Aleksandra Wenta

Biography

Aleksandra Wenta is Assistant Professor in the School of Buddhist Studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions. She was trained at Oxford University, Banaras Hindu University and Jagiellonian University. She was fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2012- 2014) where she worked on the aesthetics of power in medieval Chidambaram. Her scholarly interests range from Buddhism in India and Tibet, through Sanskrit and history of Åšaivism in Kashmir and South India, to the performance theories and emotions in pre-modern India. She is currently working on the doctrinal debate that dominated the scene in the intellectual history of the eleventh-century Indo-Tibetan world that was forced to enter the battlefield of the critical discussion during the ‘tantric age’. Aleksandra has recently (2016) been awarded a grant from FIND: India-Europe Foundation for New Dialogues, Italy.

Research Interest

Åšaiva-Buddhist Intertextuality; Indo-Tibetan Tantra; Comparative Religions; Sanskrit; Tibetan; Tibetan and Himalayan Studies; War Magic Rituals; Ritual Studies; Transmission of Buddhism from India to Tibet; Aesthetics.