Download or read book Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hidden Lands in Himalayan Myth and History showcases recent scholarship, photo essays, maps, and translations about hidden lands (sbas yul) across the Himalaya, from historical and contemporary perspectives.
Download or read book South Asian Goddesses and the Natural Environment written by Marika Vicziany and published by Archaeopress Publishing Ltd. This book was released on 2024-02-08 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This multidisciplinary collection presents 11 essays ranging from the pre-Vedic to the modern era and incorporating research on Hindu, Buddhist and tribal cultures. Authors ask whether the worship of goddesses, strongly linked to fertility rituals, might have mitigated the ecological decline of South Asia in the pre-British and post-colonial eras.
Download or read book Singer of the Land of Snows written by Rachel H. Pang and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 2024-03-13 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The singular role of Shabkar in the development of the idea of Tibet Shabkar (1781–1851), the “Singer of the Land of Snows,” was a renowned yogi and poet who, through his autobiography and songs, developed a vision of Tibet as a Buddhist “imagined community.” By incorporating vernacular literature, providing a narrative mapping of the Tibetan plateau, reviving and adapting the legend of Tibetans as Avalokiteśvara’s chosen people, and promoting shared Buddhist values and practices, Shabkar’s concept of Tibet opened up the discursive space for the articulation of modern forms of Tibetan nationalism. Employing analytical lenses of cultural nationalism and literary studies, Rachel Pang explores the indigenous epistemologies of identity, community, and territory that predate contemporary state-centric definitions of nation and nationalism in Tibet and provides the definitive treatment of this foundational figure.
Download or read book The Heart of the World written by Ian Baker and published by Thames & Hudson. This book was released on 2020-08-13 with total page 658 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The legend of Shangri-La emerged from the Tibetan Buddhist belief in beyul, or hidden lands. Tibetan prophecies proclaim that the greatest of these mythical sanctuaries lies at the eastern edge of the Himalayas, veiled by a colossal waterfall at the heart of the forbidding Tsangpo gorge. After years of research and investigation, Buddhist scholar and world-class climber Ian Baker and his team made worldwide news by reaching the bottom of the Tsangpo gorge and finding a magnificent 108-foot-high waterfall the legendary grail of both Western explorers and Tibetan seekers. The Heart of the World recounts one of the most captivating stories of exploration and discovery in recent memory an extraordinary journey into one of the wildest and most inaccessible places on earth, a meditation on our place in nature, and a pilgrimage to the heart of Tibetan Buddhism.
Download or read book Storying Multipolar Climes of the Himalaya Andes and Arctic written by Dan Smyer Yü and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-03-23 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book initiates multipolar climate/clime studies of the world’s altitudinal and latitudinal highlands with terrestrial, experiential, and affective approaches. Framed in the environmental humanities, it is an interdisciplinary, comparative study of the mutually-embodied relations of climate, nature, culture, and place in the Himalaya, Andes, and Arctic. Innovation-driven, the book offers multipolar clime case studies through the contributors’ historical findings, ethnographic documentations, and diverse conceptualizations and applications of clime, an overlooked but returning notion of place embodied with climate history, pattern, and changes. The multipolar clime case studies in the book are geared toward deeper, lively explorations and demonstrations of the translatability, interchangeability, and complementarity between the notions of clime and climate. "Multipolar" or "multipolarity" in this book connotes not only the two polar regions and the tectonically shaped highlands of the earth but also diversely debated perspectives of climate studies in the broadest sense. Contributors across the twelve chapters come from diverse fields of social and natural sciences and humanities, and geographically specialize, respectively, in the Himalayan, Andean, and Arctic regions. The first comparative study of climate change in altitudinal and latitudinal highlands, this will be an important read for students, academics, and researchers in environmental humanities, anthropology, climate science, indigenous studies, and ecology.
