Gjesteforelesning: "Imparting Order to the World." Recent Research on Society, Power and Religion in Pre-Modern Western Tibet"
Guest lecture by Dr. Christian Jahoda:
The lecture takes place in PA Munch’s House, seminar room 12 Tuesday 12 January 10:15-12:00 and is open to all.
Abstract:
Various studies have illuminated the fundamental role of Buddhist institutions in the structuring of social order in Tibetan and Himalayan societies as well as the importance of Buddhist monasteries for control over labour and the flow of goods and their function as an active factor in trade. When expression and maintenance of political, social and religious order in Tibetan societies are at issue, cosmological frameworks, ritual and administrative practices as well as historical and mythic narratives are among the key themes to be considered. From a comparative view also the variability, adaptability as well as circulation and migration of cultural forms needs to be attended to. This talk focuses on order and how this theme pervaded spatial and architectural settings and depictions of socio-political assemblies in pre-modern Western Tibet and in which way it continues to be not only a uniting factor but one of central importance in a number of public performance traditions, such as village and monastic festivals (e.g., authoritative speech traditions performed at wedding ceremonies or by trance mediums).
Dr. Christian Jahoda has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Vienna, and is currently a research fellow at the Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences (AAS) where he is leading the research project "Interaction in the Himalayas and Central Asia". He has carried out extensive fieldwork in Central and Western Tibet (PRC), as well as in Spiti and Upper Kinnaur, Himachal Pradesh, and in Ladakh, Jammu & Kashmir (India) and has published on a broad range of topics in these areas.
Among his publications are: 'Socio-economic Organisation in a Border Area of Tibetan Culture: Tabo, Spiti Valley (Himachal Pradesh, India)' (2015); 'Khor chags / Khorchag / Kuojia si wenshi daguan [Kuojia Monastery: An Overview of Its History and Culture]' (co-authored with Tsering Gyalpo, Christiane Kalantari and Patrick Sutherland, 2015 and 2012); 'Text, Image and Song in Transdisciplinary Dialogue' (co-edited with Deborah E. Klimburg-Salter, and Kurt Tropper 2007); 'Feast of Miracles: The Life and the Tradition of Bodong Chole Namgyal (1375/6-1451 A.D.) According to the Tibetan Texts ‘Feast of Miracles’ and ‘The Lamp Illuminating the History of Bodong’ (co-authored with Hildegard Diemberger, Pasang Wangdu and Marlies Kornfeld, 1997).
The lecture is is organized by the interfacultary Research Seminar in Tibetan and Himalayan Studies (TibHim), and is funded by Religion in Pluralist Societies (PluRel).
We wish you all warmly welcome!
Yours sincerely,
Hanna Havnevik (Rel.hist.), Astrid Hovden (PhD-fellow), and Heidi Fjeld (HELSAM)