Religion Inscribed in the Landscape: Sacred Sites, Local Deities and Natural Resource Use in the Himalayas

Allison, Elizabeth

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9376-6_22

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…Additionally, there was considerably less built-up land around monasteries than around villages, and unused land was more likely to be transformed into grasslands or forests around the former than around the latter. These findings accord with fields studies and other investigations that have found Buddhist monasteries in China and elsewhere in Asia to exert a pro-conservation effect on surrounding landscapes (Harris et al 1991;Shen et al 2012a, b;Li et al 2014;Shonil et al 2014;Shen et al 2015;Allison 2015).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

“…For example, in Tibetan Buddhist areas in Bhutan, religions prohibit local people from mining resources or construction in certain areas. The Buddhist beliefs of local people also preserve forests and biodiversity in sacred natural sites (Allison 2015). In India, one of the reasons for the restoration of groves in the sacred forests of the Western Ghats in India is "cultural taboos" (Shonil et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Buddhist monasteries facilitated landscape conservation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Cui

Wang

et al. 2022

Landsc Ecol

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Context The Sanjiangyuan region of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau—also known as the “Three Rivers’ Headwaters”—is the origin of the Yellow, Yangtze, and Mekong Rivers and therefore the key water source for hundreds of millions of downstream residents. Protecting this region’s ecosystems is a key priority for sustainable development in China and Asia. An important social dimension of Sanjiangyuan is the long-established and widespread presence of Tibetan Buddhism, particularly as manifested in the large number of monasteries throughout the region. However, the influence of cultural factors on environmental change remains largely understudied here. Objective We focus on two types of spatial associations—point-point and point-area features—to quantitatively investigate the effects of Buddhist monasteries on land use/cover change (LUCC) in surrounding landscapes. Methods We conduct a spatially-explicit analysis of Sanjiangyuan for two periods, 1990–2000 and 2010–2015, to identify and quantify the influence of the presence and spatial distributions of Buddhist monasteries on LUCC compared to village communities that lack monasteries. Results We found that the presence of monasteries is highly correlated with the preservation of natural ecosystems, specifically of grasslands and forests. Within monastery buffer zones with radii between 1 and 10 km, 7.13–9.30% more grassland area and 7.14–7.47% more forest area remained around monasteries compared to villages. This contrast decreased with increasing distance to the monastery/village. Overall, built-up areas were also much smaller around monasteries than around villages, while unused land was more commonly transformed to forests and grasslands around monasteries. Conclusions These findings strongly support the idea that Buddhist culture, as manifested through its physical institutions and communities, are instrumental in achieving desired landscape conservation outcomes.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buddhist monasteries facilitated landscape conservation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Cui

Wang

et al. 2022

Landsc Ecol

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“…Hal ini dipertegas oleh Elizabeth Allison (2015) dalam bukunya yang lain berjudul The Changing World Religion Map: Sacred Places, Identities, Practices and Politics (2015) jika 'Tibetan Buddhists of Bhutan engage with specific places on the landscape to create and nurture the habits of mind that recognize forests, soil, rivers, mountains, and wildlife as beings worthy of respect'.…”

Section: Pendahuluanmentioning

confidence: 99%

My Green School Karya Loynpo Thakur S. Powdyel

Abadi

2022

EMS

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Bhutan dikenal sebagai negara yang cukup sukses melindungi ekosistem ekologisnya. Hal ini bukan saja ditopang oleh kebudayaan tapi juga pendidikan yang menekankan peserta didik untuk mencintai ekologisnya. Bahkan paradigma sosio-ekonomi negara yang terletak di antara India dan China ini adalah Indeks Kebahagiaan Nasional (GNH) yang menekankan pada keseimbangan antara pencapaian material dan spiritual. Ada 33 indikator kebahagiaan yang dibagi ke dalam 9 nilai aspek utama. Dari mulai psikologis, kesehatan, penggunaan waktu, pendidikan, kebudayaan, tata kelola pemerintahan, daya kreatif komunitas, kesadaran dan keberagaman ekologis, dan standar hidup. Dalam konteks Indonesia sangat sedikit kajian yang membahas seputar bagaimana Bhutan, menyeimbangkan pembangunan spiritual, ekologis, dan materialnya. Oleh karena itu kajian ini akan mengkaji Buku dari Loynpo Thakur S. Powdyel berjudul ‘My Green School’ (2021). Tujuan dari tinjauan buku ini adalah untuk menambah khazanah pengetahuan tentang wacana pembangunan alternatif yang berbasis ekologis terutama dari contoh negara Bhutan yang jarang kita bahas.

