Research on Tibet by Olena Ohnieva: Art History and Textual Studies

The article deals with the scientific biography and achievements of Olena Dmytrivna Ohnieva, a leading researcher of Tibetan civilisation in Ukraine. Ohnieva continued the scientific work of her famous teachers B. I. Kuznetsov, B. I. Pankratov, and G. M. Bongard-Levin, the representatives of the Soviet Tibetan school of Leningrad and Moscow in the second half of the 20th century. She conducted research in the field of textual studies and art history, proving the need for a comprehensive study of the iconographic and iconometric foundations of religious painting in Tibet on the basis of classical texts. Ohnieva has developed her own style of studying and reading the subjects of Tibetan thangka paintings that contain many symbols, knowledge and information about the painting tradition, Buddhism, history and ethnicity of Tibet. Armed with this knowledge and methods, she was able to research and provide detailed descriptions of numerous works of fine art from Central Asia, not only of Tibetan origin, but also the art of regions that were influenced by Tibet through the spread of Buddhism. She researched the biographies of famous religious figures of medieval Tibet who laid the foundations of traditional painting theory. During different periods of her life, she also acted as a translator and researcher of Tibetan religious texts, and proved herself to be a populariser of Tibetan culture. For more than a quarter of a century Ohnieva had been working on search and description of original Tibetan materials in Ukrainian museums. Thus she made an invaluable contribution to the development of oriental studies in Ukraine. Her studies of museum collections became basis for organising exhibitions that had granted many people the opportunity to get acquainted with the tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the culture of the peoples of Asia.