Nancy Khalek
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199736515
- eISBN:
- 9780199918614
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199736515.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam
This chapter describes the literary and architectural processes whereby Damascus, indeed Syria itself, received a sacred “treatment” at the hands of Muslim historians and patrons who incorporated ...
More
This chapter describes the literary and architectural processes whereby Damascus, indeed Syria itself, received a sacred “treatment” at the hands of Muslim historians and patrons who incorporated Damascus and its environs into a sacred cosmology aimed at both locating and elevating the Muslim community in relation to the Byzantine world. Analyzing “ekphrastic” or iconic texts (namely geographies, religious merits literature, and biographies) the chapter traces how Damascus was construed by a variety of medieval authors. It also discusses Damascus as one part of a network of politically and spiritually charged localities across the Muslim world, spanning from Jerusalem to Constantinople.Less
This chapter describes the literary and architectural processes whereby Damascus, indeed Syria itself, received a sacred “treatment” at the hands of Muslim historians and patrons who incorporated Damascus and its environs into a sacred cosmology aimed at both locating and elevating the Muslim community in relation to the Byzantine world. Analyzing “ekphrastic” or iconic texts (namely geographies, religious merits literature, and biographies) the chapter traces how Damascus was construed by a variety of medieval authors. It also discusses Damascus as one part of a network of politically and spiritually charged localities across the Muslim world, spanning from Jerusalem to Constantinople.
Alexandra Walsham
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199243556
- eISBN:
- 9780191725081
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243556.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Early Modern History
This chapter examines the relationship between religion and the landscape of the British Isles from the prehistoric era to the eve of the Reformation. It explores the sacred geography of ancient ...
More
This chapter examines the relationship between religion and the landscape of the British Isles from the prehistoric era to the eve of the Reformation. It explores the sacred geography of ancient paganism and analyses how this was simultaneously repudiated and appropriated by missionaries and church authorities in the era of Christianization. The process by which the landscape was overlaid with legends about the Christian faith and the cult of saints is traced, alongside the ways in which it became a focus for pilgrimage, devotion, and the pursuit of miracles. The chapter also assesses the enduring current of anxiety about ‘superstitious’ belief and practice linked with holy places and shows how this culminated in humanist and lollard critique. It suggests that a focus on the landscape emphasizes both the vibrancy of late medieval piety and highlights some significant frictions and tensions within it.Less
This chapter examines the relationship between religion and the landscape of the British Isles from the prehistoric era to the eve of the Reformation. It explores the sacred geography of ancient paganism and analyses how this was simultaneously repudiated and appropriated by missionaries and church authorities in the era of Christianization. The process by which the landscape was overlaid with legends about the Christian faith and the cult of saints is traced, alongside the ways in which it became a focus for pilgrimage, devotion, and the pursuit of miracles. The chapter also assesses the enduring current of anxiety about ‘superstitious’ belief and practice linked with holy places and shows how this culminated in humanist and lollard critique. It suggests that a focus on the landscape emphasizes both the vibrancy of late medieval piety and highlights some significant frictions and tensions within it.
Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520241916
- eISBN:
- 9780520931121
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520241916.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
This study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity—the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world—by setting the phenomenon against the wide background ...
More
This study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity—the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world—by setting the phenomenon against the wide background of the political and theological debates of the time. Asking how the emerging notion of a sacred geography challenged the leading intellectuals and ecclesiastical authorities, the book reshapes our understanding of early Christian mentalities by unraveling the process by which a territory of grace became a territory of power. Examining ancient writers' responses to the rising practice of pilgrimage, the book offers a nuanced reading of their thinking on the merits and the demerits of pilgrimage, revealing theological and ecclesiastical motivations that have been overlooked, and questioning the long-held assumption of scholars that pilgrimage was only a popular, not an elite, religious practice. In addition to Greek and Latin sources, the book includes Syriac material, which allows her to build a rich picture of the emerging theology of landscape that took shape over the fourth to sixth centuries.Less
This study sheds new light on one of the most spectacular changes to occur in late antiquity—the rise of pilgrimage all over the Christian world—by setting the phenomenon against the wide background of the political and theological debates of the time. Asking how the emerging notion of a sacred geography challenged the leading intellectuals and ecclesiastical authorities, the book reshapes our understanding of early Christian mentalities by unraveling the process by which a territory of grace became a territory of power. Examining ancient writers' responses to the rising practice of pilgrimage, the book offers a nuanced reading of their thinking on the merits and the demerits of pilgrimage, revealing theological and ecclesiastical motivations that have been overlooked, and questioning the long-held assumption of scholars that pilgrimage was only a popular, not an elite, religious practice. In addition to Greek and Latin sources, the book includes Syriac material, which allows her to build a rich picture of the emerging theology of landscape that took shape over the fourth to sixth centuries.
André Padoux
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226423937
- eISBN:
- 9780226424125
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226424125.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter examines how Tantra appears materially on the ground in pilgrimages, temples, and iconography. Born in the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, whether Tantric or “mainstream,” is deeply ...
More
This chapter examines how Tantra appears materially on the ground in pilgrimages, temples, and iconography. Born in the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, whether Tantric or “mainstream,” is deeply rooted in the Indian soil. The main deities—Ś iva, Viṣṇu, the Goddess—are “pan-Indian,” worshipped everywhere. There are also local forms of the main deities, as well as a number of local deities, linked to specific places in India or Nepal where devotees can go from this world to the Other one. These sacred places spreading over South Asia form the sacred geography of the Indian subcontinent. The chapter first considers how sacred geography is experienced exoterically by a Hindu devotee (Tantric or, more currently, “mainstream”) during pilgrimage before turning to Hindu temples where Tantric rites are performed. It also describes Tantric icons and iconography, installations, and pantheons.Less
This chapter examines how Tantra appears materially on the ground in pilgrimages, temples, and iconography. Born in the Indian subcontinent, Hinduism, whether Tantric or “mainstream,” is deeply rooted in the Indian soil. The main deities—Ś iva, Viṣṇu, the Goddess—are “pan-Indian,” worshipped everywhere. There are also local forms of the main deities, as well as a number of local deities, linked to specific places in India or Nepal where devotees can go from this world to the Other one. These sacred places spreading over South Asia form the sacred geography of the Indian subcontinent. The chapter first considers how sacred geography is experienced exoterically by a Hindu devotee (Tantric or, more currently, “mainstream”) during pilgrimage before turning to Hindu temples where Tantric rites are performed. It also describes Tantric icons and iconography, installations, and pantheons.
Anna Fedele
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199898404
- eISBN:
- 9780199980130
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199898404.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
This chapter analyses the multiple meanings the pilgrims ascribe to the mountain, shrine and the cave of the Sainte-Baume. This was the most important pilgrimage site associated with Mary Magdalene. ...
More
This chapter analyses the multiple meanings the pilgrims ascribe to the mountain, shrine and the cave of the Sainte-Baume. This was the most important pilgrimage site associated with Mary Magdalene. Following Jungian theories the pilgrims considered it a place to commune with Mary Magdalene and Mother Earth. The pilgrims learn from their leaders a kind of sacred geography whereby the mountain is a power place rich in healing energy where important ley lines intersect. The pilgrims believe that as other power places the Sainte-Baume was used in pre-Christian times to venerate the Goddess, until it was appropriated and monopolized by the patriarchal Catholic Church. The chapter details the pilgrims’ comments about their perceptions as they visit the cave of the Sainte-Baume and the chapel of Saint-Pilon; it focuses upon their strategies for bypassing Christian strata of these places and connecting with what they hold to be more ancient, pre-Christian and pre-patriarchal layers. Individual pilgrims attribute different meanings associated with Mary Magdalene and have different nuances of attraction and repulsion towards Christianity.Less
This chapter analyses the multiple meanings the pilgrims ascribe to the mountain, shrine and the cave of the Sainte-Baume. This was the most important pilgrimage site associated with Mary Magdalene. Following Jungian theories the pilgrims considered it a place to commune with Mary Magdalene and Mother Earth. The pilgrims learn from their leaders a kind of sacred geography whereby the mountain is a power place rich in healing energy where important ley lines intersect. The pilgrims believe that as other power places the Sainte-Baume was used in pre-Christian times to venerate the Goddess, until it was appropriated and monopolized by the patriarchal Catholic Church. The chapter details the pilgrims’ comments about their perceptions as they visit the cave of the Sainte-Baume and the chapel of Saint-Pilon; it focuses upon their strategies for bypassing Christian strata of these places and connecting with what they hold to be more ancient, pre-Christian and pre-patriarchal layers. Individual pilgrims attribute different meanings associated with Mary Magdalene and have different nuances of attraction and repulsion towards Christianity.
