Exploring Himalayan Cultural and Textual Heritage

This book grew out of an Austrian Science Fund project dedicated to the scientific legacy of the Tibetologist and ethnologist René Nebesky-Wojkowitz (1923-1959). The starting point was a 2019 symposium at the Weltmuseum Wien, which dealt with the reception history of his various research works. Newly accessible materials on his life and scholarship significantly enriched the contributions. The volume thus offers fresh insights into the research conditions in the Himalayas of the 1950s as well as into Nebesky-Wojkowitz's international academic network. A pioneer of Himalayan studies, he combined ethnographic fieldwork with philological textual research. His interdisciplinary approach made him an early "Ethno-Tibetologist" and influenced later generations of scholars, especially in Vienna, where important studies on mountain deities, rituals, and everyday religious practice were produced. His work was strongly shaped by the political transformations of his time: following the end of colonial rule in India, he began his field research in Kalimpong, West Bengal, and later continued it in Nepal, which had only recently opened to foreign researchers. The book's twelve contributions are divided into three parts: the first deals with Nebesky-Wojkowitz as a person and scholar; the second examines his work in India and Nepal and its local reception; and the third explores current research that follows in his footsteps. An epilogue outlines the state of Himalayan studies during his lifetime and their subsequent development. Altogether, the volume illustrates why Nebesky-Wojkowitz still holds a distinctive place in the history of Tibetan and Himalayan studies.