Download or read book A Step Away from Paradise written by Thomas K. Shor and published by Penguin Books India. This book was released on 2011 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WHAT WOULD HAVE HAPPENED... If Lewis Carroll had proclaimed the reality of Alice's Wonderland? What if he had gathered a following & launched an expedition? THE TRUE STORY OF A JOURNEY TO A FANTASTIC LAND IT WAS THE EARLY 1960s. The place, a far-off corner of the Himalayas long fabled in Tibetan tradition to be hiding a valley of immortality among its peaks and glaciers--a real-life Shangri-La. They waited generations for the prophesied lama to come, the one with the secret knowledge of how to 'open' the Hidden Land. Then, one day, he came. His name was Tulshuk Lingpa. THIS BOOK TELLS THE TRUE STORY of this charismatic visionary lama and his remarkable expedition. Against the wishes of the kings of both Sikkim and Nepal, he and over three hundred followers ventured up the snowy slopes of the third highest mountain of the planet. Their aim: to open a crack in the very fabric of reality and go to a land we would all wish to inhabit if it were only there--a land of peace and concord. FORTY YEARS LATER, the author spends over five years tracking down the surviving members of this extraordinary expedition. He deftly weaves their stories together with humor, wisdom, and scholarly research into Tibetan traditions of Hidden Lands, all the while reflecting on what this means for the rest of us. "LIKE NO OTHER BOOK I have ever read...a riveting tale of adventure...honest to the real spirit of Tibet...both unique and intriguing...an engrossing read. Highly recommended." JETSUNMA TENZIN PALMO, from the Foreword From Tulshuk Lingpa's Guidebook to the Hidden Land: "DON'T LISTEN TO ANYBODY. Decide by yourself and practise madness. Develop courage for the benefit of all sentient beings. Then you will automatically be free from the knot of attachment. Then you will continually have the confidence of fearlessness and you can then try to open the Great Door of the Hidden Place." FIRST PUBLISHED BY PENGUIN 2011 CITY LION PRESS EDITION 2017 THIS EDITION IS NOT FOR SALE IN SOUTH ASIA, MALAYSIA, OR SINGAPORE
Download or read book SECRET OF THE HIMALAYAN TREASURE written by Mundra Divyansh and published by BecomeShakespeare.com. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: THE OLDEST SECRET SOCIETY OF INDIA. THE GREATEST TREASURE IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND. THE MOST EPIC MYSTERY OF THE ANCIENT WORLD. When the richest man of India confesses to being part of a secret society in a live press conference; chaos ensues. His daughter Aanya Vashishtha takes the help of Aarav Kohrrathi, a brilliant but egoistic treasure hunter and his friend Rehann to solve the mystery of The Ring of the Seven, a society of influential men who are tasked to protect the greatest treasure in history. What starts off as a quest to uncover her father’s secret leads them to something bigger which they themselves couldn’t have fathomed. They take the help from her father’s associate, Shayna Maheshwari, a billionaire banker and someone herself involved with the secret, as they progress towards a treasure hidden somewhere in the Himalayas. They brave bullets, puzzles, deadly chases, cult of assassins, and betrayal as their quest takes them across the length and breadth of South Asia; from the bustling metropolises of Mumbai and Delhi to the ancient temples of Nepal; from the serene beaches of Sri Lanka to the towering mountains of the Himalayas. They try to uncover a set of secret books of lost arts, which are believed to reveal the map of the treasure, and strive to discover the identities of the masters of the Ring of the Seven to solve the penultimate mystery. In a tale of love and loss, logic and emotions, religion and history, action and adventure, and the trial of a few good men against the most powerful organization in the history of mankind. Will they find the secret of the Himalayan treasure?
Download or read book Sentient Ecologies written by Alexandra Coțofană and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2022-11-11 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Employing methodological perspectives from the fields of political geography, environmental studies, anthropology, and their cognate disciplines, this volume explores alternative logics of sentient landscapes as racist, xenophobic, and right-wing. While the field of sentient landscapes has gained critical attention, the literature rarely seems to question the intentionality of sentient landscapes, which are often romanticized as pure, good, and just, and perceived as protectors of those who are powerless, indigenous, and colonized. The book takes a new stance on sentient landscapes with the intention of dispelling the denial of “coevalness” represented by their scholarly romanticization.