Anya Bernstein
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- May 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780226072555
- eISBN:
- 9780226072692
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226072692.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter shifts the focus back to contemporary Buryatia, taking a close look at the strategies used to re-consecrate postsocialist Buddhist landscape and the production of new sacred geographies, ...
More
This chapter shifts the focus back to contemporary Buryatia, taking a close look at the strategies used to re-consecrate postsocialist Buddhist landscape and the production of new sacred geographies, historiographies, and cosmologies of time and space. While proposing to look at these phenomena in the context of the widely known Tibetan phenomenon of “treasures”— objects found underground that are accorded a revelatory status— the chapter expands the understanding of “treasures” through highlighting the special role of dead bodies as quintessential objects of the post-Soviet treasure hunt. It looks at the necropolitics that have developed around the bodies of two lamas: Itigelov who died in the 1920s and on whose “miraculously incorruptible” body, unearthed in 2003, the autonomy of Buryat Buddhism is said to currently rest; and Sodooi-Lama, at whose burial site, a new “self-arisen” image of the goddess Yanzhima had recently been discovered. Through making claims that these bodies and objects associated with them intentionally manifested themselves in these troubled postsocialist times, Buryat Buddhists create a renovated cosmology that overwrites their otherwise seemingly peripheral location in the Mongol-Tibetan world.Less
This chapter shifts the focus back to contemporary Buryatia, taking a close look at the strategies used to re-consecrate postsocialist Buddhist landscape and the production of new sacred geographies, historiographies, and cosmologies of time and space. While proposing to look at these phenomena in the context of the widely known Tibetan phenomenon of “treasures”— objects found underground that are accorded a revelatory status— the chapter expands the understanding of “treasures” through highlighting the special role of dead bodies as quintessential objects of the post-Soviet treasure hunt. It looks at the necropolitics that have developed around the bodies of two lamas: Itigelov who died in the 1920s and on whose “miraculously incorruptible” body, unearthed in 2003, the autonomy of Buryat Buddhism is said to currently rest; and Sodooi-Lama, at whose burial site, a new “self-arisen” image of the goddess Yanzhima had recently been discovered. Through making claims that these bodies and objects associated with them intentionally manifested themselves in these troubled postsocialist times, Buryat Buddhists create a renovated cosmology that overwrites their otherwise seemingly peripheral location in the Mongol-Tibetan world.
André Padoux
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226423937
- eISBN:
- 9780226424125
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226424125.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Tantra occupies a unique position in Western understandings of Hindu spirituality. Its carnal dimension has made its name instantly recognizable, but this popular fascination with sex has obscured ...
More
Tantra occupies a unique position in Western understandings of Hindu spirituality. Its carnal dimension has made its name instantly recognizable, but this popular fascination with sex has obscured its philosophical depth and ritual practices, to say nothing of its overall importance to Hinduism. This book offers a clear, well-grounded overview of Tantra that offers substantial new insights for scholars and practitioners. The book opens by detailing the history of Tantra, beginning with its origins, founding texts, and major beliefs. The second part of the book delves more deeply into key concepts relating to the tantric body, mysticism, sex, mantras, sacred geography, and iconography, while the final part considers the practice of Tantra today, both in India and in the West. The result is an authoritative account of Tantra's history and present place in the world.Less
Tantra occupies a unique position in Western understandings of Hindu spirituality. Its carnal dimension has made its name instantly recognizable, but this popular fascination with sex has obscured its philosophical depth and ritual practices, to say nothing of its overall importance to Hinduism. This book offers a clear, well-grounded overview of Tantra that offers substantial new insights for scholars and practitioners. The book opens by detailing the history of Tantra, beginning with its origins, founding texts, and major beliefs. The second part of the book delves more deeply into key concepts relating to the tantric body, mysticism, sex, mantras, sacred geography, and iconography, while the final part considers the practice of Tantra today, both in India and in the West. The result is an authoritative account of Tantra's history and present place in the world.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226356488
- eISBN:
- 9780226356501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226356501.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
During the imperial era of Tibetan history, when peoples of the high plateau of Tibet began their slow conversion to and assimilation of Buddhism, the bulk of Buddhist practices, narratives, and ...
