Conference on Nepal’s Transcultural Histories and Foreign Relations at Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, 27–28 May 2024
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1The conference ‘A Yam between Two Rocks: Transcultural histories of Nepal’s relations with India, China and Tibet’ was held on 27–28 May 2024 at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the Heidelberg Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies at Heidelberg University. Jointly organised by the research unit Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal (Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities), and the Nepal Heritage Documentation Project (Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities), the conference explored transculturality in the Nepalese context – a key theme in the scholarly oeuvre of Axel Michaels, whom the event honoured on the occasion of his 75th birthday.
2The first panel highlighted diverse perspectives on the relations between Nepal, Tibet, and China from the eighteenth to the twentieth century, a period marked by conflict and turbulence. Based on Nepalese documents from the Sino-Gorkha War (1791–1792), Michaels (Heidelberg) scrutinised Nepal’s position in the conflict, criticising conventional Eurocentric models of analysing international relations. Franz Xaver Erhard (Leipzig) revisited Doring Tenzing Paljor’s memoirs to focus on the Tibetan perspective of the Tibet-Gorkha War (1790–1792). A Tibetan aristocrat closely involved in the negotiation process, Paljor witnessed the events from the perspective of a political hostage in Kathmandu, offering an opportunity to untangle the often biased and incomplete nature of the conflict’s accounts from the parties involved. Ayushman Baruah (Toronto) challenged the primary scholarly focus on Nepal’s state-building strategy as an ongoing balance between India and China by focusing on the strong Gorkhali presence in Tibet between 1855 and 1930. His analysis depicts the Gorkhali mercantile and administrative activities in Tibet as an attempt to build an informal empire. With the example of the ‘Gyalpo Affair’ (1928–1929), which almost escalated into war, Amish Raj Mulmi (Kathmandu) examined the complex interactions between Nepalese traders in Lhasa and Tibet, the British authorities’ involvement in the mediating process between Kathmandu and Lhasa, and Nepal’s deferral to British India regarding its relations with Tibet. Zezhou Yang (London) rounded off the panel with an analysis of Nepal-China relations in the first half of the twentieth century based on Chinese journalistic texts. Overshadowed by monumental events in both countries, he argued that the period between 1910 and 1940 was pivotal in understanding how Chinese intellectuals perceived Nepal’s relations with China.
3The second panel’s overarching topic was trans-regional and transcultural encounters in material culture and religion. Niels Gutschow (Heidelberg) traced the journey of the acanthus leaf as an architectural motif from Corinthian capitals to the Kathmandu Valley. Christian Luczanits (London) provided insights into the Mustang monastery collections, the items of which bear witness to far-reaching trans-regional artistic networks in the region. Alexander von Rospatt (Berkeley) reflected on Nepal’s position between India and China based on the Svayambhūpurāṇa, the central narrative work of Nepal’s Buddhist tradition.
4The first day of the conference ended with Charles Ramble’s (Oxford/Paris) keynote lecture, which took up King Pṛthvīnārāyaṇa Śāha’s citation about Nepal being like a ‘yam between two rocks’, echoing the conference theme. Using his anthropological fieldwork on sausage-making in Mustang, Ramble contrasted in a rather provocative way the yam with the sausage as an image of Nepal’s nation-building, suggesting a more dynamic and evolving conception of Nepal’s nation-building rather than a static position between the two larger powers.
5The second day began with a panel to discuss Nepal’s interactions with the West. Marie Lecomte-Tilouine (Paris) examined the early Christian presence in Nepal, focusing on the phenomenon of infant baptisms. Lecomte-Tilouine demonstrated how the baptisms of dying children took on a specific local function within the cultural context of the Kathmandu Valley, assuming a different role from the one intended by missionaries. Alaka Chudal (Vienna) addressed the motivations of Gurkha soldiers in World War I, analysing their testimonials through the lens of Hindu philosophical concepts of giving (dāna) and philanthropy (maitrī), as well as Chandra Shamsher Rana’s war policy. Manik Bajracharya, Simon Cubelic and Rajan Khatiwoda (Heidelberg) jointly examined pre-modern Nepali documents from the Documenta Nepalica corpus – a rare corpus of historical texts made accessible, catalogued, edited and published open access by the research unit Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal. These documents illustrate how Nepal established a dense network of envoys in colonial India to supply its political elites with information. Meanwhile, extensive compendia that systematised foreign knowledge were compiled.
6The final panel explored the crossing of geographical and social boundaries, both past and present. Christof Zotter (Heidelberg) examined Hindu ascetics as ‘go-betweens’, drawing on sources from the Documenta Nepalica corpus. These documents show that Hindu ascetics from various sects engaged in cross-border diplomacy, trade and warfare, utilising their orders’ extensive networks, at odds with their enduring stereotyped image of the solitary renouncer. Martin Gaenszle (Vienna) presented visual ethnographic insights into Nepali pilgrimage practices in Banaras from the 2000s onwards. Trans-local connections between Nepal’s hill regions and the northern Indian plains – particularly Banaras – have long existed, but Gaenszle traced the way this pilgrimage evolved into a practice experienced as transcending national borders. The presentations by Michael Hutt (London) and Joanna Pfaff-Czarnecka (Bielefeld) both dealt with overcoming social boundaries. Hutt’s presentation, based on conversations with Dalit writers and on key texts, discussed ideological differences in the definition of Dalit literature (Dalit sāhitya) between India and Nepal, crystallising into the issue of authorship. Pfaff-Czarnecka’s contribution centred on the educational trajectories of Nepal’s Dalits in their quest for equity. She analysed their acts of ‘undoing caste’ as intellectual, political and self-assertive pathways, tracing their journey from servitude to academic professionalisation, and compared these with the trajectories of Indian Dalits. Both Hutt’s and Pfaff-Czarnecka’s presentations underscored the connections between Nepali and Indian Dalits while also highlighting key areas of divergence.
7In her concluding remarks, Madeleine Herren-Oesch (Basel) emphasised the importance of a transcultural Himalayan perspective, highlighting Nepal as a model of connectivity. The conference concluded with the launch of Michaels’ newly published book, Nepal: A History from the Earliest Times to the Present (Oxford University Press, 2024), which was presented by David Gellner (Oxford).
8The conference offered a comprehensive exploration of Nepal’s historical dynamics, shedding light on the intricate interplay of geopolitical, cultural and social forces that have shaped its past. Through diverse scholarly perspectives, the discussions emphasised the importance of re-evaluating established historical narratives, challenging conventional interpretations and incorporating often overlooked voices and sources. A recurring theme was the necessity of interdisciplinary approaches to better understand Nepal’s evolving identity, particularly in relation to its position within broader regional and global contexts. By fostering dialogue across disciplines and methodologies, the conference not only deepened historical insights but also encouraged new avenues for future scholarship on Nepal’s rich and complex past.
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Marija Grujovska et Julia Shrestha, « Conference on Nepal’s Transcultural Histories and Foreign Relations at Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Centre for Asian and Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University, 27–28 May 2024 », European Bulletin of Himalayan Research [En ligne], 64 | 2025, mis en ligne le 15 octobre 2025, consulté le 11 février 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/ebhr/3515 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15auv
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