State, religious institution and community: Conservation and stigmatized slaughter in pastoral societies in the Himalayas

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• Mari Miyamoto (Extra Session!)
• Thursday 26 November 2015, 13:00-14:00
• Seminar Room.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Ritika Kapur.

Speaker bio: Mari Miyamoto is a Newton International Fellow working at the SOAS South Asia Institute. She has analysed diverse processes of cultural interpretations of global political issues such as “democracy” as well as “environmental conservation” in people’s everyday lives. Her current interest lies in plural interpretations of “secularism” and religious integration in Bhutan as a multireligious society in the Himalaya.

Abstract: The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan is known as an “environmentalist” nation that proposes 50% of the county as protected areas and has a conservation philosophy enriched by Buddhism and its teachings. However, Buddhist monasteries and monks have been in fact often conflicted with conservation policies of the government and ING Os in rural areas especially when conservation policies bring changes to pastoral villages, such as the reduction of cattle for forest protection (Miyamoto 2015). In this presentation I will describe transforming perceptions toward animal slaughter and pastoralist communities in Himalayan Buddhist societies in relation to changing meat markets in the area and the influence of increasing Buddhist practices such as Tsetar, (the release of living things kept in captivity to gain merit), in context of the livelihood and everyday practices of people living in rural areas of Bhutan.

This talk is part of the Political Ecology Group meetings series.

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• AUB_Cambridge Seminars
• Department of Geography
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