Dr Mark Allon

PhD (Buddhist Studies, Cambridge), BA (Asian Studies, ANU; Hons 1), Dip. Arts (City Art Institute)
Chair of Department and Lecturer in South Asian Buddhist Studies
Room 652, A18 Brennan MacCallum Building

+61 2 9351 3891

Mark Allon teaches Pali, Sanskrit, and Buddhist and Asian studies. His current research focuses on recent discoveries of ancient Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan, particularly those in the Gandhari language through the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project. His primary interests are in the composition and transmission of early Buddhist literature, in the ways in which texts have been used by Buddhist communities, and in the languages of early Buddhist texts.

• Early Buddhist literature, particularly of the ‘Mainstream’ schools, preserved in Pali, Gandhari, Prakrit, Buddhist Sanskrit and Chinese
• Recent discoveries of Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia, with a special interest in ancient Gandhara
• Buddhist Sanskrit and the Middle Indo-Aryan languages, particularly Pali and Gandhari

• The creation of editions, translations, and studies of the texts of the newly discovered Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan

Books

• 2001. Three Gāndhārī Ekottarikāgama-Type Sūtras: British Library Kharoṣṭhī Fragments 12 and 14. (with contribution by Andrew Glass) Gandhāran Buddhist Texts 2. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
• 1997. Style and Function: A Study of the Dominant Stylistic Features of the Prose Portions of Pāli Canonical Sutta Texts and their Mnemonic Function. Tokyo: International Institute for Buddhist Studies.

Edited Volumes

• 2007. (with O. von Hinüber and R.M.L. Gethin) Journal of the Pali Text Society (Festschrift in Honour of the 80th Birthday of K.R. Norman in 2005 and the 125th Anniversary in 2006 of the founding of the Pali Text Society) 29.

Articles and Chapters in Books

• (forthcoming) “Recent Discoveries of Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan and their Significance.” In Ken Parry, ed., Art, Architecture and Religion on the Silk Road and Across Inner-Asian History. Silk Road Studies. Proceedings from the Fifth Conference of the Australian Society for Inner Asian Studies (A.S.I.A.S.). Macquarie University, November 27th to 28th, 2004. Turnhout: Brespols.
• 2007. “A Gāndhārī Version of the Simile of the Turtle and the Hole in the Yoke.” In O. von Hinüber, R.M.L. Gethin, and Mark Allon, eds., Journal of the Pali Text Society (Festschrift in Honour of the 80th Birthday of K.R. Norman in 2005 and the 125th Anniversary in 2006 of the founding of the Pali Text Society) 297: 229–62.
• 2007. “Introduction: The Senior Manuscripts.” In Andrew Glass, Four Gāndhārī Saṃyuktāgama Sūtras: Senior Kharoṣṭhī Fragment 5. Gandhāran Buddhist Texts 4, pp. 3–25. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
• 2007. “Recent Discoveries of Buddhist Manuscripts from Afghanistan and Pakistan: The Heritage of the Greeks in the North-west.” In Himanshu Prabha Ray and Daniel T. Potts, eds., Memory as History: The Legacy of Alexander in Asia, pp. 131–41. New Delhi: Aryan Books International.
• 2006. “Radiocarbon Dating of Kharoṣṭhī Fragments from the Schøyen and Senior Manuscript Collections.” (with Richard Salomon, Geraldine Jacobsen, Ugo Zoppi) In Jens Braarvig, ed., Buddhist Manuscripts III. Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection 4, pp. 279–91. Oslo: Hermes Publishing.
• 2004. “Wrestling with Kharoṣṭhī Manuscripts.” Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai Fellowship Newsletter 7: 4–8.
• 2003. “New Buddhist Manuscripts from Ancient Gandhāra.” TAASA Review (The quarterly journal of The Asian Arts Society of Australia) 11.4: 8–10.
• 2000. “Kharoṣṭhī Fragments of a Gāndhārī Version of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra.” (with R. Salomon) In Jens Braarvig, ed., Buddhist Manuscripts I. Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection 1, pp. 243–73. Oslo: Hermes Publishing.
• 1997. “An Assessment of the Dhammakaya CD-ROM: Palitext Version 1.0.” Buddhist Studies (Bukkyō Kenkyū) 26: 109–29.
• 1997. “The Oral Composition and Transmission of Early Buddhist Texts.” In Peter Connolly and Sue Hamilton, eds., Indian Insights: Buddhism, Brahmanism and Bhakti. Papers from the Annual Spalding Symposium on Indian Religion, pp. 39–61. London: Luzac Oriental.
• Articles in Encyclopedia of Hinduism and Indic Religions, ed. K.L. Seshagiri Rao: “Karuṇā,” “Mr. & Mrs. Rhys Davids,” “Samādhi” (forthcoming).

