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THRG aims to
"create an environment that promotes conversation between different approaches
to the study of Tibetan and Himalayan religions". The group
is multi-disciplinary, especially focusing on work that
"challenges the traditional disciplinary dichotomies through which the field
has defined itself, such as: text/practice, written/oral, philology/ethnography,
humanistic/social scientific study."
The group's efforts are centered largely on cultural history, resulting
in a methodologically varied approach to such subjects as "folk religious practices,
religion and material culture,
the politics of religious institutions,
the representation of Tibetan religions in the media, and
the historical construction of the field itself."
Working with the idea that "One of the most important features
of religious traditions in our field (perhaps in every field)
is the degree to which they are inextricably connected," THRG
aims at scholarship which recognizes that those interconnections
"often cut across ethno-national boundaries."
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THRG is part of the
American Academy of Religion. AAR is the "largest,
most comprehensive association dedicated to promoting the academic study
of religion." The Academy meets annually and its members share research
and work together on projects. WIth "over 8,000 members
who teach in some 1,500 colleges, universities, seminaries, and schools in
North America and abroad," the AAR is "dedicated to furthering knowledge
of religion and religious institutions in all their forms and manifestations."
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