Stein Arnold Exploration Fund 2025-26 Awards
The Stein Arnold Exploration Fund 2025-26 awardees are:
Dr Crispin Branfoot
SA26\260012
Project Title: Connected Architectural Histories for the Hindu Temples of Sri Lanka
SOAS University of London
Value Awarded: £3,447
Hindu temples have been built on the island of Sri Lanka (former Ceylon) for over a millennium, in an architectural design and form shared with neighbouring south India.This exploratory research project aims to examine the connected architectural histories of Hindu temples across the Palk Strait between Tamil – south India, and Sri Lanka from the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries. Three selected temple sites on the west coast of the island at the ancient pilgrimage sites at Mannar and Chilaw, and in the colonial capital of Colombo will be the primary focus, paying close attention to the built form, layout, materials, scale and technique. The interpretation of the temples’ architecture and scattered archaeological remains will also situate the sacred sites’ long diachronic architectural histories within scholarly discourse on reuse, renovation and the recycling of architectural elements in art history and South Asian studies.
Professor Rachel Mairs
Co-Applicant: Dr Helen Wang
SA26\260006
Project Title: Aurel Stein Archives and Collections: New Directions for Research
University of Reading
Value Awarded: £5,000
Archives and collections relating to the archaeological work of Sir Marc Aurel Stein (1862–1943) are kept in institutions in the UK, Hungary, India, Pakistan and China. Despite foundational work in the 1990s-early 2000s to document and publicise these collections, there is still no comprehensive catalogue, and it can be difficult for those new to the field to find fundamental information to support their research. The proposed project brings together established and early career scholars for whose research the Stein collections and archives are relevant, with two major aims; First, to make the contents and current status of Stein collections worldwide better known to a wide scholarly audience, and within this, more specifically, to produce an updated and expanded Handbook to the Collections of Sir Aurel Stein (Wang and Perkins 1999/2008). Secondly, to promote networking and knowledge exchange between scholars, and especially the inter-generational sharing of knowledge.
Dr Wendelin Morrison
SA26\260001
Project Title: Pigments as Geo-medicine in early Tibetan Buddhist Art
Independent Scholar
Value Awarded: £3,000
Hidden within in its sacred iconography and practices, medicine has always been of cardinal importance in the sacred art of Tibet. By examining how natural pigments function as both artistic and medicinal substances in Buddhist material and spiritual culture, the aim of this research is to gain insight into how Tibetan sacred art goes beyond purely iconographic antidotes to sickness and disease in the promotion of longevity, to encompass the alchemical materiality of the paintings themselves as medicinal. Exploring and documenting traditional practices and rituals in the collection and processing of geological material by Tibetan artists and monks in the remote ‘Medicinal Mountains’ surrounding Lhasa, in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, the research will provide insight into intangible lineages of sacred knowledge transmission and the tangible medicinal attributes of Tibet’s rich artistic history; documenting this endangered culture to support its continuance for the benefit of future generations.
Please note: Awards are arranged alphabetically by surname of the grant recipient. The institution is that given at the time of application.