Events

Upcoming Events

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    Past Events

     

    • We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies: Book Launch Event with Tsering Yangzom Lama

      19th May 2022 5:00pm 

      This event will be both an in-person event with refreshments provided, and a livestream of the in-person event.  The in-person event will be following the University of British Columbia and provincial health guidelines at the time. Please specify whether you will be attending the in-person event or watching the livestream by registering under the appropriate...

    • Reconnecting to the Himalaya: Connection and Conflict, A Roundtable Discussion with UBC Graduate Students

      28th Mar 2022 5:30pm 

      Please register on Eventbrite here: https://bit.ly/3ttSAJg This event is currently scheduled to happen in-person, and is subject to change depending on UBC and British Columbia health guidelines. Refreshments will be provided. How do students from the Himalayan region reflect on their experience of knowledge acquisition and their changing positionalities in Western academia? Drawing on a...

    • Gender in Himalayan Buddhism: Glacial Shifts in Attitudes and Institutions

      7th Mar 2022 6:00pm 

      Join us in the Inaugural UBC Himalaya Program Annual Lecture! The recording of the event is available here: https://youtu.be/xPVPqXBj36I The very mention of Himalayan Buddhism conjures visions of an exotic tradition. A gong reverberating amidst resonant baritone voices. A red-robed monk gliding serenely off into the sunset. Delightful young acolytes giggling and blowing bubbles. But...

    • Making Markets and Valuing Natures in a Himalayan ‘Frontier’

      16th Feb 2022 6:00pm 

      The recording of the event is now available here: https://youtu.be/xwb7FH68uC0 Popular representations of Nepal’s Jumla district have undergone a significant shift over the last decade. Long characterized as economically backward, unproductive and food scarce, the mountainous district is today celebrated as a site of newfound ‘green’ value. Jumla’s largely chemical-free, biodiverse agroecologies have been reframed...

    • RESCHEDULED: Gender Justice in Nepal: Political Power and Dignified Menstruation

      26th Jan 2022 6:00pm 

      This event has been rescheduled to Wednesday, January 26, 2022 from 6:00 to 7:30 pm PST (Thursday, January 27, 2022 from 7:45 to 9:15 am Nepal Standard Time). To view the recording of the event, please visit the following link: https://youtu.be/wZqH-m_474g Join us in conversation with trade unionist and member of the Federal Parliament of...

    • Welcome Back Virtual Reception

      22nd Sep 2021 5:30am 

      Please click on the following link to view the recording of the event’s introduction and a musical performance by Vancouver-based Tibetan music group Lhaksam Metok: https://youtu.be/IAIFSsFKYUE In lieu of an in-person reception, the UBC Himalaya Program is hosting an informal virtual get together for all UBC faculty, staff, and students who are interested in and/or...

    • Responding with Care: Tibetan Community Experiences of COVID-19 in Canada

      30th Mar 2021 3:00pm 

      Please go to the following link to view the recording of this event: https://youtu.be/HA_O5Vl6VSo Marking one year since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, the UBC Himalaya Program is hosting a virtual roundtable discussion with four members of the Tibetan-Canadian community to reflect on how they have responded with care to the pandemic. Date: Tuesday, March...

    • The Becoming: a photo story of young working class masculinities in Nepal

      26th Feb 2021 5:00pm 

      Please go to the following link to view the recording of this event: https://youtu.be/HA_O5Vl6VSo This virtual event will be held on Zoom. All registered participants will receive a Zoom link one week before the event. Please join us for the next Himalaya Program virtual event! Daisy Yang will share her work with us in this...

    • Himalayan Research in the time of COVID-19: Views from Canada

      13th Nov 2020 12:30pm 

      Please go to the following link to view the recording of the event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8pat296YeU&ab_channel=UBCHimalayaProgram. The event will be held on Zoom. Please register for the event here. The Zoom link will be emailed to you one week before the event. Himalayan Research in the time of COVID-19: Views from Canada Featuring a panel of graduate...

    • POSTPONED: Young Masculinities: Surveying Kathmandu’s Rapid Growth and its Social Implications

      14th Apr 2020 5:30pm 

      RESCHEDULED: This event was postponed and will be happening instead on February 26, 2021. For details about the rescheduled event, please click here. Young Masculinities: Surveying Kathmandu’s Rapid Growth and its Social Implications A Photo Project by Daisy Yang, Independent Documentary Photographer Groups of young men come flocking into the burgeoning Himalayan metropolis of Kathmandu...

