Professor OsmundBopearachchi

Osmund Bopearachchi

Osmund Bopearachchi is the Adjunct Professor of Central and South Asian Art, Archaeology, and Numismatics, University of California, Berkeley and Emeritus Director of Research of the French National Centre for Scientific Research (C.N.R.S.-E.N.S. Paris) and former Visiting Professor and Member of the Doctoral School VI of the Paris IV-Sorbonne University.

Osmund Bopearachchi is a numismatist, historian and archaeologist. He has authored twelve books, edited six books and published 162 research articles in reputed international journals. He has read 91 papers at international colloquia; presented 275 conferences in 80 cities, and has carried out 120 archaeological missions in 24 different countries.

Going beyond the traditional approach of simply cataloguing coins, he has made an attempt to link numismatics with sculptural and pictorial iconography. These attempts made him more and more interested in diverse art forms in ancient India. The exhibition catalogues that he has edited and co-authored, the international colloquia that he has organised and published and the numerous research articles that he has written are the outcome of his deep-seated interest in Central Asian and South Asian archaeology, art and architecture.

Prof. Bopearachchi holds a B.A. from the University of Kelaniya (Sri Lanka), and B.A. honors, (M.A.), M.Phil., Ph.D. all with first class passes from the Paris I-Sorbonne University, and a Higher Doctorate (Habilitation) from the Paris IV-Sorbonne University.

Prof. Bopearachchi currently serves as the director of the Sri Lanka-French Archaeological Mission, and also has launched a joint project with the Department of Near-Eastern Studies of the University of California at Berkeley focusing on Sri Lanka’s role in ancient maritime trade in the Indian Ocean.

He recently published a book on Gandhāran art entitled: “When West Met East: Gandhāran Art Revisted (Manohar, Delhi, 2020) based on a selection of hitherto unknown masterpieces from Gandhāra and Greater Gandhāra dispersed in museums and private collections in Japan, Europe, Canada and United States of America. At present he is working on a new catalogue of Graeco-Bactrian and Indo-Greek Coins.

Latest Videos

“Conversation/virtual tour for the Exhibition on Beyond Boundaries: Buddhist art of Gandhara. At the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA)”

Beyond Boundaries: Gandharan Buddhist Art is organized by Osmund Bopearachchi, adjunct professor of Central and South Asian Art, Archaeology, and Numismatics in the Group in Buddhist Studies UC Berkeley, and Julia M. White, senior curator for Asian art, with Lucia Olubunmi Momoh, curatorial assistant. The exhibition is supported in part by the Asian Art Endowment Fund. April 30–October 3, 2021.

The life story of Gautama Buddha adorning the Kandyan period murals in Sri Lanka

The only Sri Lanka paintings that really passed to posterity are those of the famous Sigiriya rock dated to the fifth century CE depicting celestial apsaras. However, the island has a long tradition of painting the vāhalkaḍas (frontispieces) and relic chambers of the stūpas and the murals of image houses, which date back to the second century CE. It is at the beginning of the 18th century, at the height of the Kandyan period, during the reign of Narendrasimha that a new era of pictorial art began. King Kirti sri Rajasimha (1751-1781) was the instigator and mastermind of this artistic renaissance in the kingdom of Kandy. Thus was born a Kandyan style with its characteristics, its conventions, its themes and its technique.

Greek iconography to narrate a Buddhist story: Gandhāran art revisited

The Gandhāran Budhist art flourished under the auspicious political domination of the Kuṣāṇ Empire in a vast region which was once the cradle of diverse political supremacies and civilisations, such as those of the Achaemenids, the Greeks, the Scythians and the Parthians. The presence of Western powers in the fertile lands of Gandhāra and Greater Gandhāra for many generations gave birth to an innovative art characterized by naturalism and narrative power. The specificity of Gandhāran art is also its ability to narrate an Indian story, namely the life story of the Guatama Buddha, his previous lives and peripheral stories using both Western and Indian artistic motifs.

"De Sūrya indien à Mithra-Hélios : Transmission des images dans l’espace et dans le temps"

Paper presented at the International Colloquium on « L’Inde et l’Asie centrale au 1er millénaire, Collège de France, 5 & 6 June, 2019 » This paper is based on an unpublished toilet tray, said to have been found at Begram in Afghanistan, depicting a syncretic image of a Greek Helios and an Indian Sūrya. In the light of this image, two other toilet trays whose iconography has been misinterpreted by the art historian who published them will be re-examined.

Spread of Gandhara Art in Iranian and Central Asian context

Osmund Bopearachchi of The University of California at Berkeley, discusses the spread of Gandhara art in an Iranian and Central Asian context.

The Littoral Conference of Panel 2 Across the High Seas Cross-Cultural Encounters in the Indian Ocean

Osmund Bopearachchi, Adjunct Professor, UC Berkeley

Maritime Diffusion of Buddhist Philosophical Thought and Art

Osmund Bopearachchi, Adjunct Professor, UC Berkeley

Trade is understood mainly as the transfer and exchange of commodities to make profits, and this was also the driving force of economic activities in ancient time. However, as revealed by epigraphic and literary evidence, among the earliest donors and important patrons of Buddhist establishments in South and South-East Asia were caravan merchants and wealthy seafaring traders. The spread of Buddhism from South Asia to Southeast Asia is also closely connected with the growth of a trading network that facilitated the movement of Buddhist merchants, traveling monks and teachers. The resources needed to build gigantic religious monuments in South and South-East Asia would thus have come from both the royal patronage as well as from the devout mercantile classes. Their wealth was based on the flourishing inland and international trade centers located in the ports along the coast and navigable river.

Personal Details

Name : Christie Osmund Flavian Bopearachchi
Date of Birth : 4th December 1949
Place of Birth : Negambo, Sri Lanka
Citizenship at birth : Sri Lankan