." The museum housed a large altar in the rear of the main arcade to enshrine an icon of Guanyin. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Chicago
- Reposted by Peter Romaskiewicz, PhDIf anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.
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- Nice collection of religious artifacts on NY Tenement Museum's colloborative "Your Story Our Story" digital exhibit. "We work with museums, colleges, schools, libraries, and community groups who all contribute stories from their part of the United States." yourstory.tenement.org/stories?cate...
- Monk Lhundrub, "Panoramic Map of Mount Wutai," 1846, woodblock print on linen, hand colored; 47 1/8 × 68 in. rubinmuseum.org/projecthimal...
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- Unknown Japanese studio, "Yashamon," albumen print, c. 1880s/90s [modified w/music 😎]
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- Aloha Wanderwell, the first woman to drive around the globe, stops at the Hyōgo Daibutsu in Kobe, Japan, in 1924. Her Ford 1918 Model T is parked in front of the statue. 🌏
- Nōfuku-ji, a Buddhist temple in the port city of Kobe, Japan, was reportedly founded by the monk Saichō in 805. A thousand years later, the colossal Hyōgo Daibutsu was built on temple grounds in 1891, but the statue did not survive beyond World War II. 🧵 🗃️ 📜 #Japan
- Mistaken for the Buddha? Illustrated European books from the 18th century mistakenly treated this image as the Buddha; it started as an image of a Sri Lankan king...
- Writing in 1790, William Hurd noted the icons of Ceylon were "fantastic and monstrous," while one, "formed like a giant," was called "Buddu." The accompanying engraving of the Buddha shows a curious bearded figure with a tall crown and sword held aloft in his right hand.🧵 🗃️ 📜 #SriLanka
- "The wound that Saketopoulou painfully probes is that while abuse and deprivation can generate individual afflictive 'translations,' the most challenging convulsive collective wound is that multigenerational structural translations are not 'in the past,' they are now." tif.ssrc.org/2025/09/24/r...
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