    • POSTPONED: Improving Educational Opportunities for Ordained Tibetan Women: A Thirty Year Project

      12th Mar 2020 5:30pm 

      POSTPONED: This event with Elizabeth Napper will be rescheduled at a later date. We will update this page once a future date has been decided. We apologize for the inconvenience. Abstract The Tibetan Nuns Project was founded in 1987 and became active in 1990. Over the years we were able to encourage nunneries of all...

    • Parks vs People: An Unresolved Conflict in Nepal

      14th Jan 2020 5:30pm 

      Parks vs People: An Unresolved Conflict in Nepal A talk by Shradha Ghale, Journalist At a time when biodiversity loss threatens humanity, few can deny the importance of protecting forests and wildlife. But what measures are being used to achieve the goal of conservation and how do they affect people at the margins? This talk...

    • Infrastructures of Occupation: Dams, Development, and the Politics of Integration in Kashmir

      25th Nov 2019 5:00pm 

      Dr. Mona Bhan, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Syracuse University, will be giving a talk that analyzes the relationship between dam building, border wars, and India’s settler colonial politics in Kashmir, particularly in the aftermath of the removal of Articles 370 and 35A that maintained Kashmir’s semi-autonomous status in the Indian union. Dr. Bhan will...

    • Clerical Privileges and the Jurisdiction of the Buddhist Clergy: Do They Exist?

      15th Nov 2019 5:00pm 

      Abstract The demarcation and maintenance of jurisdictional boundaries between religious institutions and lay society have been at the center of the conflict between religion and the state since the formation of early Buddhism. Drawing on cases presented in Buddhist legal texts (Vinaya) from six different traditions preserved in Sanskrit, Pāli, Chinese, and Tibetan, Cuilan Liu...

    • Exhibition Opening and Reception: Golden Letters Arrayed Like Stars and Planets: The Tibetan Culture of Language and Letters

      15th Oct 2019 6:00pm 

      Abstract Tibetans regard every syllable of their language as sacred, imbued with the power to liberate beings from suffering. The Tibetan religious corpus is among the vastest of any literatures in history and the sheer reverence with which Tibetans hold their language has been a defining characteristic of this civilization on the world’s highest plateau....

    • Book Launch: The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya

      20th Sep 2019 3:00pm 

      Join us for the launch of The Politics of Language Contact in the Himalaya, a volume co-edited by Wall Scholar Mark Turin and Political Scientist Selma K. Sonntag. The launch event, generously hosted by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC, will feature introductory comments from editors Selma Sonntag and Mark Turin, a...

    • Language Politics and Policy in South Asia and the Himalaya

      19th Sep 2019 5:30pm 

      On September 19th, join the UBC Himalaya Program in welcoming Selma K. (“Sam”) Sonntag to UBC campus for a talk on Language Politics and Policy in South Asia and the Himalaya. This event is Co-Sponsored by the UBC Himalaya Program, UBC Language Sciences, the Centre for India and South Asia Research, the Department of Anthropology,...

    • “Is it safe to rebuild the gumba?” The politics and practice of landslide risk management in post-earthquake Nepal

      14th May 2019 5:00pm 

      This event is co-sponsored by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies, the Institute of Asian Research, and the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs. Abstract Landslides are a pervasive hazard in rural Nepal, where the impacts are manifest in very tangible ways: as a chronic threat to both lives and livelihoods; and via...

    • Sacred Himalaya in the Anthropocene

      25th Apr 2019 5:00pm 

      This event is a Green College Special Lecture that is co-sponsored by the Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies, the UBC Himalaya Program, and the UBC Department of Anthropology. Abstract Drawing from posthumanist, decolonial and Indigenous literature, this lecture addresses the concept of the Anthropocene in relation to sacred Himalayan landscapes to explore competing understandings of...

    • Lobby Gallery Closing Reception: Belonging, Transformation, and Ethnographic Predicaments in Nepal’s Himalaya

      23rd Apr 2019 5:30pm 

      Please RSVP Please mark your calendars for a Lobby Gallery closing reception with one of the artists, Emily Amburgey (PhD Student, Anthropology, UBC), who will be sharing more information about the project. Special guests, Dr. Mark Turin (Associate Professor of Anthropology & Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies (UBC) and Dr. Pasang Yanjee Sherpa (Anthropologist, affiliated...

    • Carrying a Basket of Gold: A Historical Reflection on Buddhist Concepts and Ethics in Bhutan

      18th Mar 2019 5:30pm 

      This talk is co-sponsored with the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society, UBC Department of Asian Studies, and Khyentse Foundation. Abstract What lies behind the idea and policies of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in Bhutan and how have Buddhist concepts and ethics been implemented on an institutional level in past...

