Abstract: Five years after the 2010 flash flood, Ladakh has recovered quickly in terms of infrastructures. New buildings have been erected in the same place, communication lines and transportation restored. It almost looks like as if nothing ever happened, but today the slightest sound of thunder and lightning and the unusual amount of rain revives […]
Sponsor: Centre for India and South Asia Research, Himalaya Program, Faculty of Arts Speaker Fund By: Professor Chaitanya Mishra (Department of Sociology, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal) 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 […]
Sponsor: Centre for India and South Asia Research, Himalaya Program, Faculty of Arts Speaker Fund By: Professor Mira Mishra (Department of Women’s Studies, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal) 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 […]
Nepal’s resources, natural as well as human, have good creative potential, but why is this potential not unleashed? In spite of some positive developments in political awareness, why is the leadership everybody wished for lacking? New ideas have been floated and some changes are brought, but instead of a breakthrough these have dismantled policy structures […]
Often translated as ‘the science of healing’ (sowa rigpa), Tibetan medicine is at once a diverse system of healing with ancient roots extending out from the Tibetan Plateau and a modern, globalizing ‘alternative’ therapeutics. The contemporary practice of Tibetan medicine is enmeshed within multiple, and sometimes conflicting, agendas: from the need to conserve medicinal plants […]
Contemporary Tibetan art has recently begun to receive great attention from museums and collectors worldwide. This new development marks an exciting movement within the rich, established lineage of Tibetan art history. Tenzing Rigdol is one of the leading avant-garde artists, producing complex and thought-provoking artwork that are the products of collective influences and interpretations of […]
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. This event is sponsored by the Himalaya Program and […]
In a time of controversy, conflict, and urgency regarding forced migration and refugee populations worldwide, the resettlement of Bhutanese Lhotshampa over the past decade stands as a success story. A large proportion of the refugees in the camps in Nepal has relocated to new homes in North America, Europe and Oceania. While the arrival of the […]
In his talk, Ivan 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. Beginning with his current IDRC-supported “Forest & Wildfire Management Project”, he will also draw on examples –as time permits—from other projects, to illustrate trends, collaboration, competition […]
“On April 25, 2015, Nepal was hit by a devastating earthquake in which 9,000 people lost their lives. At 7.8 on the Richter scale, the quake caused an avalanche of snow, ice and debris that swept away entire villages. One of them was the village of Langtang in the magnificent Langtang Valley, a popular trekking […]
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. After comprehensive analysis, these phenomena arouse our interest: The assertion in the Tang […]
The UBC Himalaya Program invites you to join a 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. The team includes Sundar Prasad Sharma, Mohan Raj Kafle, Dr. Ambika Prasad Gautam, and Gagan Sharma. They will be joined by […]
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 event is hosted in partnership with the Karma Kagyu Association of Canada and Thrangu Monastery to welcome H.H. the Karmapa to the University of British Columbia as part of his […]
Join us for the first Himalaya Program event of the 2017-18 academic year! Nepal has been undergoing a political transition since the end of the Maoist conflict in 2006. This talk will discuss whether this means if the transition is coming to an end, and what the contours of the Nepali state are likely to be in the future.
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—focusing on the literary depictions of these practices in Tibetan literature.
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, and non-fiction, considering what it means to represent Nepal and Tibet in the English-language literary scene.
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.
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 […]
The talk will examine Tibeto-Mongolian relations with a special focus on the issue of Tibetan Buddhist dissemination among the Mongols. Agata Bareja-Starzyńska is the head of the Department of Turkish Studies and Inner Asian Peoples of the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the University of Warsaw.
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. […]
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.
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 limited infrastructure, […]