As HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies, celebrates its 52nd year, we are thrilled to present Volume 43, Issue 2, Autumn 2024. This issue is especially notable because it features the unique collection ‘Himalayan Flashes: Regional Ethnography in Short Form’, co-edited by Sienna R. Craig and Carole McGranahan. The collection emerges from a new wave of ethnographic writing that values brevity without sacrificing depth or nuance. Curated from sessions at leading conferences, these flash ethnographies offer powerful glimpses into the social and cultural landscapes of the Himalayan region, spanning from Nepal’s highlands to urban environments in the United States. Despite their concise format, these essays resonate with rich insights, making this issue a landmark in the journal’s history and in the broader field of Himalayan studies. This issue also carries five research articles, one photo essay, one conference report, and one film and two book reviews.

⭐️ *Deadline of August 30 is Fast Approaching*
ANHS-Himalaya is accepting applications for the 2024 Dor Bahadur Bista Prize for the Best Graduate Student Paper. For details: https://anhs-himalaya.org/awards/bista-prize

ANHS congratulates the winners of the 2024 ANHS Himalayan Studies Fellowships. In this cycle, we awarded one post-PhD Fellowship ($4500) and one pre-PhD Fellowship ($4500) in Himalayan Studies funded by the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). We're also proud to support one pre-PhD Fellowship ($4500) from our own operational budget.

Learn more at: https://anhs-himalaya.org/fellowship/past_winners

We will announce the next 2025 cycle in 2024 Fall session with the target deadline of February 2025. Stay tuned.

Through the Himalayan Studies Fellowships, ANHS support research or other scholarly projects that will advance knowledge of the Himalayan region and support the broad mission of this organization dedicated to Nepal and Himalayan Studies.

The James Fisher Prize for First Books on the Himalayan Region honors the scholarly contributions of Dr. James Fisher to scholarship on the region. The prize will recognize an outstanding first book on the Himalayan region.

Winner of the 2023 ANHS James Fisher Book Prize is:

Alison Melnick Dyer

Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Bates College

For her book:

The Tibetan Nun Mingyur Peldron: A Woman of Power and privilege. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022.

This book tells the remarkable story of Mingyur Peldron, nun and teacher at Mindrolling Monastery in Central Tibet during the 18th century flourishing of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism. The primary source informing the account is the namtar, devotional life history, written by one of Mingyur Peldron’s disciples. Historian Alison Melnick Dyer interprets Mingyur Peldron’s namtar in relation to myriad supplementary archival materials to create an extraordinary account of how women exercise authority in the context of Tibetan Buddhist monastic life. The translations are beautifully rendered and the analysis of Peldron’s teaching and leadership offers novel insights on gender dynamics at the heart of Tibetan Buddhism.

ANHS is acknowledging as the 2023 honorary mention:

Kyle J. Gardner,

For his book:

The Frontier Complex: Geopolitics and the Making of the India-China Border, 1846-1962. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.

The Frontier Complex powerfully documents the making of Ladakh’s northern border by colonial British administrators, geographers, and frontier "experts". Repeated border-making attempts slowly transformed the space of Ladakh from a market crossroads to a security zone serving a crucial role in the formation of the British imperial frontier. In fact, however, the application of 19th-century imperial geographic science failed to yield clear demarcations of territory—a legacy bequeathed to the postcolonial Indian state. The failure by British colonialists to create a suitable border manifests today in India’s 21st-century border disputes with China and Nepal. Drawing on a vast range of archival materials in multiple languages, historian Kyle J. Gardner furnishes a conception of geopolitics rooted in the politics of space that can inform a critical understanding of contested postcolonial borderlands across the Himalayas and beyond.

ANHS is pleased to announce its annual Himalayan Studies Fellowships. These awards support research or other scholarly projects that will advance knowledge of the Himalayan region and support the broad mission of ANHS:

To promote research, teaching, and outreach activities to increase the understanding of the Himalaya and adjacent mountain regions and to promote scholarly exchanges between the United States and citizens of countries in the region.

All ANHS Himalayan Studies Fellowship applicants must be active members of the ANHS or scholars affiliated with an ANHS institutional member.

Deadline: 01 March, 2024 (11:59 PM US Pacific Time) with an anticipated award date of 01 April, 2024.

Details available at: https://anhs-himalaya.org/awards/HSfellowship/2024 

We are very pleased to introduce a second special issue of HIMALAYA in 2023, in this instance titled “Writing with Care: Ethnographies from the Margins of Tibet and the Himalayas”. Curated by guest editors Harmandeep Kaur Gill and Theresia Hofer, this issue is an important contribution to a relatively recent, more conscious, effort to diversify and deepen the discourse within area studies, emphasising the voices and perspectives of ordinary people, and especially of those living at the margins of mainstream society.

