EUROPEAN BULLETIN of HIMALAYAN RESEARCH EBHR | Issue 54 (2020)
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54 Spring 2020 EBHR EUROPEAN BULLETIN OF HIMALAYAN RESEARCH EBHR | Issue 54 (2020) The European Bulletin of Himalayan Research (EBHR) was founded by the late Richard Burghart in 1991 and has appeared twice yearly ever since. It is the result of a partnership and is edited on a rotating basis between the Centre for Himalayan Studies (CEH: Centre d’études himalayennes) within the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) in France, the South Asia Institute at Heidelberg University in Germany and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the United Kingdom. From 2019 to 2023, EBHR is hosted at the Centre for Himalayan Studies. Co-editors Tristan Bruslé (CNRS-CEH), Stéphane Gros (CNRS-CEH), Philippe Ramirez (CNRS-CEH) Associate editor Arik Moran (University of Haifa), book review editor Copyeditor Bernadette Sellers (CNRS-CEH) The following email address should be used for subscription details and any correspondence regarding the journal: [email protected] Back issues of the journal are accessible on the Digital Himalaya platform: http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/ebhr Editorial Board Adhikari, Jagannath (Australian National University) Arora, Vibha (Indian Institute of Technology) Bleie, Tone (University of Tromsø) Campbell, Ben (Durham University) Chhetri, Mona (Australia India Institute) De Maaker, Erik (Leiden University) de Sales, Anne (CNRS-LESC) Dollfus, Pascale (CNRS-CEH) Gaenszle, Martin (University of Vienna) Gellner, David (University of Oxford) Grandin, Ingemar (Linköping University) Hausner, Sondra L. (University of Oxford) Hutt, Michael (SOAS) Jinba, Tenzin (National University of Singapore) Kolås, Åshild (Peace Research Institute Oslo) Lecomte-Tilouine, Marie (CNRS-LAS) Letizia, Chiara (Université du Québec à Montréal) Michaels, Axel (Heidelberg University) Müller-Böker, Ulrike (University of Zurich) Sherpa, Pasang Yangjee (University of Washington) Polit, Karin (Tübingen University) Sax, William (Heidelberg University) Schlemmer, Grégoire (IRD) Shakya, Mallika (South Asian University) Valentin, Karen (Aarhus University) Zotter, Astrid (Heidelberg University) EBHR is published in Kathmandu in collaboration with Social Science Baha (http://www.soscbaha.org) EBHR 54 (2020) EDITORIAL 3 ARTICLES Storytelling in Prison: Oral Performance of a Gurkha Prisoner of World War I 5 Alaka Atreya Chudal Textual Manifestations: The Use and Significance of Mahāyāna Literature in Newar Buddhism 36 Alexander James O’Neill CONFERENCE REPORTS History through Rituals. Explorations in Indo-Tibetan Religious Cultures (Haifa) 68 Arik Moran Rethinking the Himalayas (Copenhagen) 71 Elizabeth Williams-Oerberg, Dan Hirslund, Prem Poddar New Directions in Himalayan Studies (Berkeley) 78 Stéphane Gros DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS The Country of the Hundred and Twenty-Five Thousand Mountains: Archaeological Study of the Karnali Basin (Nepal) Between the Twelfth and Sixteenth Century 86 David Cornélius Andolfatto The Age of Rights: Towards an Anthropology of Civil Society Associations in Nepal 88 Barbara Berardi Tadié Flood Management Policy and (Re)Production of Socio-Spatial Inequalities in the Koshi Plain: Nepalese Eastern Terai and Northern Indian Bihar 90 Marie-Amélie Candau Healing ‘Heart-Minds’: Disaster, Care, and Global Mental Health in Nepal’s Himalayan Foothills 92 Liana E. Chase The Sherpa Community in the ‘Yak Donald’s’ Era: Competition over Access to Resources in the Mount Everest Tourist Region (Nepal) 94 Etienne Jacquemet Exploring Dimensions of Accountability in Community Schools: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Inquiry 96 Kul Prasad Khanal 2 EBHR 54 In the Shadows of Death: An Existential Approach to Mortality in the Sinja Valley of Western Nepal 99 Samuele Poletti High Mountain Agriculture and Changing Socionatures in Nagar, Northern Pakistan 101 Michael Spies BOOK REVIEWS Baburam Acharya: The Bloodstained Throne: Struggles for Power in Nepal, 1775–1914 104 Sanjog Rupakheti Richard Burghart: The History of Janakpurdham: A Study of Asceticism and the Hindu Polity 108 Daniela Bevilacqua James Fisher: Trans-Himalayan Traders Transformed: Return to Tarang 112 Samuele Poletti Alex R. Furger: The Gilded Buddha: The Traditional Art of the Newar Metal Casters in Nepal 116 Manik Bajracharya John Harrison, Christian Luczanits, Charles Ramble, with Nyima Drandul: A Blessing for the Land: The Architecture, Art and History of a Buddhist Convent in Mustang, Nepal 120 Christian Jahoda Michael Hoffman: The Partial Revolution: Labour, Social Movements and the Invisible Hand of Mao in Western Nepal 123 Matjaz Pinter Berthe Jansen: The Monastery Rules: Buddhist Monastic Organisation in Pre-Modern Tibet 127 Per Kværne Thomas