Download or read book Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley written by Arun Gupto and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-05-15 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In South Asia goddesses are conceptualized and worshipped in a fascinatingrange of forms – from cosmic beings to bacterial manifestations, from human-like appearances to creatures with animal and insect semblances. This book maps the diverse identities of goddesses through metaphors of Grace, Rage and Knowledge, and offers an in-depth insight into femininity, sexual politics, ritual worship, religion, ecology and gender. The volume explores how these deity attributes are expressed and embedded through anthropomorphic as well as inorganic forms of nature: beautiful women, multi-legged and many-armed animals, epistemic selves, demonic beings, glamorous personifications and also grotesque sub-humans. The second edition contains an Epilogue which further explores how the discourses on Goddesses are moulded by the myth and folklore. It opens discussions on how the dynamism of Goddess cultures have been appropriated into contemporary variations of those archetypes over time. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of religious studies, cultural studies, folklore, art, literature, sociology and gender studies, especially those interested in Nepal and Hinduism.
Download or read book GODDESSES OF KATHMANDU VALLEY SECOND EDITION written by ARUN. GUPTO and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Goddesses of Kathmandu Valley written by Arun Gupto and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-30 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In South Asia goddesses are conceptualized and worshipped in a fascinating range of forms — from cosmic beings to bacterial manifestations, from human-like appearances to creatures with animal and insect semblances. This book maps the diverse identities of goddesses through metaphors of grace, rage and knowledge, and offers an in-depth insight into femininity, sexual politics, ritual worships, religion, ecology and gender. Grace manifests as motherly sublimity, warring protectors, and varying personifications of sexuality. Rage encapsulates the fearful aspects of goddesses and independent identities of women. Knowledge evokes associations with order, reason and intellect in conflating gendered binaries of body/mind and nature/culture. The volume explores how these deity attributes are expressed and embedded through anthropomorphic as well as inorganic forms of nature, beautiful women, multi-legged and many-armed animals, epistemic selves, demonic beings, glamorous personifications as also grotesque sub-humans. A methodological combination of critical theory, mythological and philosophical concepts, along with popular ethnographic narratives and lived experiences, this monograph will greatly interest scholars and researchers of religious studies, cultural studies, folklore, art, literature, sociology and gender studies, especially those interested in Nepal and Hinduism.
Download or read book Thematizations of the Goddess in South Asian Cinema written by Anway Mukhopadhyay and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2022-11-16 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection presents cross-disciplinary explorations of the tropes, themes and representational frameworks constellating around the figure of the Goddess in South Asian cinema. It critically approaches the Goddess theme in various genres of South Asian cinema, using analytical tools culled from gender studies, comparative cultural studies, and religious studies, as well as film semiotics. The films discussed here represent variegated thematizations of the Goddess across regions in South Asia, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and various geo-cultural locations in India. As the volume highlights the regional and politico-cultural differences and commonalities in representational schemes between South Asian films of different genres through the Goddess motif, it will appeal to scholars of film studies, South Asian studies and comparative religion, and will hold a special appeal for those interested in Goddess cultures and theology.
Download or read book Dawn of Democracy in the Eastern Himalayan Kingdoms written by Awadhesh C. Sinha and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2018-10-26 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the beginnings of democracy in the three Himalayan kingdoms of Sikkim, Nepal and Bhutan. Charting the mobilisations and political experimentations that took place in the former buffer states under monarchies to establish democratic regimes, this book investigates their varying degrees of success, and offers a critical commentary on the consequent socio-political histories of this region. The volume sheds light on the nuances of their different geo-political contexts of the three Himalayan states, while tracing the social origins of the movements. It also undertakes a close analysis of the political participation and leadership involved to understand their achievements and limitations. A comprehensive analysis of a hitherto unexplored chapter in South Asian history, it will be of an immense interest to scholars and researchers of international relations, modern history, sociology and social anthropology, politics, South Asian studies, area studies, especially Nepal and Himalayan studies, as well as policy makers and government think tanks.
Download or read book The Politics of Ethnic Renewal in Darjeeling written by Nilamber Chhetri and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-02-24 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the nature of ethnopolitics evolving in the Darjeeling hills, located in the Eastern Himalayas. It highlights how in the wake of regional politics minorities pursue alternative avenues to attain rights and recognition. The book provides an astute analysis of competing claims of culture and identity engendered both by demands for regional autonomy and struggles for scheduled tribe status. It highlights the varied forms of ethnic demands often demonstrated through performative and discursive claims. The volume initiates a timely discussion on the discourse of recognition, politics of difference, and alterity which has wider implications and applications to understand South Asian realities. Drawing on rich empirical research, this work will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of politics, anthropology, sociology, tribal studies, ethnography, minority studies, and South Asian studies.
Download or read book Federation of Himalayan Kingdoms written by Awadhesh C. Sinha and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-29 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history and politics of the Greater Nepal movement. It looks at major events in modern South Asia, in and around the Eastern Himalaya region in particular – colonialism, independence and partition, the Chinese aggression in Tibet, formation of Bangladesh, and the merger of Sikkim with India, among others – which deeply affected the nature of democratic movements in Nepal. The volume also studies the role of the monarchy, the demand for Gorkhaland, and the rise of Maoist movements. Further, it sheds light on political participation encompassing Nepalese functionaries, the many political parties, intellectuals and responsible public figures, and the differential influence that these variegated groups had on the movement. Finally, it reassesses the idea of Greater Nepal and offers a critical commentary on its future. The volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of international relations, modern history, sociology and social anthropology, politics, South Asian studies, and area studies – especially Nepal and Himalayan studies – as well as policy makers and government think tanks.
Download or read book Reciting the Goddess written by Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reciting the Goddess presents the first critical study of the Svasthanivratakatha (SVK), a sixteenth-century Hindu narrative textual tradition. The extensive SVK manuscript tradition offers a rare opportunity to observe the making of a specific, distinct Hindu religious tradition. Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz argues that the SVK serves as a lens through which we can observe the creation of modern 'Hinduism' in the Himalayas, as the text both mirrored and informed key moments in the self-conscious creation of Nepal as the 'world's only Hindu kingdom' in the late medieval and early modern period. Birkenholtz mines the literary historiography that is contained within the SVK text itself, chronicling the text's literary and narrative development as well as the development of the Svasthani goddess tradition. She outlines the process whereby the SVK gradually transformed into a Purana text, and became a critical source for Nepali Hindu belief and identity. She also examines the elusive character of the goddess Svasthani whose identity is tied to the pan-Hindu goddess tradition, and the representation of women in the SVK and the ways in which the text influenced local and regional debates on the ideal of Hindu womanhood. Reciting the Goddess presents Nepal's celebrated SVK as a micro-level illustration of the powerful ways in which people, place, and literature intersect to produce new ideas and concepts of identity and place, even in a historically non-literate culture.
Download or read book Buddhist Goddesses of India written by Miranda Shaw and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-08-25 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The Indian Buddhist world abounds with goddesses--voluptuous tree spirits, maternal nurturers, potent healers and protectors, transcendent wisdom figures, cosmic mothers of liberation, and dancing female Buddhas. Despite their importance in Buddhist thought and practice, these female deities have received relatively little scholarly attention, and no comprehensive study of the female pantheon has been available. Buddhist Goddesses of India is the essential and definitive guide to divinities that, as Miranda Shaw writes, "operate from transcendent planes of bliss and awareness for as long as their presence may benefit living beings." Beautifully illustrated, the book chronicles the histories, legends, and artistic portrayals of nineteen goddesses and several related human figures and texts. Drawing on a sweeping range of material, from devotional poetry and meditation manuals to rituals and artistic images, Shaw reveals the character, powers, and practice traditions of the female divinities. Interpretations of intriguing traits such as body color, stance, hairstyle, clothing, jewelry, hand gestures, and handheld objects lend deep insight into the symbolism and roles of each goddess. In addition to being a comprehensive reference, this book traces the fascinating history of these goddesses as they evolved through the early, Mahayana, and Tantric movements in India and found a place in the pantheons of Tibet and Nepal."--Publisher's website.
Download or read book Depicted Deities written by M.L.B. Blom and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2023-08-07 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book deals with the rules of art. More specifically, it treats of the unwritten rules of Nepalese religious art as laid down in ‘model books’. These can be seen as manuals for the artists, in which they can find the correct way to represent, in visual art, any of some 2000 godly figures. The representation of these gods, all of them with their particular attributes, was (and is) subject to more or less strict rules. These books, the kind of which is also found in Europe in the early Middle Ages, have developed into a special tradition in Nepal, where a unique number of model books was found to be in existence, the oldest of them going back to the 15th century. The author of this study (the first in its kind) has traced the development in time of some 150 popular Hindu deities to determine the meaning of these model books for the artists using them, and also to see if the representation of these gods is in any way related to changes in society.
Download or read book 1 000 Places to See Before You Die the second edition written by Patricia Schultz and published by Workman Publishing. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 1287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world’s bestselling travel book is back in a more informative, more experiential, more budget-friendly full-color edition. A #1 New York Times bestseller, 1,000 Places reinvented the idea of travel book as both wish list and practical guide. As Newsweek wrote, it “tells you what’s beautiful, what’s fun, and what’s just unforgettable— everywhere on earth.” And now the best is better. There are 600 full-color photographs. Over 200 entirely new entries, including visits to 28 countries like Lebanon, Croatia, Estonia, and Nicaragua, that were not in the original edition. There is an emphasis on experiences: an entry covers not just Positano or Ravello, but the full 30-mile stretch along the Amalfi Coast. Every entry from the original edition has been readdressed, rewritten, and made fuller, with more suggestions for places to stay, restaurants to visit, festivals to check out. And throughout, the book is more budget-conscious, starred restaurants and historic hotels such as the Ritz,but also moderately priced gems that don’t compromise on atmosphere or charm. The world is calling. Time to answer.
Download or read book Sacred Places of Goddess written by Karen Tate and published by CCC Publishing. This book was released on 2005-11-01 with total page 425 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uncovering the past through the lens of sacred travel, this travel book includes both academic and popular religious perspectives, and is filled with photographs of both famous and lesser-known locales from every corner of the world. Each site-specific explanation of the significance of Goddess today and in centuries past deftly combines current trends, academic theories, and historical insights. From the Middle East, to Europe, Africa, and the Americas, the images of feminine divinity presented in this work are as uniform in their beauty as they are diverse in cultural tradition. For each location-be it the shrines in Kyoto and Kamakura or the sites worshipping the Virgin Mary in Bolivia, France, Trinidad, and the Saut D'Eau Waterfalls of Haiti-this book provides a history of each site in conjunction with the photography.
Download or read book Encyclopedia of Ancient Deities written by Charles Russell Coulter and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2021-12-06 with total page 609 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout history, humans have pondered the question of their existence. In nearly every society, part of the answer has included some form of god or goddess. For the Mayans, one such deity was Ajtzak, who tried to create humans from wood; for the Yorubas of Africa, Shango controlled the thunder and lightning. The Chinese of the Shang dynasty era worshipped Shang Ti. Evil deities were also part of the answer, as in the case of the Kuvera, the Hindu chief of evil in the Vedic period, and Tu, the Persian or Islamic demon of fatal accidents. All of the known ancient gods, many heretofore obscure or known only from mythological literature, are included in this exhaustive reference work. The focus is on their origins, histories, and functions. The people who believed in each deity are identified, along with alternate names or spellings both old and modern. The descriptions that follow are of the functions, origins and physical nature of the deities. Extensive cross references are provided for alternate spellings and names.
Download or read book Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power written by Laura Amazzone and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2010 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Amazzone's voice is strong and clear. Goddess Durga promises the transformation, empowerment, and dignity that is our birthright."--Marisa Tomei, Academy Award-winning actor.
Download or read book The Gods and Goddesses of Nepal written by Geoffrey Detmold and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Menstruation in Nepal written by Sara Parker and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2024-06-28 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the complexities of menstrual beliefs and practices in Nepal. Taking an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach, it explores and promotes the rights of women, girls, and people who menstruate to a dignified and healthy menstruation. The volume • collates current research in Nepal from local academics, early career researchers, and the Dignity Without Danger research project; • provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex stigmas and taboos that surround menstruation; • highlights the importance of rethinking ideas of religion, gender, menstruation, stigma and taboos, cultural practises, and discrimination; • proposes a counter-narrative that places sociological studies at the heart of the discussion surrounding menstruation; and • calls for more collaborative action research to strengthen the links between academia and activism across disciplines. An authoritative contribution, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of gender studies, public health, sociology, human rights, South Asian studies, medical sociology, cultural studies, and social medicine, particularly for those concerned with Nepal.
Download or read book The Living Goddess written by Isabella Tree and published by . This book was released on 2015 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compassionate and illuminating enquiry into the reclusive Himalayan country of Nepal and its famous Living Goddess. Written after twelve years of research, this book is emotionally engaging and deeply felt.