    • Monasteries as Home: Facing Challenges of Modernization in Tibetan Monastic Education and Leadership

      25th Feb 2019 5:30pm 

      This talk is co-sponsored with the Khyentse Foundation, Siddhartha’s Intent, and the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhism and Contemporary Society. Abstract For well over 500 years in Tibet, the Buddhist monasteries stood at the center of Tibetan cultural, spiritual, artistic, economic and political life. Now, with many Tibetan monasteries relocated to India...

    • A Sino-Tibetan Buddhist Modernism: Religious Marketplace, Constellative Networking and Urbanism

      11th Feb 2019 5:30pm 

      Abstract As an increasing number of Tibetan lamas reach out to non-Tibetan populations in contemporary China, Tibetan Buddhism is undergoing various transformations especially in urban settings. As its engagement with many aspects of the Chinese society, such as higher education, social morality, philanthropy, environmental conservation, and modern science, the pattern of its transregional and trans-ethnic...

    • Quality Education and the Role of Digital Technology in Nepal

      17th Jan 2019 5:00pm 

      The talk is available to view online here. This talk is co-sponsored with the Centre for India & South Asia Research (CISAR), the Department of Language and Literacy Education (LLED), UBC Language Sciences, and the Nepal Library Foundation. Abstract Technological innovations have revolutionized the ways we communicate, exchange knowledge and ideas, and deliver goods and...

    • Mental Health in Bhutan: Listening for Bridges

      26th Nov 2018 5:00pm 

        Abstract  Western modes of understanding and treating mental illness arrived in Bhutan in the 1990’s and co-exist with traditional healing approaches based in Buddhism and an adaptation of Tibetan medicine.  In this talk Dr. Tietjen will discuss the state of mental health treatment in Bhutan today. Based on her experience of providing psychotherapy to...

    • Film screening: Deepak Rauniyar’s White Sun (Seto Surya) followed by Q&A

      13th Nov 2018 7:30pm 

      Purchase tickets for this event on the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival website and use the code VIMFF-HIMAL to receive $2 off per ticket – or choose to donate it online to the Nepal Cultural Society of British Columbia! Film Synopsis When his father dies, anti-regime partisan Chandra travels to his remote mountain village after nearly...

    • More-than-Human Democracy: On the Political Lives of Cows, Rivers, Mountains, and Gods in India’s Central Himalaya

      1st Nov 2018 11:30am 

      Abstract: This talk examines the ways in which nonhumans – mountains, rivers, cows, and gods – are drawn into politics as intentional, subjective actors in India. Through an examination of the inclusions and exclusions at the heart of this process, it probes the possibilities and limits of more-than-human democratic politics. About the Speaker: Radhika Govindrajan...

    • Air Pressure: Time and Aviation in Nepal

      12th Oct 2018 5:30pm 

      Event Description  How are aviation workers dealing with the growth of air travel in and out of Nepal? Over the past two decades, the number of aircraft, routes, and mobility has increased. However, air traffic controllers, operations staff, and crew find themselves under considerable pressure to deal with the increasing flow of passengers through a...

    • Himalaya Program Welcome Reception and Photo Exhibition Opening: Life with the Forest in Sikkim

      24th Sep 2018 5:00pm 

      Join the Himalaya Program for a Welcome Reception to mark the beginning of the 2018-2019 academic year and the opening of a photo exhibition by Saori Ogura, a PhD student at UBC Forestry. The reception will be held from 5:00 – 7:00PM in Room 1221, in the Forest Sciences Centre, with the exhibit on show in the...

    • The Canada China Free Trade Agreement and Tibet

      18th May 2018 9:30am 

      Canada Tibet Committee and the UBC Himalaya Program invite you to a Workshop and Discussion Forum exploring human rights implications of the Canada-China Free Trade Agreement, in particular in relation to Tibet. Workshop participants will look at the Canada-China Free Trade Agreement through a human rights lens, with attention to Tibet as a case example....

    • Tibeto-Mongolian Buddhism: A Mongolian Perspective

      26th Mar 2018 6:00pm 

      The talk will examine Tibeto-Mongolian relations with a special focus on the issue of Tibetan Buddhist dissemination among the Mongols. The distinctive features of Buddhist practices in historical and present-day Mongolia will be discussed as well as the religious-political ties which characterize the Tibetan hierocratic system of the Dalai Lamas and which served as a monarchical model in Khalkha Mongolia in 1911 for the 8thJetsundamba. Lastly, the question of labelling...

    • Catastrophe in Context: Household Recoveries from the 2015 Nepal Earthquakes

      5th Mar 2018 6:00pm 

      The 2015 Nepal earthquakes had catastrophic impacts on the lives and property of Himalayan peoples. Join the UBC Himalaya Program as Dr. Spoon discusses his study which focuses on four settlements in two of the hardest hit districts with differing access, aid, and populations. We randomly selected 400 households in these locations and conducted two...

