New open access publications in the series "Documenta Nepalica"

Bajracharya, Manik (Ed.), Slavery and Unfree Labour in Nepal: Documents from the 18th to Early 20th Century, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Vol. 3), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1003.

The topic of slavery is largely under-represented in the historiography of Nepal. This source book, aware of this disparity and wishing to encourage future studies on the topic, provides the reader with editions, translations and a study of selected documents and legal texts of Nepal from the period of the eighteenth to the early twentieth century. These sources are concerned with such different aspects of slavery as donations, transactions, bondservitude, forced labour, emancipation, and law.

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Bijay Basukala, Niels Gutschow, Nutandhar Sharma, Patan-Vãbāhā: History and Inventory of a Newar Buddhist Monastery, Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing, 2022 (Documenta Nepalica – Book Series, Band 5), DOI: 10.17885/heiup.1116.

This volume presents the religious, architectural, and textual background of Vãbāhā, one of the 16 main monasteries of Patan, located in one of the three royal cities of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The history of the Buddhist monastic courtyard and its objects is presented along with 42 inscriptions, dating from 1596 CE to 2021.

Best regards,

Axel Michaels