Tag: Kumbh Mela

  • Nation & World

    A powerful convergence

    Harvard faculty members from several disciplines gathered to share thoughts about their work at the 2013 Kumbh Mela religious festival in India.

    5 minutes
  • Nation & World

    HarvardX course closes in on global view

    During a talk at the Harvard Allston Education Portal, Professor Tarun Khanna explored the benefits of interdisciplinary problem-solving on health care, based on his HarvardX course “Entrepreneurship and Healthcare in Emerging Economies,” launching on Oct. 30.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Citizen of the world

    In recent years, Harvard has been strengthening its presence around the world, supporting international research, offering study-abroad opportunities, and opening offices in India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and other countries.

    6 minutes
  • Nation & World

    SAI offers ‘feet on the street’ experience

    Since its inception in 2003, the South Asia Institute has continued the long tradition of collaboration between Harvard and South Asia.

    1 minute
  • Nation & World

    Lessons of a temporary city

    The Maha Kumbh Mela, India’s massive gathering of Hindu pilgrims, ended in March. But for Harvard researchers across disciplines, the festival and the tent city it spawned continue to yield lessons in everything from big data to urban planning.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    In search of sacred spaces

    Installation artist Helen Marriage, a Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, conversed with Professor Rahul Mehrotra about a modern conundrum: In an increasingly secular age, can public space be spiritual? “Streets of Gold” continues the series on April 5.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Tracking disease in a tent city

    At India’s Kumbh Mela, the largest temporary city in the world, public health researchers from Harvard and beyond staged a small but nimble operation to follow health measures and disease outbreaks. The results will hold lessons not just for future Harvard students, but for urban health planners in India and elsewhere.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Among millions, a blank slate

    The Kumbh Mela, the world’s largest religious gathering, spawns a city of millions virtually overnight — and with it, a thriving ecosystem of commerce large-scale and small. Harvard Business School researchers traveled to India to search for the festival’s unlikely lessons in infrastructure, governance, and informal networks.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Saving the mother river

    The Sangam — the point where the Ganges, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet — is one of the holiest spots in India, drawing millions of Hindus for the Kumbh Mela festival. As a group of Harvard students learned, it’s also a place where centuries-old religious practices and modern-day environmental politics collide.

    9 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Mapping a megacity’s metabolism

    The temporary city that supports the Kumbh Mela, India’s gathering of millions of Hindus, is planned and built in just three months. A team of students, architects, and photographers from the Harvard Graduate School of Design set out to map the insta-metropolis in one week.

    10 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Inside India’s pop-up city

    Every 12 years, the Kumbh Mela, a centuries-old Hindu pilgrimage, temporarily transforms an empty floodplain in India into one of the biggest cities in the world. This month, an interdisciplinary team of Harvard professors, students, and researchers set out to map the gathering for the first time.

    6 minutes