More
During the imperial era of Tibetan history, when peoples of the high plateau of Tibet began their slow conversion to and assimilation of Buddhism, the bulk of Buddhist practices, narratives, and doctrines that were reliably available to them were those of the Mainstream (or Hinayāna) and particularly Mahāyāna styles of Buddhism. It is evident that a culturally creative background interest in Indian Tantra developed in imperial Tibet, and that it continued despite the widespread decline of Buddhist monasticism there following the disintegration of the empire during the ninth and tenth centuries. This chapter describes the pītha sites as the Buddhists of Tibet have come to know, understand, and engage with them as a particular construction of place. Tibetan acquisition of the pītha cult was an important factor in their development of a new and far more extensive, subcontinental vision of India as Buddhist holy ground. Moreover, the thorough appropriation of this Indian scheme of sacred geography contributed to the alternative creation of a new type of Tantric Buddhist geography in Tibet itself.Less
During the imperial era of Tibetan history, when peoples of the high plateau of Tibet began their slow conversion to and assimilation of Buddhism, the bulk of Buddhist practices, narratives, and doctrines that were reliably available to them were those of the Mainstream (or Hinayāna) and particularly Mahāyāna styles of Buddhism. It is evident that a culturally creative background interest in Indian Tantra developed in imperial Tibet, and that it continued despite the widespread decline of Buddhist monasticism there following the disintegration of the empire during the ninth and tenth centuries. This chapter describes the pītha sites as the Buddhists of Tibet have come to know, understand, and engage with them as a particular construction of place. Tibetan acquisition of the pītha cult was an important factor in their development of a new and far more extensive, subcontinental vision of India as Buddhist holy ground. Moreover, the thorough appropriation of this Indian scheme of sacred geography contributed to the alternative creation of a new type of Tantric Buddhist geography in Tibet itself.
Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- August 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780190677565
- eISBN:
- 9780190677596
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190677565.003.0017
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies, World Religions
The major religious traditions of the world—Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, to name but a few—all stress the need for human beings to create sacred spaces where they can thrive. This ...
More
The major religious traditions of the world—Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, to name but a few—all stress the need for human beings to create sacred spaces where they can thrive. This chapter utilizes the idea of sacred spaces as a means for teaching interreligious studies, and as a pedagogical tool for enabling interreligious learning. Human beings are persistently inclined to ground their religious and spiritual experience in sacred spaces. This commonality arises from the important role sacred spaces play in human attempts to structure and understand religious (spiritual) experience. The chapter also explores the relationship between “third space” thinking and interreligious spaces. How might a new spatial language of interreligious learning help communities engage the complexities of religious pluralism?Less
The major religious traditions of the world—Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, to name but a few—all stress the need for human beings to create sacred spaces where they can thrive. This chapter utilizes the idea of sacred spaces as a means for teaching interreligious studies, and as a pedagogical tool for enabling interreligious learning. Human beings are persistently inclined to ground their religious and spiritual experience in sacred spaces. This commonality arises from the important role sacred spaces play in human attempts to structure and understand religious (spiritual) experience. The chapter also explores the relationship between “third space” thinking and interreligious spaces. How might a new spatial language of interreligious learning help communities engage the complexities of religious pluralism?
Tam T. T. Ngo
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780520281226
- eISBN:
- 9780520961081
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520281226.003.0010
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Asian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines the religious and utopian nature of urban planning in Hanoi, Vietnam. Hanoi's cityscape can be read as a text that discusses political, economic, social, and cultural processes ...
