I am affiliated researcher at Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University, Thailand. I am from Sweden and share my time between Vittinge in the countryside of Sweden and Chiang Mai in Thailand. 

I received my PhD from Uppsala University, Sweden in 2000 in the History of Religions. My research is focused on art, religion and social sciences in South and Southeast Asia, with a special interest  in the so-called aniconic Buddhist art in early India and, more recently, in Buddhist visual culture, history and ethnicity in the borderlands of Upper Southeast Asia, especially concerning Chiang Tung/Keng Tung, in the Eastern Shan State of Myanmar. 

I am also a librarian, working many years in research and university libraries. Recently I finished my position as Library Director at Konstfack - University of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden.

Contact: Klemens.Karlsson@gmail.com