Traditions, translations and transitions in the cultural history of Tibet, the Himalayas and Mongolia

The conference theme was Traditions, Translations and Transitions in the Cultural History of Tibet, the Himalayas and Mongolia. Culture is about change. There are no cultural traditions which can survive without changing, adapting, and transitioning over time and across space. Traditions are constantly reinvented, creatively interrupted, or imaginatively reinvigorated. Finding themselves in a permanent state of transition to something new and to something different, ‘traditions’ and ‘innovations’ are historical and cultural processes far from opposite to each other. There is a growing consensus among scholars and researchers that they are, on the contrary, very interconnected. Through the establishment of corridors, correlations, and connections, this global phenomenon of interdependence of tradition/innovation can be examined as a process of cross-fertilising acts of ‘translations’ and ‘transitions’. Not just linguistic translations or material transitions, but also the translatability of symbolic tools and images, the transferability of cultural capital and the fortunate trajectory of philosophical concepts and religious practices have begun receiving a great deal of attention.