Thesis Title
Embodiment and Emanation: Kinnaur’s Religious Transition and Identity Building through the Perspective of History
Supervisor
Ulrike Roesler
Biography
Chang Yui Cheong Richards is reading DPhil Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at St Anthony’s College, Oxford. He takes historical and anthropological perspectives to examine the place and identity creation process of Indo-Tibetan borderland communities. His DPhil thesis explores the significance of Kinnaur (Tib: Khu nu) in Western Himalaya, an area where Buddhism and Hinduism co-exist, as a contact zone between the Tibetosphere and Indosphere amidst periods of religious transition. It constitutes an interdisciplinary inquiry that combines a multilingual (Tibetan, Chinese, Hindi) textual analysis of 11th – 14th century history and a comparative anthropological study that examines Kinnauris’ conception of their history through folk practices. He completed his MPhil in Tibetan and Himalayan Study at Wolfson College, Oxford. His MPhil thesis examines the place-creation history of Mtsho Padma (Rewalsar), a Tibetan pilgrimage site in India. He has extensive fieldwork experience in the Indian Himalaya. Outside of academia, Richards is a professional photographer, documenting moments of repurpose and redefinition.
Educational Background
BEcon & Fin (HKU), MPhil (Oxon)
Research Interests
Western Himalaya, Indo-Tibetan borderland, identity building, religious syncretism, anthropology of history
Recent Publications
Yui. Chang (forthcoming). At the Shore of the Wonderful Mtsho Padma: Third Neten Chokling Rinpoche and the Padmsamabhava Sacred Site. In Proceedings of the 7th International Seminar of Young Tibetologists.
Yui. Chang (forthcoming). The Indian Khampas of the Himalayas: A Discursive Analysis. In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Tibet and the Himalayas: Past and Present.
Links
Personal photography website: https://www.richardscphotography.com/
