​​

 

Project Overview

 

We are a team of researchers from the University of Hawaii conducting a community-based participatory research project in the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal. 2026 will be the third phase of a three-year project, with 2024 and 2025 trips to Upper and Lower Dolpo, a trans-Himalayan region in northwestern Nepal. Previous phases of this project have been focused primarily on understanding kinship and agency systems with non-human others, and theorizing pilgrimage practice as an embodied technique for reading the land-as-text. This year, we will be returning to continue exploring the broader themes of an Indigenous Tibetan Buddhist land ethic, though through the lens of architectural art, medicine, and environmental practice. 

​

As a team, we have a total of five individualized projects tailored to each group member's area of expertise. Our primary goal is to map and survey monasteries for future restoration projects, while the other four projects include a traveling Sowa Rigpa health clinic, an agricultural project, a wildlife survey, and finally an anthropological survey of tourism impacts in Dolpo. Our research happens in partnership with our community experts - namely, Dolpo Amchi Namgyal Rinpoche and his daughter, Tsering Sangmo Lama and the Dolpo Amchi Rinpoche Trust Foundation. Our vision and various projects come from Namgyal Rinpoche’s tireless commitment to his community through cultural perpetuation, environmentalism, and wellness. Additionally, our upcoming 2026 trip to Dolpo is only made possible through our collaborative partners: the Uberoi Foundation for Religious Studies and the Department of Religion at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Uberoi Foundation has generously provided financial support for previous years, but as our mission has grown, so have our financial needs, which is why we are now expanding into non-profit service work. For additional information on our research team from Hawaii, including each participant's qualifications and area of expertise, please refer to the personal bio handout.

​

Map of Dolpo:

​

​​

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Primary Project: Monastery Mapping and Its Significance in Tibetan Culture

​

Our central focus is mapping the local monasteries. This includes taking GPS coordinates, detailed oral histories, discovering what textual corpses are stored in each, photographing the frescoes and architecture, and assessing the structural damage and needed repairs. Our primary locations for monastery mapping include Ringmo, Doh-Tarap, and Saldang. All locations fall inside the Shey-Phuksundho National Park, and are accessible through the trekking routes starting at Juphal. Dolpo is still not accessible by road; therefore, our research team will be trekking in, traveling first through Lower Dolpo. 

​

Tibetan Buddhists view monasteries as more than religious buildings; they are cultural centers for religious, spiritual, and physical healing that are geomantically charged and strategically placed to mediate harsh environmental energies. Tibetan Buddhists use a variety of dialectics to explain the teaching of interdependence. One such paradigmatic cultural notion is the non-difference of inner and outer appearances. In this sense, just as we have energy centers and blood vessels in our bodies, the land is identified as a body, with the monasteries and stupas occupying specific energetic points, while the rivers and fields constitute the subtle and gross elements of the biotic body (loka or jikten). The health of the biotic body and the health of the human inhabitants are intimately linked. 

We intend to use what we learn in mapping the monasteries to create a digital register of sacred spaces, particularly one that can be accessed by international funding sources for the purposes of monastery restoration. Most of the monasteries are approaching 700 years old, with exquisite frescoes adorning their interior walls. In some cases, simple renovations such as new monastery roofs could preserve these important cultural treasures. 

 

Sowa Rigpa Health Clinics

 

Tibetan medicine or Sowa Rigpa is the primary medicinal tradition in the trans-Himalayan region of Nepal. There, local communities seek religious guidance as well as healthcare from a Tibetan doctor known as an amchi. Amchi practice a form of medicine called Sowa Rigpa that combines elements of Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, Buddhism, and indigenous spirit-medium techniques. Sowa Rigpa is one of the ten Buddhist sciences, and unlike Western science with its tendency to bifurcate the world into “science” and “religion”, Sowa Rigpa is grounded in the basic Buddhist teachings of interdependence, in which all things are empty of an inherent essence and rise through mutually coextensive systems of cause and effect. This view of interdependence informs how trans-Himalayan communities approach health, as wellness is mediated through community ties that extend beyond human kin into the more-than-human world. Our goal of understanding the nuanced ways in which traditional religiously informed rituals embed human persons into the larger biotic community is supplemented by our commitment to a pedagogy that sees true knowledge springing from reciprocal service-based engagement. Knowledge creation is highly political, and the ways in which we approach knowledge production and perpetuation inform not just which stories get told but also shape the politics of information exchange. Rather than extractive practices, we center community goals and local experts, working alongside each other in ways that are mutually beneficial. 

 

As we walk from village to village on our monastery mapping pilgrimage, our guide and translator, Tsering Sangmo will be providing health services to local elders. Although antibiotics are now widely available, traditional plant medicines and behavioral practices prescribed by Sowa Rigpa doctors would better suit the local populations. Healthcare is difficult to access, as travel across the rugged mountain passes to health posts is not possible for the elderly and infirm. Many local people also lack traditional cultural knowledge of how to maintain healthy bodies and minds. Tsering will be able to administer medical care, as well as provide basic health consultations, as we travel. 

 

Agricultural Project

 

Our agricultural project is the third pillar of our community service initiative aimed at fostering reciprocal relationships with the local Dolpo community. The climate in the trans-Himalayan region has shifted; therefore, locations that could only grow barely before are now able to support a larger variety of vegetable crops. Seeds are difficult to bring to Dolpo, and many seeds imported from India are not perennially viable, which has contributed to widespread famine and economic devastation in other trans-Himalayan regions like Zanskar. We will be hiring mules to bring in sustainable, organic, heirloom seeds from Kathmandu and distribute them to the population of Doh-Tarap. The typical local diet in Dolpo is barely flour (called tsampa), potatoes, butter, and noodles imported from China. The sudden influx of highly processed food, and the hundreds of miles fresh vegetables have to travel from the market at Dunai has created a food desert where local populations are increasingly forced to rely on low-quality, nutrient-poor foods to survive. By providing them heirloom seeds free of charge, we hope to empower this and future generations to grow sustainable, healthy vegetable crops.

 

Supplemental Academic Surveys

 

The above three primary mission objectives provide the service learning aspect of our research expedition. In addition to these, we have three academic projects run by M. Bannister, Aryeh, tenBroek, and C. Cole. The topics include a survey of Zhang Zhung textual resources at Samling Monastery, a survey of small-scale locally managed tourism practices, and the WWF (World Wildlife Foundation) role in mitigating human-wildlife conflict. By bringing attention to these various dimensions of life in Dolpo, we hope to counteract the erasure that so often happens to Indigenous communities caught between large nation-states and the globalizing forces fueled by cash economy imperatives. We highlight Indigenous systems of knowledge creation, agency, autonomy, and ingenuity, while bringing tangible resources into the community to support their development goals.

​

Our Financial Need

​​

For the above projects to achieve their fullest impact, we are seeking funds for research equipment to map the monasteries; seeds and mules to bring into Dolpo for our agricultural initiative; compensation for our local guides, translators, and medical practitioners; finally, as Dolpo is such a remote region, we aim to insure upmost safety and responsible research and thus proper safety equitment such as a satalite phone, helecopter inssurance, and permiting are required to conduct our expedition.