Kelzang Tashi’s research interests lie at the intersection of the anthropology of religion, society, kinship, and the environment, with a regional focus on South Asia, particularly the Himalayas and Tibet. He obtained his PhD in anthropology at the Australian National University in December 2020. Kelzang conducted a one-year long ethnographic fieldwork in villages in central Bhutan where he focused on the tenacity of pre-Buddhist Bon beliefs, as they are lived and contested, in the presence of the invalidating force—Buddhism.

Kelzang’s forthcoming book entitled ‘World of worldly gods: the persistence and transformation of Shamanistic Bon in Buddhist Bhutan’ explores the persistence of Bon beliefs and practices in contemporary Bhutan despite the systematised opposition to Bon from Buddhist priests. Through an analysis of the relationship between Shamanistic Bon and Buddhism, and the contemporary dynamics of Bhutanese society, it tackles the longstanding concern of anthropology: cultural persistence and change, and religious syncretism.

His new research project will investigate the tensions between the system of matrilineal property inheritance and the government policies in Bhutan. Kelzang is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.