Dear Colleagues,

It is a pleasure to share with you the publication of our new book, When a God Moves the City: Placemaking in the Buṅgadyaḥ Procession of Nepal (Documenta Nepalica Vol. 9, Heidelberg University Publishing).

The book is available as an open-source download here:

Book blurb:
Each spring in Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, the deity Buṅgadyaḥ—said to be a rain-maker, Buddhist savior, tantric master—travels through Patan on a towering wooden chariot, transforming streets and crossroads into sacred space. This interdisciplinary volume assembles eight scholars to examine this procession across more than a millennium: from the earliest medieval inscriptions to post-earthquake revivalism, from royal patronage and guthi resilience to caste politics and photographic representation. Drawing on unique sources that range from epigraphy, legal and administrative records, ethnography, architecture, and material culture, the contributors discuss how ritual, urban form, and distributed agency converge in a festival that continues to negotiate identity, authority, and belonging in contemporary South Asia.

Table of Contents:

Introduction – Manik Bajracharya, Christiane Brosius, Simon Cubelic, Rajan Khatiwoda

Heritage Infrastructures as Urban and Sacred Placemaking: The Multifunctional Role of Arcaded Platforms (phalcā) in Patan, Nepal – Christiane Brosius

Constraining Liminality and Performing Culture: The Festival of Buṅgadyaḥ in the Kathmandu Valley – Bruce McCoy Owens

Four Centuries of Service: Resilience and Adaptation in the Luthāma Guthi of Buṅgadyaḥ – Manik Bajracharya

Constructing Identity with the Chariot of Buṅgadyaḥ: The Case of Bārāhī Guthi from Patan – Monalisa Maharjan

Inscriptions in Motion: The Epigraphic Culture of the Buṅgadyaḥ Procession – Simon Cubelic, Rajan Khatiwoda

The Buṅgadyaḥ Chariot: Process of Construction, Materiality and Craftsmanship – Bibek Basukala

Photography, Ethnography, and Photographic Repatriation: Recording and Representing Buṅgadyaḥ Yāḥ – Bruce McCoy Owens

Far-away Visitors of Buṅgadyaḥ: The Khaśa Mallas of West Nepal and Newar Buddhism – David C. Andolfatto

For accessing all the books from the Documenta Nepalica Series, please follow this link: https://heiup.uni-heidelberg.de/catalog/series/hadw_dn?lang=en

Best,

Manik Bajracharya

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities