Dr. Asaf Sharabi, Senior Lecturer in the School of Behavioral Sciences at the Peres Academic Center, obtained his doctorate in social anthropology in 2010 from Bar Ilan University. In his doctoral thesis he explored the encounter between religion and contemporary modernity, in the context of the religious revival movement in Israel. In 2013, he undertook an ethnographic study in the Western Himalayas, a study in which he intermittently engaged to this day. The research focuses on the religious experience and changing theological perceptions relating to the image of local gods, especially Mahasu. In 2021, his research Gods and goddesses in the Western Himalayas - a comparative ethnographic research won a research grant from the Israel Science Foundation (ISF). His research interests include anthropology and sociology of religion, ritual healing, anthropology of gods, anthropology of Hinduism, and anthropology of Judaism.