Buddha in the Archives: Material Culture and the Making of Contested Cultural Pasts in Post Colonial South and Central Asia

-----

The Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan (DAFA) was responsible for conducting most scientific excavations in Afghanistan until 1979. The primary thrust of its investigations was to identify the Hellenic and Alexandrian lineages of Afghanistan, an effort that was further supported by the Afghan nationalist project in the early twentieth century. However, in the process of exploring these Hellenic lineages, French archaeologists were also able to delineate Buddhist material culture, which later contributed to the formation of new cultural identities in modern Afghanistan.

By analyzing textual materials and artefacts preserved in the DAFA archives at the Musée Guimet in Paris, this talk aims to understand the methodologies adopted by DAFA’s early directors, Alfred Foucher (1865-1952) and Joseph Hackin (1886-1941), in constructing a Buddhist intellectual network. This network was instrumental in connecting Afghanistan with its neighboring countries, particularly India and Pakistan along with Japan.

The politics of promoting Buddhist visual culture and incorporating it as a national symbol contributed to the development of political alliances with postcolonial Asian republics. However, this process also generated significant internal tensions, as it failed to establish a meaningful cultural dialogue with Afghanistan’s traditionalist and rural communities. Studying these archival materials opens new avenues within postcolonial studies, art history, and the history of archaeology by helping us understand the relationship between intellectual and political networks.

-----