Description
Book SynopsisA free ebook version of this title is available throughLuminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visitwww.luminosoa.orgto learn more. In Mountain, Water, Rock, God, Luke Whitmore situates the disastrous flooding that fell on the Hindu Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath in 2013 within a broader religious and ecological context. Whitmore explores the longer story of this powerful realm of the Hindu god Shiva through a holistic theoretical perspective that integrates phenomenological and systems-based approaches to the study of religion, pilgrimage, place, and ecology. He argues that close attention to places of religious significance offers a model for thinking through connections between ritual, narrative, climate destabilization, tourism, development, and disaster, and he shows how these critical components of human life in the twenty-first century intersect in the human experience of place.
Trade Review"This book is a very impressive contribution to the growing scholarship on the relationship between human society and nature, not only in the context of the Himalayan region and Indian society, but also more globally." * Journal of Contemporary Religion *
"Whitmore’s analysis gives readers a nuanced and informed perspective on the pilgrimage to Kedarnath. . . . highly recommended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses in religious studies, sociology of religion, eco-politics, nature and the sacred, sustainability issues, and sacred pilgrimage." * Nova Religio *
"We are indebted to Whitmore for providing a glimpse of [Kedarnath]." * Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture *
"Whitmore is the only scholar to have studied Kedarnath in such depth, and this book makes an indispensable contribution to the study of Hinduism. . . . Whitmore resists the temptation to sensationalize what defies description, providing instead a serious, sobering, and holistic analysis of the power attributed to this great Himalayan shrine." * International Journal of Hindu Studies *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration Introduction: In the Direction of Kedar
1. In Pursuit of Shiva
2. Lord of Kedar
3. Earlier Times
4. The Season
5. When the Floods Came
6. Nature’s
Tandava Dance
7. Topographies of Reinvention
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
