We welcome you to the Facebook community of South Asian & Tibetan Studies (SATS) at Leiden University (The Netherlands). We are interested in one or more countries or regions of pre-modern, modern or contemporary South Asia, in fields such as languages, history, literature, art and art history, media and cultural studies, religious studies, philosophy or philology. We focus on countries of Banglad
esh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. We also have strong ties with Tibetan studies at Leiden University. SATS faculty members have been involved in teaching and research on Bengali, Hindi, Pali, Sanskrit, Sinhala, Tibetan and other South Asian languages. SATS brings together leading South Asian & Tibetan expertise across Leiden University to create a lively environment supporting the interdisciplinary study of the subcontinent & Tibet as a whole. SATS promotes knowledge about South Asia & Tibet through innovative research, teaching and outreach to educational, civic, and business institutions and to the community. For more information go to
http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lias/
History:
South Asian & Tibetan studies goes back to the establishment of the chair of Sanskrit in 1865. In 1925, the institute was founded by the Sanskritist and archaeologist Prof. He named the institute after Hendrik Kern who, from 1865, held the first chair of Sanskrit in the Netherlands. Over time, Indological research has focused on the fields of Sanskrit, archaeology and material culture, and Buddhism, and the Kern institute built up an impressive collection of books, photographs, manuscripts, and other sources on South Asia and Dutch Indies. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, chairs in Indian civilization and in Buddhology, Indian Philosophy, and Tibetan were established. Recently, the indological tradition has been complemented by the study of modern South Asia. At present, there are three structural chairs: Sanskrit and Ancient Cultures of South Asia, Buddhist Studies, and Modern South Asian Studies. Faculty do research in art and material culture, Buddhist studies, history, linguistics, philology, philosophy, and religious studies, across historical periods ranging from antiquity to the modern and the contemporary. Since 2011, SATS has also benefitted from the establishment of chair for the study of contemporary India sponsored by the Indian council for the Cultural Relations (ICCR), Government of India.
