Sacred Topography and Cultural Transfers in the Himalayas

May 15, 2013
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Sacred Topography and Cultural Transfers in the Himalayas Symposium University of Vienna, Department of South Asian, Tibetan and Buddhist Studies, Seminar Room 1 24-25 May 2013 (Organization: Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dieter Mathes) This symposium is part of the larger research project (or “doctoral college” / Initiativkolleg) “Cultural Transfers and Cross-Contacts in the Himalayan Borderlands” (CIRDIS) which brings together several faculties (spanning the humanities,...
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Doctoral students workshop in Tibetan studies

May 14, 2013
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The French Society for Tibetan Studies (Société Française d’Études du Monde Tibétain / SFEMT, founded in 2012) is pleased to announce its first Doctoral students workshop in Tibetan studies (organized with support from the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales / INALCO). This event will take place on Friday, 17 May 2013 at...
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Incompleteness in Yi writings

March 7, 2013
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Incompleteness in Yi writings China officially numbers fifty-five “minority nationalities” (shaoshu minzu 少数民族)—an expression often inappropriately translated as “national minorities” and wrongly regarded as “ethnic groups”. One of these is the “Yi nationality” (Yizu 彝族), ranked first among the country’s Tibeto-Burman speaking populations with about eight million people. Some of the branches of this group (which might be...
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Changing forms of religion as an indicator of current transformations in Nepal

August 16, 2012
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Changing forms of religion as an indicator of current transformations in Nepal When carefully considered, the motto of “let’s be happy” seems rather appropriate to the current Nepali situation. Political failure, disillusionment with politics, power cuts, a shortage of so many basic necessities, an economic crisis, exodus of the population to foreign countries, severe ecological degradation, repeated bandas—the list of acute problems faced by the Nepali...
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Les minorités de Chine à l’exposition universelle de Shanghai

March 20, 2012
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Les minorités de Chine à l’exposition universelle de Shanghai Par le biais de l’exposition universelle organisée à Shanghai en 2010 sur le thème : « Better city, better life » (chengshi rang shenghuo geng mei hao 城市让生活更美好), la Chine a montré comment elle conçoit l’ « universel » en appliquant aux pays étrangers des concepts ancestraux propres à sa culture. Elle appréhende et...
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Money and butter: On participation in optional rituals

March 11, 2012
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Khyung-gön temple during the large Mani ritual, February 2011 (click to enlarge) In his study of the rituals of Newar Buddhism, although he privileges others categories for his analysis, David Gellner points out that “he first and most important distinction for Newar Buddhists is that between obligatory and optional practices”. It has always struck me that this distinction seems much less prominent in Tibetan discourses; however,...
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Quasi-generalized, mostly temporary, monasticism among boys: An uncommon form of Tibetan “mass monasticism”

October 7, 2011
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Quasi-generalized, mostly temporary, monasticism among boys: An uncommon form of Tibetan “mass monasticism” The phrase “mass monasticism” coined by Melvyn Goldstein is by now commonly used by specialists of Tibetan religion. As recently reformulated by Goldstein, it designates a monastic system characterized by “an emphasis on recruiting and sustaining very large numbers of celibate monks for their entire lives”. Such a monastic system has existed in Tibetan...
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Trans-ethnic entities

September 19, 2011
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Trans-ethnic entities To my knowledge, literature devoted to North-East India and the Himalayas makes little mention of either trans-ethnic descent groups or trans-ethnic patronymic groups. Hutton and Mills mention people from distinct Naga tribes who consider they belong to the same clan.1 In the Meghalaya-Assam borderland, Morningkeey Phangcho and myself recently collected a series of data...
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International Symposium: Women as Visionaries, Healers and Poisoners

April 10, 2013
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International Symposium: Women as Visionaries, Healers and Poisoners Women as Visionaries, Healers and Poisoners Autnomous Female Religious Specialists in Tibet, the Himalayas and Inner Asia May 3-5, 2013 Central Asian Seminar, Institute for Asian and African Stdies, Humboldt University Berlin This workshop will focus on autonomous female religious specialists as social beings within and/or outside of family, household, kinship group and community...
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Comparative anthropology of Buddhism workshop 3

April 4, 2013
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Comparative anthropology of Buddhism workshop 3 Organized as a collaboration between the Centre of Himalayan Studies and the Southeast Asia Centre units of the French CNRS, a series of day-long thematic workshops in the comparative anthropology of Buddhism are held in Paris this year (2012-2013). The third workshop (Spring 2013) will be held on Friday, April 12. Its theme is:...
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Faculty position in Tibetan at INALCO, Paris

March 1, 2013
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Faculty position in Tibetan at INALCO, Paris Please note the official announcement: a faculty position (“maître de conférences”) in Tibetan language and civilization is opened at the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (or INALCO) in Paris. The official announcement can be accessed by clicking here (a search for “Langue et civilisation tibétaines” will lead you directly to the exact...
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Postdoc position in Tibetan studies at Oxford

February 13, 2013
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Please note the stipendiary JRF ('Junior Research Fellowship') in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies (Textual sources and material culture) which has just been advertised at Wolfson College, Oxford University: https://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/fellowships


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Conférences ‘Initiation aux arts et à l’archéologie de la Haute-Asie’

January 30, 2013
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Conférences ‘Initiation aux arts et à l’archéologie de la Haute-Asie’ Une maîtrise de conférences intitulée ‘Initiation aux arts et à l’archéologie de la Haute-Asie‘ est ouverte à la IVe section de l’EPHE depuis novembre 2012. Les conférences traitent des interactions culturelles entre les mondes centre-asiatique, indien et tibétain de l’Âge du Bronze à la Seconde Diffusion du Bouddhisme. Elles sont ouvertes aux étudiants à...
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International Seminar: The Himalayan Impasse

January 13, 2013
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The interdisciplinary symposium, organized by the Dept. for Mongolian and Tibetan Studies of the University of Bonn, Germany, and sponsored by Fritz Thyssen Stiftung, will retrace how most of the South Himalayan region, once a vibrant hub between South, Central and East Asia became a dead end at the fringe of modern nation states....
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Comparative anthropology of Buddhism workshop 2

January 8, 2013
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Comparative anthropology of Buddhism workshop 2 Organized as a collaboration between the Centre of Himalayan Studies and the Southeast Asia Centre units of the French CNRS, a series of day-long thematic workshops in the comparative anthropology of Buddhism are held in Paris this year (2012-2013). The second workshop (Winter 2012-13) will be held on Friday, January 25. Its theme is:...
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Through the Lens of Law: Power and Society in India

December 31, 2012
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Through the Lens of Law: Power and Society in India International Workshop The Just-India programme, which has been funded for four years by the ANR, will hold its last International Workshop in Paris, on January 7-8, 2013. For anthropologists as well as for historians, law practices and their discursive productions provide a way of studying tensions between lofty ideals such as neutrality, objectivity, equality,...
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The Tulku Institution in Tibetan Buddhism

December 6, 2012
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The Tulku Institution in Tibetan Buddhism: Past, Present and Future Prospects of the Reincarnation System The Himalayan Studies Program and Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of San Francisco are hosting a symposium on the Tibetan reincarnation system at USF on February 15-16, 2013. Below is the program for the symposium. We invite...
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Comparative anthropology of Buddhism workshop

November 19, 2012
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Comparative anthropology of Buddhism workshop Organized as a collaboration between the Centre of Himalayan Studies and the Southeast Asia Centre units of the French CNRS, a series of day-long thematic workshops in the comparative anthropology of Buddhism will be held in Paris this year (2012-2013). The first workshop (Fall 2012) will be held on Friday, November 23. Its theme...
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