Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal
This paper examines local knowledge, perceptions, and responses to changing climes in the Trans-Himalayan region of Dolpa in Nepal. Rooted within the environmental humanities and shaped by emerging understandings of faith-based ecospirituality, our research partnership focuses on the experiences of...
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MDPI AG
2025-05-01
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| author | Jag Bahadur Budha Maya Daurio Mark Turin |
| author_facet | Jag Bahadur Budha Maya Daurio Mark Turin |
| author_sort | Jag Bahadur Budha |
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| description | This paper examines local knowledge, perceptions, and responses to changing climes in the Trans-Himalayan region of Dolpa in Nepal. Rooted within the environmental humanities and shaped by emerging understandings of faith-based ecospirituality, our research partnership focuses on the experiences of the indigenous Tarali Magar people of Gumbatara and neighbouring Shaharatara in the Tichurong valley. Through place-based engagements and drawing on various disciplinary threads and intellectual traditions, we review the effects of changing cultural, climatic, and ritual patterns on the lives and livelihoods of the Tarali Magar community. We explore how (i) agricultural practices are changing and adapting in response to wider systemic transformations; (ii) in what ways physical changes in the weather, clime and climate are experienced and imagined by Taralis through the lens of the Tarali concepts of <i>nham</i> (weather) and <i>sameu</i> (time); and (iii) local knowledge and embodied understandings about the natural and cultural worlds are embedded within Tarali spiritual traditions and religious worldviews. In reckoning with shifts in ecological patterns that disrupt long-standing agricultural practices and the cultural and religious knowledge systems that guide them, we demonstrate that Taralis are indigenous environmental humanists and empirical scientists. Through our study, we uplift culturally grounded, location-specific religious practices in the Tichurong valley and show how members of the Tarali community are contributing to global imaginaries for sustainable futures in our more-than-human world. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-87bce4bf68b2467baeb25605089ec815 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2077-1444 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-05-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Religions |
| spelling | doaj-art-87bce4bf68b2467baeb25605089ec8152025-08-20T03:16:38ZengMDPI AGReligions2077-14442025-05-0116666010.3390/rel16060660Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern NepalJag Bahadur Budha0Maya Daurio1Mark Turin2Central Department of Anthropology, Tribhuvan University, Kirtipur 44618, NepalDepartment of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USADepartment of Anthropology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, CanadaThis paper examines local knowledge, perceptions, and responses to changing climes in the Trans-Himalayan region of Dolpa in Nepal. Rooted within the environmental humanities and shaped by emerging understandings of faith-based ecospirituality, our research partnership focuses on the experiences of the indigenous Tarali Magar people of Gumbatara and neighbouring Shaharatara in the Tichurong valley. Through place-based engagements and drawing on various disciplinary threads and intellectual traditions, we review the effects of changing cultural, climatic, and ritual patterns on the lives and livelihoods of the Tarali Magar community. We explore how (i) agricultural practices are changing and adapting in response to wider systemic transformations; (ii) in what ways physical changes in the weather, clime and climate are experienced and imagined by Taralis through the lens of the Tarali concepts of <i>nham</i> (weather) and <i>sameu</i> (time); and (iii) local knowledge and embodied understandings about the natural and cultural worlds are embedded within Tarali spiritual traditions and religious worldviews. In reckoning with shifts in ecological patterns that disrupt long-standing agricultural practices and the cultural and religious knowledge systems that guide them, we demonstrate that Taralis are indigenous environmental humanists and empirical scientists. Through our study, we uplift culturally grounded, location-specific religious practices in the Tichurong valley and show how members of the Tarali community are contributing to global imaginaries for sustainable futures in our more-than-human world.https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/660climeecospiritualityenvironmental humanitiestransformationtemporalityweather |
| spellingShingle | Jag Bahadur Budha Maya Daurio Mark Turin Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal Religions clime ecospirituality environmental humanities transformation temporality weather |
| title | Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal |
| title_full | Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal |
| title_fullStr | Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal |
| title_full_unstemmed | Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal |
| title_short | Climing Up, Thinking With, Feeling Through: Ritual, Spirituality and Ecoscience in Northwestern Nepal |
| title_sort | climing up thinking with feeling through ritual spirituality and ecoscience in northwestern nepal |
| topic | clime ecospirituality environmental humanities transformation temporality weather |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2077-1444/16/6/660 |
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