Klemens Karlsson, PhD, Researcher in the culture, religion, and history of South- and Southeast Asia

I am Klemens Karlsson from Sweden. I am affiliated researcher at Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University, Thailand. I received my PhD from Uppsala University, Sweden in 2000 in the History of Religions. My research is focused on culture, religion, and social sciences in South and Southeast Asia, with a special interest in Buddhist visual culture, history, and ethnicity in the borderlands of northern Southeast Asia, especially concerning Chiang Tung/Keng Tung, in the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar. My research during my doctoral studies was the so-called aniconic Buddhist art in early India.

My new book: A Sense of Place and Belonging - The Chiang Tung Borderland of Northern Southeast Asia will be published in Mars 2025 by Northern Illinois University Press/Cornell University Press.  A Sense of Place and Belonging examines a marginalized society, Chiang Tung (Keng Tung) in the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar, between the dominant cultures of the Burmese, Chinese, and Siamese/Thai.