11 Jun Prema Goet
Prema Goet
LECTURE
The Sword and the Buttocks of G-d
The Sword and the Buttocks of G-d is a multi-modal essay presentation on the ritual of power exchange amongst the Newar people of Kathmandu Valley. Here the ritual of power transferring takes place through a complex web of ritual acts between the people and a god whose form is that of the buttocks of the fearsome form of God Bhairava. This ritual forms a complex web of sequential sacrifices involving spirit possession, animal sacrifices, street parade and a sword as the main signifier of power transferring. The aim of this presentation is to explore the ritual’s visual representation and the material culture of the ritual at hand.
Bio
Prema Goet is an ex-worker, Ethno-Indologist, artist and multi-disciplinary researcher whose main interest lies in the intellectual history, cultures and languages of South Asia. He received his B.A. in Sanskrit and M.A. in Philosophy and Religion from The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) – University of London. Prema is a doctoral researcher for the MANTRAMS – Mantras in Religion, Media and Society in Global Southern Asia at Universität Wien, in Austria and a researcher for The Śākta Traditions Research Programme at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, in the UK.
