This workshop aimsto consider Himalayan networks in the broadest sense of the word. We want to go beyond viewing networks one-dimensionally – as either religious or political – and instead look at the connections between agents (from the West and the East) who have a multiplicity of roles: scholars, practitioners, political agents, colonizers, scribes, collectors, teachers, spiritual seekers, assistants, spies, traders, to name but a few. These networks were especially complex in the early 20th century.What do networks look like when they are multifaceted? How do we connect the dots? Looking at Himalayan networks in this way helps us not merely to understand how people interacted with each other a hundred years ago, but also to come to terms with the notion that it is problematic to create unfuzzy categorizations for complex agents alive during complex times in a region where having a network was vital to survive and thrive.
This five year project (2023-2028), entitled The Van Manen Collection: Locating Literature, Lived Religion, and Lives in the Himalayas (acronym: VAN MANEN) has been made possible with an ERC Starting Grant. It aims to (digitally) reunite all parts of the Van Manen Collection. This enables us to study it as a whole, helping us to understand the process of collection formation. More importantly, perhaps, it will also shed light on printing culture, knowledge dissemination, and religious and ritual practices in Central Tibet and the Eastern Himalayas in the first half of the 20th century.
