The year 2019 marks the 150th anniversary of Austria having established diplomatic relations with Japan. Research conducted in Austria on the history of religions and philosophies in South Asia and Tibet has been significantly shaped by cooperation and exchange with Japanese scholars and institutions, both at the University of Vienna and at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Cultivated now for already sixty years, Austrian–Japanese relations in these fields have been rooted in a shared interest in the history of Buddhism, as well as a focus on philological research. Among other things, these long-standing contacts led to the establishment in 1999 of the Numata Chair for Buddhist Studies at the University of Vienna. The symposium “Philology, Philosophy and the History of Buddhism”, being generously supported also by the Bukkyō Dendo Kyōkai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), will reflect on the history of Austria–Japan cooperation in research on Buddhist philosophical and religious literature in India and Tibet, present the results of ongoing cooperative projects, and serve as a forum for discussing future plans.

This symposium has been organized jointly by the Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies (University of Vienna) and the Institute for the Cultural and Intellectual History of Asia (Austrian Academy of Sciences). The organizers gratefully acknowledge generous financial support from the Bukkyō Dendo Kyōkai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism). Thanks go also to the Embassy of Japan in Austria for having recognized this symposium as an official anniversary event of “150 Jahre Freundschaft Österreich–Japan.”