Teaching

• Pali and Sanskrit
• Buddhist literature
• Buddhism in Gandhara and Central Asia
• Buddhism in South and South-east Asia
• Buddhist philosophy

Supervision

• Pali, Gandhari, and Sanskrit
• Buddhist literature
• Buddhism in South, South-east and Central Asia
• Buddhist thought and practice
• Buddhist art

Papers given at recent conferences include the following:

• 2007. “Comments on the Sanskritisation of Buddhist texts.” First Australian National Sanskrit Conference, Australian National University, Canberra, 17th–18th November.
• 2007. “A Gandhari version of the story of the merchants Tapussa and Bhallika and of the gods giving the Buddha his first alms bowl.” 3rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies, University of Western Sydney, 3rd–4th November.
• 2006. “East meets West: Buddhists and Greeks in the North-west of the Indian Subcontinent.” 2nd Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies, University of Sydney, Sydney, 16th–17th June.
• 2006. “Recent discoveries of Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan and the heritage of the Greeks in the North-west.” Jawaharlal Nehru University – University of Sydney Conference, Memory as History: the Legacy of Alexander in Asia, India International Centre, New Delhi, 27th February to 1st March.
• 2005. “The Senior Buddhist Manuscripts: a collection of ancient Gandhari birch bark scrolls.” Australian Association for the Study of Religion (AASR) and Religion, Literature and the Arts Society (RLA) Conference, Ways and Means: Re-inventing Studies in Religion for the Third Millenium, University of Sydney, Sydney, 30th September to 2nd October.
• 2005. “Raman Spectroscopy for the identification of inks in Buddhist birch bark manuscripts.” 6th Australian Conference on Vibrational Spectroscopy, Applications of Vibrational Spectroscopy in Archaeology/Conservation, School of Chemistry, University of Sydney, 30th March.
• 2005. “Radiocarbon dating of Kharosthi manuscripts.” The XIVth International Association of Buddhist Studies Conference, London, 29th August to 3rd September.
• 2005. “Further observations on the Senior manuscripts.” The XIVth International Association of Buddhist Studies Conference, London, 29th August to 3rd September.
• 2004. “Recent discoveries of Buddhist manuscripts from Afghanistan and their significance.” The Australasian Society for Inner Asian Studies, Macquarie University, 27th to 28th November.
• 2002. “A Gandhari version of the Sramanyaphalasutra.” The XIIIth International Association of Buddhist Studies Conference, Bangkok, 8th–13th December.

• Public lectures, including “The Life of the Buddha through Gandharan Art,” in the series Arts of Asia: Focus on Faith, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (15.3.05) and "Jataka: The Buddha’s previous births in Indian art and literature," in the series Arts of Asia: Literature and Legend 1, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (4.9.07).
• Media interviews, including ABC Radio National Breakfast interview with Fran Kelly (9.3.06); ABC Radio The Ark with Rachael Kohn (26.3.06 & 2.4.06); ABC Radio 702 Sydney with Richard Glover for Self-Improvement Wednesday: Lesson 47 “The life of the Buddha” (28.2.07); The Sydney Morning Herald 9.3.06, “Buddhist scrolls proved ancient,” General News, p. 6; “Master of Gandhari sheds light on Buddhism,” UniNews 39.1, 3rd January 2007, p. 5.
• Vice-President of the Australasian Association of Buddhist Studies.
• Editorial board member of the Buddhist Studies Review: Journal of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies and International Journal of Jaina Studies.
• Member of the Australian Centre for Asian Art and Archaeology, Department of Art History and Theory, University of Sydney.
• Senior member of the Early Buddhist Manuscripts Project.