Dr. Upasna Chettri

Joint Academic Coordinator & Guest Faculty
Department of History
Darjeeling Hills University

BIO

Dr. Upasna Chettri is a Guest Faculty in the Department of History in Darjeeling Hills University, Mungpoo. Her specialisation is Ancient Indian History and Archaeology. Her Doctoral research focuses on the Archaeology of Sikkim- Darjeeling Himalayas and her M.Phil dissertation focuses on Buddhist paintings in Darjeeling.

EDUCATION

PhD, Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, 2025. (Thesis Title: Archaeology of Sikkim-Darjeeling Himalayas)

M.Phil, Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, 2018. (Dissertation Title: A study of the Themes in Buddhist paintings in the Monasteries of Darjeeling)

MA, Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology., Visva-Bharati Santiniketan, 2016.

BA (Honours) Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology., Visva-Bharati Santiniketan, 2014.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Archaeology of Sikkim-Darjeeling region
Buddhist art in the Himalayas
Folklore and oral traditions
Ethno-archaeology
History and Heritage of the Eastern Himalayas

EXPERIENCE

Site Supervisor, Excavation at Lal Pahari, Lakhisarai, Bihar, Bihar Heritage Development Society in collaboration with the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and archaeology, Visva Bharati University santiniketan, November 2017-July 2018.

Researcher, Annotated Atlas of the Heritage sites of Assam, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, December 2023-February 2024.

Researcher, Oral Traditions of the Lepchas: An Archaeological enquiry in Sikkim, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Inter University Accelerator Centre, August 2023-December 2025

PUBLICATIONS

Chettri, U & Sharma, S. (2024). Integrating Folktales in Archaeological Investigations: A Study from Sikkim Darjeeling Himalayas. Space and Culture, India 12:3. Pp. 83-106 https://doi.org/10.20896/saci.v12i03.1513

Chettri, U., Sharma, S. (2024). The Longchoks of Sikkim and North Bengal: The Need for Heritage Preservation and Awareness. In: Sharma, S., Uppaluri, R.V.S., Dutta, V., Kashyap, A. (eds) Policies for Research and Innovation. NERC 2022. (pp. 49-70). Springer, Singapore https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-5681-0_4

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “ The Sacred Space of the Megaliths: The Mahakal Dara Temple in Darjeeling, India” at the 31st European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) Annual Meeting 2025, Belgrade, Serbia on 2-6 September, 2025.

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “A Study of the Reinterpretation of Megaliths as Temples: A Case Study of Mahakal Dara Temple in Darjeeling” at the 10th World Archaeological Congress, 2025 hosted by Flinders University in partnership with Northern Institute at Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Australia on 22-28 June, 2025.

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “Longchoks of Sikkim Darjeeling Himalayas: The Need for Heritage Preservation and Awareness” at the 8th National Young Historians’ Seminar, 2024 organised by Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati on 21-22 September, 2024

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “Tales Toponymy and Terrains: Exploring the geography of Sikkim in Lepcha Folklore” at the Ninth Annual Conference of the Oral History Association of India themed Mountain History: At the Intersection of Memory, Politics and Identity held at North Eastern Hill University, Shillong on 13th-15th March, 2024

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “Co-operation and conflict in Lepcha Legends: The story of Longchoks” in the two days National Seminar on Decadal Celebration of Anthropology in Sikkim University: Challenges and Way Forward organized by Department of Anthropology, Sikkim University, Gangtok held on 7th-8th March, 2024.

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “Scientific Techniques for analyzing Ceramic and Soil samples from Daramdin, Sikkim” in Graduate Research Meet themed “Humanities and Social Sciences in Transition: Perspectives, Exchanges, and Translations” organized by Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati held on 6th-7th January, 2023

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “Between Oral Traditions and Archaeology: A tale of the Stairway to Heaven” in an International Seminar on “Cultural Heritage of Eastern Himalayas and Northeast India” organized by Southfield College, Darjeeling held on 25th-27th May, 2022

Upasna Chettri and Sukanya Sharma, “The Longchoks of Sikkim and North Bengal: The need for heritage preservation and awareness” in North East Research Conclave, Assam Biotech Conclave, 2022 organized by Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati held on 20th – 22nd May, 2022.

