Emmrich, Christoph

Full Research Description:
Christoph Emmrich currently works on Buddhist rituals for Newar girls in the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal) in the context of marriage, image consecration and ordination practices, particularly dealing with questions of childhood, gender, body and anxiety, the normativity of ritual manuals, shared and parallel religious practices as well as with the historiography of ritual. His second current project is on the transmission of learning and the literary history of texts relevant for Tamil Digambara Jaina temple ritual in North and South Arcot (Tamil Nadu, India) hereby addressing questions of assimilation and resistance, the connections between text and place as well as the role of women in the transmission of literary traditions. Professor Emmrich has worked on Theravada Buddhist and Jaina canonical literature dealing with temporal experience and salvation, on the lyrics and performances of tantric songs transmitted in Nepal, on Newar Buddhist manuscript culture, particularly conservation and reconsecration practices, on the historical recording of accidents in ritual performances such as urban processions and the reception and reinterpretation of Pāli sources by B.R. Ambedkar and on ritual transfer between Burma and South and Southeast Asia.