Download or read book India written by Diana L Eck and published by Harmony. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In India: A Sacred Geography, renowned Harvard scholar Diana Eck offers an extraordinary spiritual journey through the pilgrimage places of the world's most religiously vibrant culture and reveals that it is, in fact, through these sacred pilgrimages that India’s very sense of nation has emerged. No matter where one goes in India, one will find a landscape in which mountains, rivers, forests, and villages are elaborately linked to the stories of the gods and heroes of Indian culture. Every place in this vast landscape has its story, and conversely, every story of Hindu myth and legend has its place. Likewise, these places are inextricably tied to one another—not simply in the past, but in the present—through the local, regional, and transregional practices of pilgrimage. India: A Sacred Geography tells the story of the pilgrim’s India. In these pages, Diana Eck takes the reader on an extraordinary spiritual journey through the living landscape of this fascinating country –its mountains, rivers, and seacoasts, its ancient and powerful temples and shrines. Seeking to fully understand the sacred places of pilgrimage from the ground up, with their stories, connections and layers of meaning, she acutely examines Hindu religious ideas and narratives and shows how they have been deeply inscribed in the land itself. Ultimately, Eck shows us that from these networks of pilgrimage places, India’s very sense of region and nation has emerged. This is the astonishing and fascinating picture of a land linked for centuries not by the power of kings and governments, but by the footsteps of pilgrims. India: A Sacred Geography offers a unique perspective on India, both as a complex religious culture and as a nation. Based on her extensive knowledge and her many decades of wide-ranging travel and research, Eck's piercing insights and a sweeping grasp of history ensure that this work will be in demand for many years to come.
Download or read book New Earth Histories written by Alison Bashford and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This book brings the history of the geosciences and world cosmologies together, exploring many traditions, including Chinese, South and Southeast Asian, Pacific, Islamic, and Indigenous conceptions of earth's origin and makeup. Together the chapters ask: How have different ideas about the sacred, animate, and earthly changed modern environmental science? How have different world traditions understood human and geological origins? How does the inclusion of multiple cosmologies change the meaning of the Anthropocene and the ongoing global climate crisis? By thinking carefully through and with other cosmologies, New Earth Histories sets a new agenda for history. The chapters consider debates about the age and structure of the earth, how humans and earth systems interact, and empire is conceived in multiple traditions. The methods the authors deploy are diverse-from cultural history, visual and material studies, and ethnography, to name a few-and the effect is to highlight how earth knowledge emerged from historically specific situations. New Earth Histories provides both a framework for studying science at a global scale and fascinating examples to educate as well as inspire future work. Essential reading for students and scholars of earth science history, environmental humanities, history of science and religion, and science and empire"--
Download or read book Hidden Geographies written by Marko Krevs and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-10-21 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book defines and discusses the term “hidden geographies” in two ways: systematically and by presenting a variety of examples of the research fields and topics concerning hidden geographies, with the aim of stimulating further basic and applied research in this area. While the term is quite rarely used in the scientific literature (more often as a figure of speech than to illustrate or problematize its deeper meaning), we argue that hidden geographies are everywhere and many of them have significant impacts on (other) natural and social phenomena and processes, subsequently triggering changes, for example in landscape, economy, culture, health or quality of life. The introductory section of the book conceptualises hidden geographies and discusses cognitive geography, symbolization of space, and the hidden geographies in mystical literature. Case studies of hidden environmental geographies address soils, air pollution, coastal pollution and the allocation of an astronomical tourism site. Revealing hidden historical and sacred places is illustrated through examples of the visualisation of the subterranean mining landscape, the analysis of the historical road network and trade, border stones and historical spatial boundaries, and the monastic Carthusian space. Hidden urban geographies are discussed in terms of the urban development of an entire city, presenting the role of geography in rescuing architecture, revealing illegal urbanisation, and the quality of habitation in Roma neighbourhoods. Case studies of hidden population geographies shed light on the ageing of rural populations and the impact of spatial-demographic disparities on fertility variations. Discussions of hidden social and economic geographies problematize recent social changes and conflicts in a country, present the implementation of the fourth industrial revolution and borders as hidden obstacles in the organisation of public transport. Hidden geographies are explicitly linked to perceptions and explanations in case studies that address local responses to perceived marginalisation in a city, the solo women travellers’ perceived risk and safety, and hidden geographical contexts of visible post-war landscapes. The book brings such a diversity of views, ideas and examples related to hidden geographies that can serve both to deepen their understanding and their various impacts on our lives and environment, and to attract further cross-disciplinary interest in considering hidden geographies – in research and in our every-day lives.
