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CHAIRPERSON

Assoc Prof Tenzin Jinba, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

In World of Worldly Gods, Kelzang T. Tashi offers the first comprehensive examination of the tenacity of Shamanic Bon practices, as they are lived and contested in the presence of an invalidating force: Buddhism. Through a rich ethnography of villages in central Bhutan, Tashi investigates why people, despite shifting contexts, continue to practice and engage with Bon, a religious practice that has survived over a millennium of impatience from a dominant Buddhist ecclesiastical structure. Against the backdrop of long-standing debates around practices unsystematically identified as ‘bon’, this book reframes the often stale and scholastic debates by providing a clear and succinct statement on how these practices should be conceived in the region.

Tashi argues that the reasons for the tenacity of Bon practices and beliefs amid censures by the Buddhist priests are manifold and complex. While a significant reason for the persistence of Bon is the recency of formal Buddhist institutions in the villages in question, he demonstrates that Bon beliefs are so deeply embedded in village social life that some Buddhists paradoxically feel it necessary to reach some kind of accommodation with Bon priests. Through an analysis of the relationship between Shamanic Bon and Buddhism, and the contemporary dynamics of Bhutanese society, this OUP book tackles the longstanding concern of anthropology: cultural persistence and change. It discusses the mutual accommodation and attempted amalgamation of Buddhism and Bon, and offers fresh perspectives on the central distinguishing features of Great and Little Traditions.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Kelzang T. Tashi is Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, and Visiting Fellow in the Department of Anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining Heidelberg, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, and a research associate in the Asian Institute at the University of Toronto. He received his PhD in Anthropology from the Australian National University in 2020. His areas of interest include religion and society, kinship and gender, health and healing, and the environment, with a regional focus on South Asia and the eastern Himalayas.

Gillian G. Tan is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Deakin University, Australia. She completed her PhD in Anthropology at the University of Melbourne and MA at the University of Chicago. Her research combines long-term ethnographic fieldwork among nomads of eastern Tibet with theoretical developments in phenomenology and the anthropology of nature and religion. She has published widely on human-environment relations, Tibet–China nexus, nomadic pastoralists, and religion and ecology. Currently, Gillian and her collaborators are working on an ARC Discovery project that aims to produce the first major transdisciplinary deep history of the hydrology and environment of the Asian Highlands. Her research has been supported by the Australian Research Council, the Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, the Fondation Fyssen Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Australian Postgraduate Award, the Australian Federation of University Women Daphne Elliott Bursary, and the Australian Government Endeavour Cheung Kong Award. She is the author of Pastures of Change Contemporary Adaptations and Transformations among Nomadic Pastoralists of Eastern Tibet (Springer, 2018) and In the Circle of White Stones: Moving through Seasons with Nomads of Eastern Tibet (University of Washington Press, 2016).

Cameron David Warner is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Aarhus University, Denmark. He completed his MA and PhD at Harvard University. His research is focused on Buddhism among Tibetans and Nepalis, and the development of Nepal. He has published extensively on Tibetan Buddhist material culture, gender, music, rituals, politics, migration, and post-earthquake reconstruction of houses and heritage sites, among others. Currently, he is working on gender and family dynamics in Tibetan migration to France, and the Dalai Lama’s legacy and impact on various communities. Cameron’s research has been supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research-Humanities, the Danish International Development Agency, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Fulbright Commission, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His recent publications include Impermanence: Exploring Continuous Change across Cultures (with Haidy Geismar and Ton Otto, UCL Press, 2022).