The guest editors have brought together a collection that challenges and rearticulates social categories like gender, class, and disability. They emphasize the need to look beyond fixed generalizations and to embrace the complexities and contradictions of individual lives. This approach, rooted in feminist and decolonial methodologies, not only enriches our academic understanding but also connects us more deeply with the human aspects of the subjects we study. Writing with care, as the guest editors put, is to ‘enable the reader to connect with people as individual personalities and not merely as members of social and third-person categories.’

We are delighted to present this special issue, Vol. 42.2.,guest edited by Stephen Christopher and Peter Phillimore, focusing on the Gaddi community of the Western Himalayas. This volume brings together anthropologists from various generations and a historian, presenting a myriad of perspectives on Gaddis that offer insights into changes in their identity, beliefs, marital customs, politics, and livelihoods. We are confident that researchers across the Himalayas will find this compilation beneficial, aiding in discussions on identity, politics, belonging, and livelihoods of other tribal and mountain groups. The editors of this Special Issue note a scarcity of research on Gaddis, especially conducted by Gaddis themselves. However, they anticipate Gaddi social scientists will produce scholarship from their own perspectives in the near future. 

Special Issue Cover Image:

Reeta Purhaan, a Gaddi folk singer, participating in the 2020 #challengeaccepted social media campaign of women posting black-and-white selfies to show global solidarity. In 2023, Reeta began a PhD at The Central University of Punjab. 

It is our pleasure to introduce the first issue of HIMALAYA’s 42nd volume! It features two short pieces by Jacki Betsworth and Terri Fishel reflecting in what we might call its ‘golden decade’ at Macalester College (2009-2019). In our research articles section, Arjun Guneratne navigates the "Fate of a Text" amidst change, while Aditya Kiran Kakati scrutinises the "Elephant in the Room". The joint piece by Zezhou Yang and Tianyi Chen provides intriguing insights into transcultural trajectories of Arniko. In "Buddhist Values as Legal Values in the Constitution of Bhutan" Michaela Windischgraetz explores the relationship between national legal order and Buddhism in Bhutan. Sofie Dalum Kjærgaard and Sarmila Chaudhary offers insights on how the Nepali government’s focus on the politics of controlling the Covid-19 pandemic in Nepal. Vineet Gairola and Shubha Ranganathan explore in their article and accompanying photo essay the history and transition of worshiping practices in the Garhwal Himalaya. The photo essay by Oinam Premchand Singh documents the extant craft of cord-marked pottery in the hills of northeastern India. Thank you for reading HIMALAYA! 

The Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies (ANHS) is pleased to announce its annual Himalayan Studies Fellowships for the support of short-term research or other scholarly projects that will advance knowledge of the Himalaya-Karakoram-Hindukush regions. Projects may be from any scholarly discipline, addressing any aspect of Himalayan Studies.

The ANHS offers two $1500 fellowships, one for pre-PhD students and one for scholars who have earned their PhD. Applicants for the pre-PhD fellowship must provide documentation that they are an enrolled graduate or professional student in good standing with their institution. Applicants for the post-PhD fellowship must hold a PhD or equivalent terminal professional degree by the time of submission. The application deadline is 15 February, 2023 with an anticipated award date of 15 March, 2023.

All Himalayan Research Fellowship applicants must be active members of the ANHS or scholars affiliated with an ANHS institutional member. The fellowship is open to all individuals regardless of citizenship. The awarded fellows will be responsible for obtaining visa and research permission as necessary.

Applicants should provide the following:

1. A current CV
2. Research or project proposal that should include the following:
   • Title
   • A 250-word abstract of the research or project, suitable for use on the ANHS website
   • A 1500-word statement describing the nature of the proposed research or project, including the discipline(s) to which it speaks, methodologies used, and contribution it will make to Himalayan studies
   • Location(s) where the research or project will be conducted and timeline for conducting the research
   • Budget with allowable expenses: economy class travel, food & lodging, visa expenses. Please also note any other grant applications submitted or received which will be used to support this work.
   • Proof of student status (for pre-PhD awards) or postdoctoral / professional status (for post-PhD awards)

All application material should be sent electronically to Chair, Himalayan Research Fellowship Award: fellowships@anhs-himalaya.org

Research or projects funded by this Himalayan Studies Fellowship must be completed and a final summary report of 1000 words must be submitted by January 1, 2024. This final report should be suitable for online publication; it, together with the submission of a brief budgetary accounting, will be kept as part of ANHS’s institutional records. Any requests for no-cost extensions of a Himalayan Studies Fellowship will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

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More about the Himalayan Studies Fellowships

ANHS is now accepting applications for the 2023 Dor Bahadur Bista Pirze for the Best Graduate Student Paper. This prize recognizes outstanding scholarship by graduate student who research focuses on the Himalayan region. Deadline is July 30, 2023. Learn more at the Bista Prize section on our website.

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Learn more about the Dor Bahadur Bista Prize