Download or read book The Words and World of Ge bcags Nunnery written by Elizabeth McDougal and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2024-02-06 with total page 278 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ge bcags (Gebchak) dgon pa, founded in 1892 in Nang chen, Khams (Qinghai Province, PRC), is still active today with around 250 nuns practising intensive Vajrayāna rituals, yogas and meditation. The nuns’ knowledge goal is embodied, nonconceptual awareness, yet they spend many hours daily reading texts as part of their training. By investigating the whole context of the nuns’ lifeworld and ways of learning, this ethnography questions the role of reading in Ge bcags’ tacit knowledge tradition. At a time when Tibetan learning practices are quickly modernising, this book demonstrates a Buddhist tradition whose textual knowledge is not exactly literal, but cultivated through continuous, whole person learning.
Download or read book Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2019-06-17 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Knowledge and Context in Tibetan Medicine is a collection of essays dedicated to the description and interpretation of Tibetan medical knowledge across different historical, cultural, and intellectual contexts.
Download or read book The Ethnography of Tantra written by Carola E. Lorea and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2023-11-01 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first collection of essays to approach the topic of Tantric Studies from the vantage point of ethnography and lived religion, moving beyond the centrality of written texts and giving voice to the everyday life and livelihoods of a multitude of Tantric actors. Bringing together a team of international scholars whose contributions range across diverse communities and traditions in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayan region, the book connects distant shores of Tantric scholarship and lived Tantric practices. The contributors unpack Tantra’s relationship to the body, ritual performance, sexuality, secrecy, power hierarchies, death, magic, and healing, while doing so with vigilant sensitivity to decolonization and the ethics of fieldwork. Through diverse ethnographies of Tantra and attention to lived experiences and life stories, the book challenges normative definitions of Tantra and maps the variety of Tantric traditions, providing comparative perspectives on Tantric societies across regions and religious backgrounds. The accessible tone of the ethnographic case studies makes this an ideal book for undergraduate or graduate audiences working on the topic of Tantra.
Download or read book Cosmopolitical Ecologies Across Asia written by Riamsara Kuyakanon and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-11-25 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cosmopolitical Ecologies Across Asia offers a unique insight into the non-human and spiritual dimensions of environmental management in a changing world. This volume presents a comparative, place-based exploration of landscapes across Asia and the entities, practices and knowledges that inhabit them. Rather than treating sacred mountains, terrains and water sources as self-contained, esoteric religious phenomena, the authors consider them within critical 'cosmopolitical ecologies' framings in which non-human entities are engaged as actors in the socio-political arena. The chapters include case studies of healing springs recognized by governments, and sacred mountains that are addressed by heads of states and Communist Party cadres, or that speak to the faithful through spirit mediums in a politics of re-enchantment. Contributors explore the diverse ways in which non-human entities such as forest spirits, reindeer, mountains and Buddhist Masters of the Land are engaged by humans to navigate environmental change and address a range of ecological threats from large-scale mining to climate change. Cosmopolitical ecologies approaches encompass the healing power of topography as well as transformative intimacies with other-than-human beings such as sparrows within an Islamic eco-theological poetic setting. In this light the book observes dynamic and creative processes of cosmological innovation including the repurposing of ritual to address challenges such as the Covid-19 epidemic. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environment and society across disciplinary perspectives in general, and to anthropologists, human geographers, political ecologists, indigenous studies, area studies, environmental sciences and environmental humanities scholars in particular. The Introduction to this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.
Download or read book Shambhala written by Victoria LePage and published by Quest Books. This book was released on 2014-08-22 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For thousands of years, stories have been told about an inaccessible garden paradise hidden among the icy peaks and secluded valleys of the Himalayas. Called by some Shangri-la, this mythical kingdom, where the pure at heart live forever among jewel lakes, wish-fulfilling trees, and speaking stones, has fired the imagination of both actual explorers and mystical travelers to the inner realms. In this fascinating look behind the myth, Victoria LePage traces the links between this legendary Utopia and the mythologies of the world. Shambhala, LePage argues persuasively, is "real" and may be becoming more so as human beings as a species learn increasingly to perceive dimensions of reality that have been concealed for millennia.
Download or read book Opening the Hidden Land written by Saul Mullard and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-11-14 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Using seventeenth and eighteenth century sources from the former Himalayan kingdom of Sikkim, this book examines the construction of Sikkimese historiography and presents an interpretation of the history of state formation of Sikkim.
