About Us

Project coordinators in Heidelberg

chris Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius   Full Professor (W3) ‘Visual and Media Anthropology’, Cluster „Asia and Europe in a Global Context“, Heidelberg University. She conducts research on and in Nepal since about four years – with two research projects; the young art scene in the Kathmandu Valley and the topic of ageing, memory and mobility in the city of Patan.
 rm Roberta Mandoki   PdD Student, South Asia Institute & Cluster „Asia and Europe in a Global Context. The anthropologist Roberta Mandoki is PhD Candidate at the Cluster’s research project “Ageing in a Transcultural Context” and has just recently completed her fieldwork on ageing experiences of older people in the Kathmandu Valley. She works on Ageing in Nepal, jointly with Christiane Brosius and Axel Michaels.
 np Nadine Plachta   Resident Representative at the Kathmandu Office of Heidelberg University’s South Asia Institute. Nadine Plachta keeps track of the earthquake-affected Tsum-region  as well as “Rebuilding Bungamati”. She will start supporting  another project by artists with traumatised children and relief work in Tholo Byasi, Bhaktapur.
RituManik Manik and Ritu Bajracharya   Research Fellow South Asia Institute, Dept. Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology),   Research Fellow of the German Research Foundation project “Wright Chronicle”. Manik and Ritu Bajracharya are both Nepali citizens. Manik Bajracharya works in the research project Documents on the History of Religion and Law of Pre-modern Nepal at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. Ritu Bajracharya works at the Kindertagesstätte Studierendenwerk Heidelberg.
 gutschow Prof. Dr. Ing. Niels Gutschow   Coordinator of the projects D4 “Aspects of Authenticity” at the Cluster of excellence “Asia and Europe”,  Historian with a focus on architecture history of Asia, India and Nepal. Gutschow is also closely affiliated with the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT).
 rk Rajan Khatiwoda   Ph.D Candidate, South Asia Institute, Dept. Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology)
 michaels Prof. Dr. Axel Michaels  Director of the Deptartment “Cultural and Religious History of South Asia (Classical Indology)”,   Member of the Academic Advisory Council (AAC) at Universität Heidelberg,   Head of the research unit „Documents on the History of Religion and Law or pre-modern Nepal”
 marcus02 Prof. Dr. Marcus Nüsser   Chair (W3), Department of Geography, South Asia Institute at the University of Heidelberg, Research on Himalayan Glaciers, with a particular interest in Nepal.

Project coordinators in Nepal

Screen Shot 2015-05-20 at 5.19.41 PM Dr. Rohit Ranjitkar is Nepal Program Director of the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust (KVPT). The architect, scholar and teacher is the head of a team of architects, engineers, craftsmen, and heritage conservationists who have been majorly responsible for the restoration of Patan Darbar and Kathmandu Darbar. The cooperation with Heidelberg (e.g. Niels Gutschow and Axel Michaels), and beyond that other representatives from Germany, goes back decades. Ranjitkar will supervise the reconstruction of our project, the Char-Narayan-Temple at Patan Darbar Square.  For more information on the KVPT, click here.
 sujan Sujan Chitrakar is a main motor and coordinator of the “Rebuilding Bungamati” project. The assistant professor is heading the Department of Art & Design at Kathmandu University as Academic Program Coordinator since 2005. With his team of faculty and students, he has been engaged in the long-term reconstruction of the heritage town Bungamati since a week after the earthquake on 24.5.15.   More information on our partners in Nepal will follow shortly!
pramila Pramila Bajracharya Thapa decided as a short-term action to look after elderly earthquake victims who have been evacuated from the worst affected areas to Kathmandu, and who have no place to stay after medical treatment. She and her team are in contact with and regularly visit the main hospitals in Kathmandu to assist older people who are in need of different kinds of support. Ms Thapa is the Managing Director and Chair of the Founder Board of Members of The Hope Hermitage, a senior citizens club and old people’s home in Kathmandu. She worked in development and humanitarian organizations for many years before she started in 2013 to dedicate her time and managing expertise to the changing needs of older people in the Kathmandu Valley. Her main focus is to raise awareness about the Alzheimer disease and adequate care of Alzheimer patients.
1379888_216969971806435_1045153876_n Tenzin Kunchok is project coordinator of the “Rebuilding Tsum” initiative. He graduated from the Tibetan Children’s Village (TCV) schools in Suja and Bangalore, India, before returning to Tsum in the northern Gorkha District, Nepal, in order to receive a religious education as the second son of the Nile Labrang family. The Nile Labrang belongs to the Dochen Kagyu tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. And in fact, it is the only institution present to uphold these historically significant practices that originated at the border of Tibet and Nepal in the thirteenth century. Tenzin Kunchok is also local expert in the Nubri Tsum Living Record, a digital archive for the preservation of the cultural and religious traditions of the Manaslu and Ganesh Himal regions, which was founded by the social anthropologists Geoff Childs and Nadine Plachta. In 2013 he had a prominent role in the “Walk for Heritage”, an inventory study expedition on the architectural heritage in the northern Gorkha district, and in the capacity building workshop to safeguard Nepal’s intangible cultural heritage organized by the Unesco.

Further Helpers

gm Dr. Martin Gieselmann Executive Secretary South Asia Institute
 hake Manfred Hake   Executive Member, The Association of Friends and Patrons of the South Asia Institute (Vereinigung der Freunde und Förderer des Südasien-Instituts Heidelberg e.V.)