Description
Religion has long been a powerful cultural, social, and political force in the Himalaya. Increased economic and cultural flows, growth in tourism, and new forms of governance and media, however, have brought significant changes to the religious traditions of the region in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
This book presents detailed case studies of lived religion in the Himalaya in this context of rapid change to offer intra-regional perspectives on the ways in which lived religions are being re-configured or re-imagined. Based on original fieldwork, this book documents understudied forms of religion in the region and presents unique perspectives on the phenomenon and experience of religion, discussing why, when, and where practices, discourses, and the category of religion itself, are engaged by varying communities in the region. It yields fruitful insights into both the religious traditions and lived human experiences of Himalayan peoples in the modern era.
Presenting new research and perspectives on the Himalayan region, this book should be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, and Modernity.
Table of Contents
Introduction 1. Modern Religiosities, Religious Modernities: Views from the Himalaya Megan Adamson Sijapati Part I: Space, Place, and Material Modernities 2. In the Mountains of Radical Juxtaposition: Kedarnath at the Beginning of a New Millennium Luke Whitmore 3. T-Pop and the Lama: Buddhist "Rites Out of Place" in Tibetan Monastery-Produced VCDs Holly Gayley 4. Pocketing the Himalaya: Sacred Souvenirs of the Chār Dhām Pilgrimage Andrea Pinkney Part II: Gods and Place: Migration, Deities, and Identities 5. From Text to Internet, Aniconic to Statuesque: Modern Textual and Performative Innovations in a Nepali Goddess Tradition Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz 6. Adulterous Dotiyal or Protector of the Oppressed? Modernity and the Reframing of Ganganath’s itihas in Uttarakhand Radhika Govindrajan Part III: Education, Governance, Official Discourses and Religion 7. Redefining Monastic Education: The Case of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery in the Kathmandu Valley Nadine Plachta 8. Schooling Virtue: Education for "Spiritual Development" in Northern Pakistan Katherine J.L. Miller 9. At the Boundary of Modernity: Religion, Technocracy, and Waste Management in Bhutan Elizabeth Allison