    • Lecture and Tibet Film Screening

      4th Feb 2018 3:30pm 

      The UBC Himalaya Program and the Tibetan Cultural Society of British Columbia (TCSBC) are excited to announce that we will be co-hosting a lecture by Dr. Losang Rabgey, Executive Director of Machik, an organization supporting communities on the Tibetan plateau, and a showing of the award-winning Tibetan documentary “Valley of the Heroes” by filmmaker Kashem...

    • Health Policy in Nepal

      29th Jan 2018 6:00pm 

      Join the UBC Himalaya Program for a roundtable discussion about health policy and practice in Nepal. Medical and public health professionals from UBC, University of Victoria, and the University of Washington explore the challenges and opportunities of working in Nepal, across fields including emergency care, family practice, health education, midwifery, and mental health. RSVP for the...

    • Voices of Contemporary Himalayan Literature: Manjushree Thapa and Tsering Wangmo Dhompa in Conversation

      20th Nov 2017 5:00pm 

      Find the archived video of this event here.  Join us for a conversation with two acclaimed Himalayan authors: Manjushree Thapa and Tsering Wangmo Dhompa! They will be discussing their recently published novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction, considering what it means to represent Nepal and Tibet in the English-language literary scene. Please RSVP for this...

    • Searching for the Right Buddha: Procedures for Locating Incarnations (tulkus) in Tibetan Historical Literature

      16th Oct 2017 5:00pm 

      UBC Himalaya Program is hosting a talk which will consider the topic of incarnate lamas (tulkus)—births of the same awakened consciousness in successive human bodies. It will focus particularly on the practices used to locate subsequent incarnations of deceased Tibetan lamas. These practices involve analyzing prophecies and divinations, as well as evaluating child tulku candidates in a...

    • Reconstruction and State Restructuring in Nepal after 2015: A Community Forum

      17th Sep 2017 2:00pm 

      Please note that this discussion will be held in Nepali, with Q&A to follow. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP for this event here. Parking details: https://lots.impark.com/imp?#details=1,110 Please see directions to the UBC Robson Square Campus here. About the speakers:   Jeevan Baniya is a Researcher at Social Science Baha, a not-for profit research organization in Nepal. He...

    • Nepal’s Prolonged Transition: End in Sight?

      15th Sep 2017 5:30pm 

      Find the archived video of this event here.  Save the date for the first Himalaya Program event of the 2017-18 academic year! Join us for a lecture by Deepak Thapa, director of the Social Science Baha research institute in Kathmandu, and a well-known political analyst and commentator. Nepal has been undergoing a political transition since...

    • “Interconnected – Our Environment and Social (In)equality”

      22nd Jun 2017 3:00pm 

      The UBC Himalaya Program is hosting a dialogue between UBC faculty member Dr. Wade Davis (Department of Anthropology), and H.H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa. The title of this event is “Interconnected – Our Environment and Social (In)equality”. We are pleased to partner with the Karma Kagyu Association of Canada and Thrangu Monastery to welcome H.H....

    • Roundtable Discussion on Environmental Issues in Nepal

      31st May 2017 4:30pm 

      Roundtable with visiting dignitaries from the IDRC-supported Nepal Forest & Wildfire Management Project. These representatives are from the Nepal Department of Forests, Kathmandu Forestry College and the Nepal Forest Fire Management Chapter.

    • Trade between Tibet and the Tang Empire 

      31st Mar 2017 5:00pm 

      Zhemian (Ochre face) was originally an “ethnic description” of the facial makeup practices of the Tibetans, or Tubo, in the Tang History and other Chinese-language historical sources. Across two centuries of Tang-Tibetan interaction, “zhemian” influenced culture in Chang’an and the Central Plains.

    • Film Screening – Kesang Tseten’s ‘Trembling Mountain’

      13th Mar 2017 5:00pm 

      Please join us for a screening of Kesang Tseten's Trembling Mountain. Following the devastating earthquake in Nepal in 2015, Tseten documents the survivors' efforts to rebuild their lives and the numerous physical and financial obstacles they face.

    • The Flow and Ebb of Canadian Development Efforts in Nepal

      27th Feb 2017 5:00pm 

      Ivan Somlai is the Director of ETHNOBUREAUCRATICA and an Associate at the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initiatives at the University of Victoria. In his talk, Somlai will note some complexities, frustrations, and epiphanies arising from work with donor and host governments as he experienced them in development initiatives in Nepal since 1976.

