As announced to all conference participants on Wednesday 5th August 2026 by the then co-convenors, Kathmandu University has been instructed on Monday 3rd August 2026 by the Government of Nepal not to proceed with convening the 17th Seminar of the IATS. This instruction was given in person by the Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal, Govinda Bahadur Karkee, and the Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Amrit Bahadur Rai, to the Vice-Chancellor of Kathmandu University Prof. Dr Rishikesh Wagle, the Registrar Prof. Dr Rajeev Shrestha, and Prof. Dr Sagar Sharma from HiCAS.
To date, neither the convenors, nor the IATS have received any formal communication in writing. However, further oral communications with representatives of the government have unfortunately confirmed these instructions.
In light of this, the KU Himalaya Centre for Asian Studies (KU HiCAS) and the KU Centre for Buddhist Studies (KU-CBS) have subsequently handed any further decisions and responsibilities over to the Advisory Board of the IATS.
The IATS Board expresses its concern about this unexpected and unwarranted interference in a purely academic event. Despite repeated requests, it has not received any formal written information from the government and has not yet been given any explanation for this last-minute decision. Hosting the event at Kathmandu University was agreed with all relevant parties in 2023 and no concerns were raised at any point during the planning process. The convenors have invested three years of their time in preparing this event, and have incurred considerable expenses on behalf on the conference. More than 700 participants have already bought their air tickets and booked hotel rooms in Kathmandu. The effective cancellation of this conference by the authorities will raise questions about holding future academic events in the country, and is likely to result in economical and reputational damage.
On 7th August 2026, the IATS Board held an emergency online meeting to determine how to proceed. It voted to take over as conference convenor and to now hold the 17th Seminar of the IATS as an online event. The programme will remain the same, and participants will be able to attend and present online from wherever they are at the time. Unfortunately, adjustments to different time zones will not be possible.
We deeply regret that the original convenors, KU HiCAS and KU-CBS, had to step down from hosting the conference. On behalf of the IATS membership, we would like to thank them for their significant efforts, dedication, and organisational skill in preparing the conference.
We will do our best to ensure that the academic programme of the IATS conference can go ahead, to provide the international platform for scholarly exchange on Tibetan and Himalayan studies that the IATS always has been, and will continue to be.
On behalf of the IATS Advisory Board,
Francoise Robin (INALCO, Paris), Acting President
Ulrike Roesler (University of Oxford), Secretary General