• 1964-1969: Studies at Lund University, Sweden, for a BA in Philosophy, History of Ideas, Theology, History of Religions, and Indology.
• 1969-1972: Study for a PhD in the History of Religions at the Faculty of Arts, Lund University, and Indology at the University of Gothenburg. The dissertation was on Buddhist ritual (pirit) in Sri Lanka (Der Paritta-Dienst in Ceylon).
• Appointed "docent" in 1972.
• 1979-81: Humboldt Fellow, Indology, in Göttingen (Professor Heinz Bechert) and München (Professor Dieter Schlingloff).
• 1969-1983: Lecturer in History of Religions at the University of Lund and Göteborg.
• 1973-1983: Director of Religious Studies and Head of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Göteborg.
• 1983-. Appointed by the Government of Sweden as full professor for a chair in the History of Religions, in particular in Hinduism and Buddhism, placed in Uppsala at the Faculty of Arts.
• 1983-1993. Head of the Department of History of Religions at the Faculty of Arts, Uppsala University.
• 1994. The chair was shifted to the Faculty of Theology.

My main area of research in 2009-2012: Buddhism/Hinduism, and religious expressions of social-economic conflicts in present South Asia, especially on the concepts of martyrdom in a cross-cultural perspective with focus on secular concepts as promoted by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam(LTTE). Earlier I worked on Buddhist ritual in a Sinhala-Pali tradition, especially on pirit and baṇa, on Buddhism among speakers of Tamil in the pre-colonial period of South India and Lanka, on Caivam of Tamil speakers in the European exile, on the Väddō (Väddas) of Lanka, and on the semantic history of the toponym Īḻam.

• 2002 Buddhism among Tamils in Pre-Colonial Tamiḻakam and Īḻam, 2002. Part 1. Prologue. The Pre-Pallava and the Pallava period. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum 19. Uppsala: ACTA.
• 2002 Buddhism among Tamils in Pre-Colonial Tamiḻakam and Īḻam, 2002. Part 2. The Period of the Imperial Cōḻar. Tamiḻakam and Īḻam. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum 20. Uppsala: AUU.
• 2003. “Beyond Hindu Festivals: The Celebration of Great Heroes’ Day by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) in Europe. In: Tempel und Tamilen in zweiter Heimat. Hindus aus Sri Lanka im deutschsprachigen und skandinavischen Raum. Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, pp. 391-421.
• 2004. God as Remover of Obstacles. A Study of Caiva Soteriology among Īḻam Tamil Refugees in Stockholm, Sweden. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum 23. Uppsala: AUU.
• 2004. Vädi into Vanniyaläättō. Transformation of Images of the Lankan Väddō. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum 24. Uppsala: AUU, 2004.
• 2004. Īḻam<sīhala? An Assessment of an Argument. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Historia Religionum 25. Uppsala: AUU.
• 2007 Die Lehre der Befreiungstiger Tamiḻīḻams von der Selbstvernichtung durch göttliche Askese: Vorlage der Quelle ÜBERLEGUNGEN DES ANFÜHRERS. 2007. Herausgeber Peter Schalk. Uppsala: Uppsala University. E-book
• 2009 Die Lehre des heutigen tamilischen Widerstandes in Īḻam /Laṃkā vom Freitod als Martyrium“. Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft 2009/1, pp.71-100. E-book

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