Upasna Chettri, “Diffusion of Cultures in the Darjeeling Hills-Interplay of the Lepchas, Bhutias and the Nepalese” in an International Seminar on “Assimilative nature of Indian Culture and its Continuity” organized by Benaras Hindu University (BHU), Benaras held on 13th – 15th December, 2019.

Upasna Chettri, “A Lhadipa’s Art: Thanka Paintings in Darjeeling” at Graduate Research Meet themed “Contemporary Trends in Humanities and Social Sciences” organized by the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Guwahati, Guwahati from 1st – 2nd November, 2019.

WORKSHOPS

“Open Knowledge and the Himalayas” organized by Highland Histories Lab and Open Knowledge Initiative of international Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad from 1st April, 2026 to 2nd April, 2026.

“Tracing Landscapes of the Past: Geospatial Approaches to Archaeology and Heritage” organized by National Institute of Advanced Studies, IISc campus, Bengaluru from 22nd December, 2025 to 2nd January, 2026

“Rewriting World Archaeology – South Asia Workshop, 2023-24” organized by Durham University, United Kingdom.

“National Workshop on Geochronology” organized by Inter University Accelerator Centre, New Delhi on 3rd – 4th October, 2023.

“Manne, Pottery Workshop (Handmade and Wheel-made pottery workshop)” organized by Heritage Science and Society Programme, School of Humanities, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bengaluru on 24th -25th August, 2023.

“Young Researchers’ Workshop on Use and Relevance of Mixed Methods in Sociological Research” organized by Indian Sociological Society and Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati on 18th-19th December 2022.

“GIS applications in Social Sciences” organized by the Discipline of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Archaeological Sciences Centre of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar on 13th – 14th May, 2022

“Archaeology and Museums Heritage of India” organized by Deccan Archaeological and Cultural Research Institute, Hyderabad and Panash Organization, Delhi from 10th – 18th January, 2021.

“Starting your Oral History Project” organized by Oral History Association of India (OHAI) held on 17th-18th October, 2020.

INVITED LECTURES

Upasna Chettri, “(Hi)stories of Places in Lepcha Tradition” in Weekend Lecture Series organized by Department of Geography, Malda College, Malda held from 18th July – 22nd August, 2021

Upasna Chettri, “Of Canvas and Colours: A Case Study of Thangka Painting in Darjeeling” in Virasat Talk – 163 and National Webinar organized by Buddhist Heritage Research Institute in collaboration with Heritage Society – Kashmir Circle on 26th May, 2021 (online). YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es7TT5Vr_so&pp=ygUfVmlyYXNhdCB0YWxrIDE2MyBVcGFz bmEgQ2hldHRyaQ%3D%3D

GRANTS AND AWARDS

Granted AMS facility at Inter university Accelerator Centre for 14C funded by Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India with reference numbers MoES/16/07/11(i)-RDEAS and MoES/P.O.(Seismic)8(09)-Geochron/2012. August 2023- December 2025

Awarded Springer Best Paper at North East Research Conclave (NERC), 2022 for the paper “The Longchoks of Sikkim and North Bengal: The need for Heritage Preservation and Awareness”. 20th-22nd May, 2022

Awarded National Eligibility Test for Assistant Professor in Archaeology on 31.07.2017 by University Grants Commission (UGC). UGC Ref. No.: 18929/(NET-JAN 2017)

MEMBERSHIPS

Full Membership for European Association of Archaeologists (EAA). Membership ID: 76225

Student Membership for World Archaeological Congress (WAC).

Life Membership for Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH). Membership ID: L/23101.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

To be updated.