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Prof. Dr. Imre Hamar Delivers His Inaugural Academic Lecture

2025. October 13.

Prof. Dr. Imre Hamar, Rector’s Commissioner for Asian Relations at ELTE, Director of the ELTE Faculty of Humanities Institute of East Asian Studies and the ELTE Confucius Institute, and full professor, delivered his inaugural academic lecture on October 13, 2025.


The ceremonial event was held in the Reading Hall of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and was chaired by Prof. Dr. Balázs Borsos, anthropologist and member of the Academy. Following his welcome address, he read the laudation by Prof. Dr. István Vásáry, Turkolo-gist and full member of the Academy.


In his laudation, Prof. Vásáry emphasized that Imre Hamar is an outstanding and interna-tionally recognized scholar in both sinology and buddhology. He highlighted that, in addi-tion to Hamar’s significant scholarly contributions to Hungarian sinology and Buddhist studi-es, his decades-long leadership and teaching work as Director of the ELTE Institute of East Asian Studies have also played a major role in the development of these fields in Hungary.

Following the laudation, Prof. Hamar addressed the audience and expressed his gratitude to his family, teachers, colleagues, and collaborators who have greatly contributed to his profes-sional achievements. He also paid tribute to the pioneering Hungarian scholars who laid the foundations of Chinese studies in Hungary and from whose intellectual legacy he himself be-nefited during his university years at ELTE. He further thanked the sinologist professors from whom he learned during his years of study abroad and who continued to support his academic career.

Prof. Hamar then presented his inaugural lecture entitled “The Sinicization of Buddhism: Exegesis and Meditation in Huayan Buddhism”, in which he summarized his research find-ings on the textual traditions of Huayan Buddhism, a Buddhist school that emerged in China in the 7th century CE.


In the first part of the four-part lecture, Prof. Hamar discussed the concept of sinicization, referring to the process by which Buddhism, as a foreign religion arriving in China, gradually incorporated traditional Chinese elements in order to meet the cultural expectations of local practitioners. The second part examined the origins, textual versions, and translations of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, one of the most important sources of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The third section, entitled “Buddhist Exegesis,” introduced the various forms and characteristics of Buddhist commentaries, methods of textual interpretation, and structural issues of Buddhist texts, while also outlining the key philosophical concepts of the Huayan school. The final part of the lecture focused on the theory and practice of Huayan meditation.


Imre Hamar was elected a corresponding member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at its 199th General Assembly on May 7, 2025. His nomination was supported by full mem-bers of the Section of Linguistics and Literary Studies: István Kenesei, László Kósa, Attila Paládi-Kovács, András Róna-Tas, and István Vásáry.

Further details about the event can be found at: https://www.konfuciuszintezet.hu/index.php?menu=hirek&almenu=404&lang=hu


The full recording of the inaugural lecture is available at the following link:


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