More
This chapter examines the religious and utopian nature of urban planning in Hanoi, Vietnam. Hanoi's cityscape can be read as a text that discusses political, economic, social, and cultural processes and the functions of culture itself. Like elsewhere, urban planning in Hanoi may appear technical, scientific, and secular in its birthplaces—the offices of professional planning bureaus. This chapter first considers the metaphysics of urban planning, with particular emphasis on how urban planning is intertwined with utopianism. It then discusses two of many episodes that occurred in the process of realizing a new master plan to make Hanoi a modern megacity. It also places the discourse of Hanoi urban planning in a theoretical debate about urban religiosity to stress the consequences of urban renewal in Hanoi for sacred geography, national history, and political transition in contemporary Vietnam.Less
This chapter examines the religious and utopian nature of urban planning in Hanoi, Vietnam. Hanoi's cityscape can be read as a text that discusses political, economic, social, and cultural processes and the functions of culture itself. Like elsewhere, urban planning in Hanoi may appear technical, scientific, and secular in its birthplaces—the offices of professional planning bureaus. This chapter first considers the metaphysics of urban planning, with particular emphasis on how urban planning is intertwined with utopianism. It then discusses two of many episodes that occurred in the process of realizing a new master plan to make Hanoi a modern megacity. It also places the discourse of Hanoi urban planning in a theoretical debate about urban religiosity to stress the consequences of urban renewal in Hanoi for sacred geography, national history, and political transition in contemporary Vietnam.
Robert Hymes
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520207585
- eISBN:
- 9780520935136
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520207585.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religious Studies
Using a combination of newly mined Sung sources and modern ethnography, this book addresses questions that have perplexed China scholars in recent years. Were Chinese gods celestial officials, ...
More
Using a combination of newly mined Sung sources and modern ethnography, this book addresses questions that have perplexed China scholars in recent years. Were Chinese gods celestial officials, governing the fate and fortunes of their worshippers as China's own bureaucracy governed their worldly lives? Or were they personal beings, patrons or parents or guardians, offering protection in exchange for reverence and sacrifice? To answer these questions the author examines the professional exorcist sects and rising Immortals' cults of the Sung dynasty alongside ritual practices in contemporary Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as miracle tales, liturgies, spirit law codes, devotional poetry, and sacred geographies of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. Drawing upon historical and anthropological evidence, he argues that two contrasting and contending models informed how the Chinese saw and see their gods. These models were used separately or in creative combination to articulate widely varying religious standpoints and competing ideas of both secular and divine power. Whether gods were bureaucrats or personal protectors depended, and still depends, he says, on who worships them, in what setting, and for what purposes.Less
Using a combination of newly mined Sung sources and modern ethnography, this book addresses questions that have perplexed China scholars in recent years. Were Chinese gods celestial officials, governing the fate and fortunes of their worshippers as China's own bureaucracy governed their worldly lives? Or were they personal beings, patrons or parents or guardians, offering protection in exchange for reverence and sacrifice? To answer these questions the author examines the professional exorcist sects and rising Immortals' cults of the Sung dynasty alongside ritual practices in contemporary Taiwan and Hong Kong, as well as miracle tales, liturgies, spirit law codes, devotional poetry, and sacred geographies of the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. Drawing upon historical and anthropological evidence, he argues that two contrasting and contending models informed how the Chinese saw and see their gods. These models were used separately or in creative combination to articulate widely varying religious standpoints and competing ideas of both secular and divine power. Whether gods were bureaucrats or personal protectors depended, and still depends, he says, on who worships them, in what setting, and for what purposes.
Jürgen Schaflechner
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- January 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190850524
- eISBN:
- 9780190850555
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190850524.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of ...
More
Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of Hinglaj. Before the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway the journey to the Goddess’s remote abode in the desert of Balochistan frequently presented a lethally dangerous undertaking for her devotees, the hardships of which have been described by many sources in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu. This chapter draws heavily from original sources, including travelogues and novels, which are supplanted with local oral histories in order to weave a historical tapestry that displays the rich array of practices and beliefs surrounding the pilgrimage and how they have changed over time. The comparative analysis demonstrates how certain motifs, such as austerity (Skt. tapasyā), remain important themes within the whole Hinglaj genre even in modern times while others have been lost in the contemporary era.Less
Chapter 3 introduces the tradition of ritual journeys and sacred geographies in South Asia, then hones in on a detailed history of the grueling and elaborate pilgrimage attached to the shrine of Hinglaj. Before the construction of the Makran Coastal Highway the journey to the Goddess’s remote abode in the desert of Balochistan frequently presented a lethally dangerous undertaking for her devotees, the hardships of which have been described by many sources in Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Sindhi, and Urdu. This chapter draws heavily from original sources, including travelogues and novels, which are supplanted with local oral histories in order to weave a historical tapestry that displays the rich array of practices and beliefs surrounding the pilgrimage and how they have changed over time. The comparative analysis demonstrates how certain motifs, such as austerity (Skt. tapasyā), remain important themes within the whole Hinglaj genre even in modern times while others have been lost in the contemporary era.