    • At Home in the Green Mountains – Bhutanese Resettlement in Vermont

      6th Feb 2017 5:00pm 

      Pablo Bose, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography and the Director of the Global and Regional Studies Program at the University of Vermont. He is also the editor of Urban Geography (Urban Pulse Series).

    • Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Roundtable Discussion: Himalayan Research at UBC​

      23rd Jan 2017 5:00pm 

      This event is an interdisciplinary roundtable discussion featuring the research of several UBC graduate students. With participants from Humanities, Social Sciences, and Medicine, the roundtable will initiate conversations across disciplines and showcase exciting projects focusing on the Himalayan region from across the university. Stay tuned for further details! Discussion begins at 5pm.

    • Symposium and Film on Dalit Issues in Nepal

      22nd Dec 2016 4:30pm 

      Mr. Moti Lal Nepali, a Dalit activist from Nepal, will give a talk about the socio-political status of Dalits in Nepal. A short film, Yash Kumar’s Bato Muniko Phool – the Prologue (Flowers Under the Path – the Prologue), will be screened, revealing the daily struggles of Dalits in Nepali villages today. Dr. Drona Rasali will explain Nepaldalitinfo Network’s role in fostering awareness of Dalit issues in Nepal. Talk starts 4:30.

    • Artist’s Talk on Contemporary Tibetan Art

      1st Dec 2016 5:00pm 

      Tenzing Rigdol is a leading contemporary Tibetan artist and activist, born in Kathmandu, Nepal in 1982 to Tibetan refugee parents. Rigdol’s work has been exhibited in important galleries and museums in Europe and North America, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This event is sponsored by the Himalaya Program, the Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program, and the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory.

    • The Science of Healing: Tibetan Medicine as Local Practice, National Heritage, and Global Brand

      7th Nov 2016 5:00pm 

      This talk engages these points of tension, discussing how Tibetan medicine remains at once a crucial form of local health care across Tibetan communities, a manifestation of national identity, and, increasingly, a globally available form of ‘traditional’ medicine in the 21st century. This event is sponsored by the Himalaya Program, the Contemporary Tibetan Studies Program, and the Department of Anthropology.

    • Nationalism, dogmatism, and what more: the crisis of vision in Nepali society

      22nd Sep 2016 4:00pm 

      Diwakar Acharya's talk will tackle the questions of why the creative potential of Nepal’s resources, natural as well as human, is not unleashed, and why In spite of some positive outcome of political awareness, the leadership everybody wished for is still lacking. This event is sponsored by the Himalaya Program, the Centre for Indian and South Asian Research, and the Department of Asian Studies. Reception at 4, talk starts 4:30.

    • UBC Himalaya Program Launch Reception

      29th Apr 2016 5:00pm 

      Please join the UBC Himalaya Program and the Curator for Asia at the Museum of Anthropology for a reception to celebrate the launch of the Himalaya Program at UBC.

    • Changing Experience and Interpretation of Menstruation in Nepal: An Intergenerational Perspective

      28th Apr 2016 12:30pm 

      This presentation seeks to explore changes in the lives of women in Nepal, including women’s self image, gender role and the relations between women and men during the last 50 years. It focuses on menstruation, which is a key dimension of gender and womanhood. This paper then relates such transition to the changing socio-economic processes and argues that a new womanhood is in the making in Nepal. Light lunch served.

    • The Democratic Transition in Nepal

      26th Apr 2016 3:00pm 

      What are the causes and correlates of democracy? The presentation will begin by reviewing key theories of democracy, corresponding to the three waves of democratization in world history. It will then describe specific and evolving political and economic features, which were associated with the republican and democratic turn in Nepal in 2006. Among others, it will review the significance of capitalism, changes in the mode of generation of livelihood, nature of the peasantry, de-ruralization, class structure, post-1990 political structure, the Maoist ‘people’s war’ as well as the role of India and other countries in the 2006 democratic turn. It will argue that the Nepal case has specific lessons for broader theories of democracy.

    • Five Years after the Ladakh Flood: At the Intersections of Coping, Adaptation and Re-Experienced Trauma

      30th Mar 2016 5:00pm 

      We're asking if coping strategies of 2010 eroded the foundation for adaptation today, using in-depth interviews as well as narratives from flood survivors, community leaders and students away from home who experienced disaster “secondhand” through extensive media coverage.

    • Memories of Trust Broken: Representation, Fragmentation, and the Cultural Politics of Environmental Activism in India

      18th Jan 2016 12:30pm 

      This discussion examines critical issues of distrust in social movements as a means to better understand struggles for social and environmental change. Co-sponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the Centre for India and South Asia Research.