Is Nepal really a time machine for religious history? Scholars have long described it as "India in the making" or as a living window onto the medieval Indian world, where Hinduism and Buddhism appear in forms many believed had vanished long ago. This lecture looks at the evidence, from old manuscripts written on palm leaves and birch bark to secret Buddhist and Hindu traditions preserved in the Kathmandu Valley, and asks whether Nepal is simply an early version of India or has a distinct religious identity of its own.
The talk is given by Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen, Reader in Indian religions and languages at Oxford. His research focuses on goddess worship and tantra, and he travels frequently in Nepal and India. He is the author of several books and translations of major Hindu texts.
