Bhaktapur, known locally as Khwopa and historically called Bhatgaon, is a city in the east corner of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal located about 13 kilometres (8.1 mi) from the capital city, Kathmandu. Bhaktapur is the smallest city of Nepal as well the most densely populated. Along with Kathmandu and Lalitpur, Bhaktapur is one of the three main cities of the Kathmandu Valley and is a major Newar settlement of the country. The city is also known for its Newar tradition, cuisine and artisans. Bhaktapur suffered heavy damage in the April 2015 earthquake.
Tāmrakār is a caste of coppersmiths and other metal casters found in Nepal and India. In Nepal, the Tamrakars are found among the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley.
Victor Mordechai Goldschmidt was a German mineralogist, natural philosopher, and art collector.
Newar Buddhism is the form of Vajrayana Buddhism practiced by the Newar people of the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. It has developed unique socio-religious elements, which include a non-monastic Buddhist society based on the Newar caste system and patrilineality. The ritual priestly (guruju) caste, vajracharya and shakya form the non-celibate religious clergy caste while other Buddhist Newar castes like the Urāy act as patrons. Uray also patronise Tibetan Vajrayana, Theravadin, and even Japanese clerics. It is the oldest known sect of the Vajrayana tradition outdating the Tibetan school of Vajrayana by more than 600 years.
Dhau is a variety of yogurt primarily prepared by Newar people of Nepal. It is traditionally made in clay pots. The most famous and delicious variety of dhau is Juju dhau, which is known for its rich taste and thick consistency. Juju dhau literally translates to "king of yogurt" in Nepal Bhasa. It is a specialty of the town of Bhaktapur.
Kanyadana is a Hindu wedding ritual. One possible origin of this tradition can be traced to 15th century stone inscriptions found in the Vijayanagara Empire in South India. There are different interpretations regarding kanyadana across South Asia.
Hermann Kulke is a German historian and Indologist, who was professor of South and Southeast Asian history at the Department of History, Kiel University (1988–2003). After receiving his PhD in Indology from Freiburg University in 1967, he taught for 21 years at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University (SAI).
Charles Albert Edward Ramble is an anthropologist and former University Lecturer in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University. Since 2009 he has been Professor and Directeur d'études at the Ecole pratique des hautes études, Paris. Between 2006 and 2013 he was elected president of the International Association for Tibetan Studies (IATS) and convened the 10th seminar of IATS at Oxford in 2003.
Ihi, Ehee is a ceremony in the Newar community in Nepal in which pre-adolescent girls are "married" to the Suvarna Kumar which is a symbol of the god Vishnu, ensuring that the girl becomes and remains fertile. It is believed that if the girl's husband dies later in her life, she is not considered a widow because she is married to Vishnu, and so already has a husband that is believed to be still alive. This was basically done to dodge the tradition of 'Sati Pratha', where after the husband dies, the widow sacrifices herself in the burning fire.
Heinrich von Stietencron was a German Indologist. He was a Professor and the Director of the Institute of Indology and Comparative Religion at the University of Tübingen. He was a life member of the Academy of Sciences, Heidelberg and an honorary member of the Société Asiatique, Paris. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the President of India in 2004.
Siegfried Lienhard was a professor of Indology at Stockholm University and a scholar of Sanskrit and the Newar language.
Nepal Mandala is an ancient confederation on the Indian subcontinent, marked by cultural, religious and political boundaries that lies in present-day central Nepal. It consists of the Kathmandu Valley and surrounding areas. The rule of the indigenous Newars in Nepal Mandala ended with its conquest by the Gorkha Kingdom and the rise of the Shah dynasty in 1768.
Khyāh (ख्याक) is a mythical humanoid creature in Newari folklore. It is depicted as a fat, hairy and short ape-like creature.
Klaus Koschorke is a German historian of Christianity and was a Professor of Early and Global History of Christianity at the University of Munich in Germany from 1993 to 2013.
Swanti is a five-day festival of Nepal which is one of the year's greatest celebrations for the Newar people. It is the Newar version of Tihar or Diwali. The festival highlights the central role of women in the household, and the rituals are related to wishing for good fortune of the family members by presenting them auspicious items and praying for longevity by placating the god of death.
Per Kjeld Sørensen is a prominent Danish Tibetologist who specialises in Tibetan and Himalayan history, literature and culture. Since 1994 he has been Professor of Central Asian Studies at Leipzig University, Germany.
Bernhard Kölver was a German Indologist, specializing for most of his career in the study of Nepal.
The South Asia Institute (SAI) is an interdisciplinary center of the Ruprecht-Karls University Heidelberg in Heidelberg, Germany, for research and teaching on South Asia. In German, it is known as the Südasien-Institut. The regional focus of the research and teaching at SAI are the countries Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Due to their close linguistic, cultural, and historical ties with the South Asian subcontinent, adjacent regions such as Afghanistan and Tibet are also often included in the work done at the South Asia Institute.
Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen is a Research Lecturer at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a tutor in Hinduism, Buddhism and Sanskrit at the Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University. His research interests are: Religion, Hinduism, Indic languages ; Śāktism and tantric traditions; ascetic reformism ; the Middle Ages in India and Nepal; Yoga and asceticism; Myths and rituals; the history of ideas in South Asia; religious historiography. Wernicke-Olesen is the leader of the Śākta Traditions project, an international research project with a focus on Indian religious traditions of South Asia.
Monika Boehm-Tettelbach is a German Indologist and an emerita professor at Heidelberg University. She is known for her work on the religious history and literature of northern India from the 16th century.
