This book presents detailed case studies of lived religion in the Himalaya to offer intra-regional perspectives on the ways in which lived religions are being re-configured or re-imagined in modernity. Presenting new research and perspectives on the Himalayan region, this book should be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, and Modernity.
Part I: Introduction 1. Modern Religiosities, Religious Modernities: Views from the Himalaya Part II: Space, Place, and Material Modernities 2. In the Mountains of Radical Juxtaposition: Kedarnath at the Beginning of a New Millennium 3. T-Pop and the Lama: Buddhist "Rites Out of Place" in Tibetan Monastery Produced VCDs 4. Pocketing the Himalayas: Sacred Souvenirs of the 4-Dham Pilgrimage Part III Gods and Place: Migration, Deities, and Identities 5. From Text to Internet, From Aniconic to Statuesque: Modern Textual and Performative Innovations in a Nepali Goddess Tradition 6. Adulterous Dotiyal or Protector of the Oppressed? Modernity and the Reframing of Ganganath's Itihas in Uttarakhand Part IV: Education, Governance, Official Discourses and Religion 7. Redefining Monastic Education: The Case of Khachoe Ghakyil Ling Nunnery in the Kathmandu Valley 8. Schooling Virtue: Education for 'Spiritual Development' in Northern Pakistan 9. At the Boundary of Modernity: Religion, Technocracy, and Waste Management in Bhutan
Megan Adamson Sijapati, PhD, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Co-Chair of Globalization Studies at Gettysburg College, in Pennsylvania, USA. She is the author of Islamic Revival in Nepal: Religion and a New Nation (Routledge, 2011).
Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Hinduism in the Department of Religion at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA. She is the Reviews Editor for Himalaya, journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies.