Suchergebnisse

The Nako temple complex with its earliest structures dating back to the 11th century is an extraordinary testimony of early Tibetan Buddhism not anymore preserved in today's Tibet. Endangered by the rough environment,
improper treatment and frequent earthquakes, the outstanding monuments were re-discovered by scholars from Austrian universities in the 1980s.
The transdisciplinary research project carried out over more than 20 years led to in-depth studies, preservation and model-like conservation of the temples and their artworks. - Der Nako Tempelkomplex, dessen früheste Gebäude auf das 11. Jahrhundert zurückgehen, ist ein außergewöhnliches Zeugnis des frühen tibetischen Buddhismus, das im heutigen Tibet nicht mehr erhalten ist. Gefährdet durch das rauhe Klima, unsachgemäßen restauratorischen Umgang und v.a. häufige Erdbeben wurden die bedeutenden Denkmäler in den 1980er Jahren von österreichischen WissenschaftlerInnen wiederentdeckt. Ein transdisziplinäres Forschungsprojekt, über mehr als 20 Jahre durchgeführt, führte zu intensiven Untersuchungen und Studien sowie einer modellhaften Konservierung und Restaurierung der Tempelanlage und ihrer Ausstattung.

How do genealogical accounts in sparsely literate regions come into being, and what forms do they take? What are the factors that help sustain their appeal over centuries of oral transmission? Finally, what happens to their content when the story is committed to writing? This article addresses these questions by examining the evolutionary stages of a martial-historic oral epic from the western Himalayas. In looking into the details of the events that brought a local lineage to dominance, it delineates the multiple strands of bardic composition—acculturative, sociological and mythic—that address social, political and religious issues of relevance to its audience so as to produce an account of the past that is both credible and efficient as a tool for legitimating political dominance. Although largely faithful to the oral tradition, the story's transition to script is shown to produce changes that affect its historicity and its capacity to deliver a persuasive explanation of the past.

Research literature on the Western Himalayas emphasizes the theistic control of local deities. In the framework of this ruling system, described by the concepts of 'Little Kingdom' and 'government by deity', local deities functioned as gods and kings. They practice their royalty through a concrete divinity notion, aided by human mediums. In this article we will indicate the beginning of a conceptual change in the perception of a local deity named Mahāsū. Although Mahāsū is still perceived as a ruler, his role has become largely symbolic. We maintain that this illustrates how local theistic conceptions adapt to changes in the political and economic-technologic spheres as well as to the influence of pan-Hindu tradition.

Young Ladakhis experience markedly different childhoods from those of their parents and previous generations. In this rural region of the western Himalayas, a transition has occurred since the 1990s wherein education is now widely supported among Ladakhis as a priority for children, and economic provisions from the government and NGOs make school accessible. While financial returns on education are not guaranteed due to slow job growth, being educated has become a valued social marker that is important for full personhood. This dissertation explores what is at stake for Ladakh young people in light of significant socioeconomic transformations. Data derive from ethnographic research with pre-teens, teenagers, and parents of school-age children, carried out over ten months between 2011 and 2014 in villages and towns of Leh District, Jammu and Kashmir state, India. Because many Ladakhi parents received only primary schooling or none at all, the responsibility for learning and academic achievement falls on children, with parents perceiving that they have very limited agency in educational processed. Preteens and teenagers aspire to achievements that their parents support—to earn a higher education credential and then a professional career. But also, Ladakhi children must balance aspirations for modern lifestyles with popular narratives that lament the purported loss of traditional practices. Thus, they are actively engaged in developing contemporary Ladakhi identities that incorporate valued attributes of both the modern and the traditional. The persistence of the family as the central economic and social organizing unit in Ladakhi culture means children grow up learning to prioritize obligations to family. Therefore, the end result of education is not just about individual betterment; teenagers also hope to be able to support their families and improve their communities. However, family obligations can lead to friction with teenage students' individual hopes and dreams. Children from poor families are more likely to struggle to complete enough education to compete for good jobs that will move them out of poverty due to their cultural obligations to assist their families, suggesting the persistent reproduction of economic class despite widespread access to education and consistent belief in its transformational value.

This article explores the interacting politics of development and conservation and the contradiction between conservation and democracy through the specific experiences in the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP), India. Unraveling the connections between the local, regional, national and the global, in the sphere of politics, conservation, and development, we examine the context within which the specific conservation outcomes have evolved. We argue that centralized governance of nature – especially wildlife conservation – is incompatible with the exigencies of democracy. Secondly, we demonstrate that the locus of the problem is not opportunistic politics, but the particular science and ideology of conservation, which seeks to impose a culturally narrowly defined vision of nature on society at large. We suggest that the events in GHNP are representative of a widespread phenomenon, whereby rural communities adversely affected by conservation policies have exploited the exigencies of democratic politics to good effect, exhibiting an agency that is yet to be theorized adequately.