Events

Upcoming Events

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Past Events

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

  13th Nov 2020 12:30pm 

  Please click here to view the recording of the event. 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 students and emerging scholars...

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

  14th Apr 2020 5:30pm 

  POSTPONED: This event with Daisy Yang has been postponed and will NOT be going ahead on April 14th. We will update this page and send a newsletter to our mailing list once we have confirmed a new date. We apologize for the inconvenience. Young Masculinities: Surveying Kathmandu’s Rapid Growth and its Social Implications A Photo...

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

  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 with Shradha Ghale

  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 with

  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? with Cuilan Liu

  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 with Tsengdok Rinpoche, Patrick Dowd, and Sonam Chusang

  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 with

  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 with Selma K. ("Sam") Sonntag

  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 with Katie Oven

  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 with Pasang Yangjee Sherpa

  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 with the Liu Institute for Global Issues

  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 with Dagmar Schwerk

  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 with Khenpo Choying Dorjee

  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 with Dan Smyer Yü

  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 with Rabi Karmacharya

  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 with Dr. Anne Marie Tietjen

  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 with the Director, Co-presented with Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) & Nepali Cultural Society of BC (NCSBC) 

  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 with Radhika Govindrajan

  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 with Tina Harris

  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 with Saori Ogura

  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 with Mati Bernabei, Michael Buckley, Pitman Potter, Kunchok Yaklha

  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 with Agata Bareja-Starzyńska

  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 with Jeremy Spoon

  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 with Losang Rabgey

  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 with David Citrin, Carol-Ann Courneya, David Dunne, Cathy Ellis, Maya Magarati, and Rina Pradhan

  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 with

  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 with Ben Wood

  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 with Visiting Scholars: Jeevan Baniya, Subin Mulmi, Dinesh Paudel, and Deepak Thapa

  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? with Deepak Thapa

  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” with Dr. Wade Davis in Conversation with H.H. the 17th Gyalwang Karmapa

  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 with the Nepal Forest & Wildfire Management Project

  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  with Li Yongxian

  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’ with

  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 with Ivan Somlai

  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 with Pablo Bose

  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​ with Omer Aijazi, Kia Dullemond, Armaan Malhotra, Dhondup Tashi Rekjong, Bendi Tso / Yujie Ji

  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 with Mr. Moti Lal Nepali and Dr. Drona Prakash Rasali

  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 with Tenzing Rigdol

  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 with Sienna Craig, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College

  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 with Diwakar Acharya, Spalding Professor of Eastern Religion and Ethics, Oxford University

  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 with the UBC Himalaya Program and the Curator for Asia at the Museum of Anthropology

  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 with Dr. Mira Mishra

  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 with Dr. Chaitanya Mishra

  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 with Dr. Nancy Chin

  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 with Dr. Georgina Drew

  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.