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“…Built and natural sacred sites define the landscape: Buddhist monasteries, temples, prayer wheels, and chortens (Tib. mchod rtens; white-washed stone reliquaries) sanctify the landscape (Allison 2015). Proximity to sacred sites and figures provides blessing in the Vajrayana tradition.…”

Section: Spiritual Landscape Ecology Of Bhutanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The period of closure coincides with the season of maximum plant growth, allowing herbs to grow and trees to leaf out undisturbed by humans (Allison 2004). The tsen of eastern Bhutan requires that the high reaches of its mountains be 'closed' to human presence and especially timber and bamboo harvesting at certain times of the year, a period known as ladam or reedum (Allison 2004(Allison , 2015Giri 2004;Kuyakanon and Gyeltshen 2017). In their detailed analysis of one such ladam closure preceded by a ritual "to petition Khobla Tsen [the tsen protector deity] for his protection and to remind him of his obligations to the community", Kuyakanon and Gyeltshen (2017, p. 17) highlight the place-based nature of the ritual, and observe that the ritual responds to specific community concerns, to support "community and livelihood maintenance".…”

Section: Local Deities and Landscape Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deity Citadels: Sacred Sites of Bio-Cultural Resistance and Resilience in Bhutan

Allison

2019

Religions

Self Cite

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Consistent with the pan-Himalayan tendency to see the landscape as lively and animated, protector deities and local spirits are perceived to inhabit various features of the landscape in Bhutan, causing these places to be treated with reverence and respect. Local spiritual beliefs are prized as central to the cultural identity of the Kingdom, making their way into government planning documents, town planning negotiations, and the 2008 Constitution. This elevation of local spiritual belief has been central to the maintenance and preservation of Bhutanese culture in its encounter with globally hegemonic social, economic, and political norms. Spirits and deities are believed to be the original owners of the land predating the introduction of Buddhism from Tibet. According to terma texts—spiritual treasures hidden by great Buddhist teachers to be discovered later—the initial introduction of Buddhism into Bhutan occurred in the seventh century. At that time, the Tibetan king Songtsen Gampo, the 32nd king of the Yarlung dynasty, built two temples in western and central parts of Bhutan as part of a strategy to pin down a demoness who was ravaging the Himalaya. About a century after the construction of the temples, Padmasambhava, known throughout the Himalayas as Guru Rimpoche, or “Precious Teacher,” arrived in Bhutan, subjugated eight classes of local spirits and made them sworn protectors of the Dharma. In this way, local deities and spirits became incorporated into Bhutan’s Vajrayana Buddhism to the extent that images of them are found at Buddhist temples and monasteries. Vajrayana Buddhism and local deities and spirits twine together in Bhutan to shape a cosmology that recognizes a spectrum of sentient beings, only some of whom are visible. The presence of deities and spirits informs local land use. Deity abodes or “citadels” (Dz.: pho brang) are restricted from human use. The presence of a deity citadel is sufficient in some locales to cause the diversion or reconsideration of human construction and resource use. By grounding spiritual beliefs in specific sites of the landscape, the citadels of deities sanctify the landscape, becoming nodes of resistance and resilience that support the Bhutanese in inhabiting their own internally-consistent cosmology, even as the pressures of global integration seek to impose hegemonic Western norms.

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Religion Inscribed in the Landscape: Sacred Sites, Local Deities and Natural Resource Use in the Himalayas

Cited by 10 publications

References 17 publications

Buddhist monasteries facilitated landscape conservation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

Buddhist monasteries facilitated landscape conservation on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau

My Green School Karya Loynpo Thakur S. Powdyel

Deity Citadels: Sacred Sites of Bio-Cultural Resistance and Resilience in Bhutan

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