Yang Liao

Yang Liao is a Research Professor at the Institute of Ethnology & Anthropology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She holds a MA and PhD from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, specializing in Comparative Art Studies and Buddhist Art History.

• Education: MA in Comparison & Communication between Chinese and Western Art (Central Academy of Fine Arts)
• PhD in Buddhist Art History (Central Academy of Fine Arts)

Her research focuses on Buddhist Art History and Cultural Communications through visual artifacts, particularly examining:

• Buddhist cave temples and monasteries in Inner China, Chinese Turkestan, and Tibet
• Iconological studies of the Buddhist pantheon (11th-15th centuries)
• Astral deities' role in cosmological structures
• Cross-regional/ethnic visual culture exchange

Yang Liao's publications include her 2012 monograph on Kizil Wall Paintings chronology and several conference presentations analyzing Tangut astral mandalas, regional Buddhist iconography, and Ming Dynasty religious art. She actively participates in international academic seminars at institutions like Harvard-Yenching Institute and Peking University, focusing on transcultural communication through visual materials.