Kauffman: The Agendas of Tibetan Refugees: Survival Strategies of a Government-in-Exile in a World of Transnational Organizations 130 Fiona McConnell Anne T. Mocko: Demoting Vishnu: Ritual, Politics, and the Unraveling of Nepal’s Hindu Monarchy 134 Caleb Simmons Kirin Narayan: Everyday Creativity: Singing Goddesses in the Himalayan Foothills 137 Hannah Carlan Martin Saxer and Zhang Juan (eds): The Art of Neighboring: Making Relations across China’s Borders 142 Himani Upadhyaya Editorial Note The first print issue of the European Bulletin of Himalayan Research was released in spring 1991. We are pleased to announce that in the year 2021, for its thirtieth anniversary, EBHR will start a new life as an online journal. Since we took over the editorship of the Bulletin for a new four- year cycle, our priority has been to assess the way of making this publication even more relevant for the community of people engaged in Himalayan studies. We consulted with the contributing editors who have been associated with EBHR through the years. We also felt that renewing the editorial board was needed in terms of gender balance, geographical area of expertise and disciplinary diversity. That is why, as seven members decided to leave the editorial board, we are happy to welcome ten new members with a strong anchorage in the Himalayas. Following a series of exchanges with the previous editorial team, we became convinced that the long-awaited move to an online, open access format had become an urgent priority in order to address the challenges faced by a journal like EBHR. Immediate open access implies a change in our economic model which carries some significant challenges. Nevertheless, the new online format will provide many advantages in terms of dissemination, accessibility, discoverability and diversity of content. We are also aware of the possible constraints it imposes when access to the Internet is limited and a hard copy is sometimes a preferable mode of circulation. We endeavour to address the various challenges and opportunities that such a transition entails: detailed information about this upcoming change will be shared in the next editorial note. The move to an online platform is, however, not a rupture in terms of editorial politics regarding the journal’s scope and role. This issue’s content attests to a sense of continuity and even of the revitalization of some features. EBHR was, at its launch, designed as a Newsletter about the state of the field of Himalayan studies (with reports on research projects, notes on resources and archives, news and announcements, book 4 EBHR 54 reviews, etc.). Its content has evolved and diversified with each issue: ‘dissertation abstracts’ were first added in 1996 (no. 10); and the same year the Bulletin turned into a fully fledged journal with a thematic double issue (no. 12-13) that included many research articles. Film reviews have also been published, and the special issues about music and photography show that early on the Bulletin was open to a diversity of topics and media. With the prospect of a transition to an online platform we feel it is a good time to revisit these early attempts and to expand the range of formats we will include in the Bulletin. With this and the following issues, we unassumingly hope to assert the role the Bulletin can play in constituting a platform for scholarly engagement: thanks to the tireless work of Arik Moran, long-time associate editor for book reviews, many books are reviewed and discussed in these pages; we are also re-launching a ‘dissertation abstracts’ section with aims to give more visibility to research topics chosen by PhD students. Conference reports also give us a sense of some of the initiatives that are taking place and which in our eyes seem to convey a need to enliven the field of Himalayan studies and to consolidate the community of scholars and network of institutions that support it. We hope that EBHR can continue to be one of the main channels through which scholarly exchanges can take place, and we will work towards making it happen. We always welcome suggestions, special issue proposals and we particularly encourage junior researchers to submit their work for publication in EBHR. The editors, European Bulletin of Himalayan Research Tristan Bruslé, Stéphane Gros and Philippe Ramirez Storytelling in Prison: Oral Performance of a Gurkha Prisoner of World War I Alaka Atreya Chudal University of Vienna Abstract Among the non-European military forces that fought on the European continent during World War I, the Gurkhas from Nepal emerged from the conflict having achieved wide renown for their bravery. In fact, it was not only on the battlefield where they demonstrated all their powers of endurance. A considerable number of Gurkhas were captured by the Germans while fighting for the British and were made prisoners of war. Though