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226356488
- eISBN:
- 9780226356501
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226356501.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
If there is one place, one land, which the peoples of Tibet have held in highest esteem, above all others—even often above their own land—it is India. In Tibetan thought and action, Tibet and India ...
More
If there is one place, one land, which the peoples of Tibet have held in highest esteem, above all others—even often above their own land—it is India. In Tibetan thought and action, Tibet and India are inextricably bound together. India gained its high standing in Tibetan civilization as the land of the Buddha and of Buddhism, and also as the source or origin place of high culture. This book explores how the idea of India as a religious territory or sacred geography has been utilized by Tibetans as a type of cultural resource in the development of religion and society in Tibet itself. It argues that the “real” India of direct experience has mostly been irrelevant in Tibet, and that Tibetan constructs and appropriations of India have taken on a life of their own. Indeed, they have come to constitute an important type of cultural resource that individuals and institutions in Tibetan societies have often drawn upon as agents in their own internal negotiations of power, authority, and legitimacy.Less
If there is one place, one land, which the peoples of Tibet have held in highest esteem, above all others—even often above their own land—it is India. In Tibetan thought and action, Tibet and India are inextricably bound together. India gained its high standing in Tibetan civilization as the land of the Buddha and of Buddhism, and also as the source or origin place of high culture. This book explores how the idea of India as a religious territory or sacred geography has been utilized by Tibetans as a type of cultural resource in the development of religion and society in Tibet itself. It argues that the “real” India of direct experience has mostly been irrelevant in Tibet, and that Tibetan constructs and appropriations of India have taken on a life of their own. Indeed, they have come to constitute an important type of cultural resource that individuals and institutions in Tibetan societies have often drawn upon as agents in their own internal negotiations of power, authority, and legitimacy.
Heather Miyano Kopelson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781479805006
- eISBN:
- 9781479814268
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9781479805006.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: early to 18th Century
This chapter tells the full story of the definition of bodies on Bermuda by focusing on the island's Atlantic connections to Africa and the Caribbean. It begins with an overview of the origins of ...
More
This chapter tells the full story of the definition of bodies on Bermuda by focusing on the island's Atlantic connections to Africa and the Caribbean. It begins with an overview of the origins of multicontinental habitation of Bermuda, one of the few places Europeans settled that did not have an indigenous population. In particular, it recounts the return in August 1616 of the English ship Edwin to Bermuda after a voyage to the Caribbean, carrying two pearl divers whose arrival marked an important event in Bermudian history and in the history of the Atlantic slave trade: “one Indian and a Negroe, the first thes Ilands ever had.” It then considers how the English colonizers institutionalized racial hierarchy and practiced slavery as a heritable condition by the end of the 1630s. It also examines how enslaved Africans and indigenous peoples from the Caribbean helped in the formation of Bermuda's sacred geography.Less
This chapter tells the full story of the definition of bodies on Bermuda by focusing on the island's Atlantic connections to Africa and the Caribbean. It begins with an overview of the origins of multicontinental habitation of Bermuda, one of the few places Europeans settled that did not have an indigenous population. In particular, it recounts the return in August 1616 of the English ship Edwin to Bermuda after a voyage to the Caribbean, carrying two pearl divers whose arrival marked an important event in Bermudian history and in the history of the Atlantic slave trade: “one Indian and a Negroe, the first thes Ilands ever had.” It then considers how the English colonizers institutionalized racial hierarchy and practiced slavery as a heritable condition by the end of the 1630s. It also examines how enslaved Africans and indigenous peoples from the Caribbean helped in the formation of Bermuda's sacred geography.
