Buddhist Ritual as “Connectionwork”: Aesthetics and Technologies of Mediating Religious Belonging
Abstract In September 2016, the Himalayan Buddhist festival Naropa 2016 took place in the Northwest Himalayan region of Ladakh, India. This article analyzes the spectacular aesthetics of the Naro Gyen Druk ritual, the focus of Naropa 2016. Drawing on ethnographic documentation of this ritual, I cons...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2021
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| In: |
Numen
Year: 2021, Volume: 68, Issue: 5/6, Pages: 488-512 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ladakh
/ Naḍapāda 956-1040
/ Religious festival
/ Geschichte 2016
/ Lamaism
/ Ritual
/ Religious identity
/ Emotion
/ Relationship
/ Pad-ma-dbang-chen 1963-
/ Drukpa Kagyü
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| IxTheo Classification: | AD Sociology of religion; religious policy AG Religious life; material religion BL Buddhism KBM Asia |
| Further subjects: | B
Charisma
B Himalayan Buddhism B religious belonging B Ritual |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Abstract In September 2016, the Himalayan Buddhist festival Naropa 2016 took place in the Northwest Himalayan region of Ladakh, India. This article analyzes the spectacular aesthetics of the Naro Gyen Druk ritual, the focus of Naropa 2016. Drawing on ethnographic documentation of this ritual, I consider the role of ritual aesthetics in provoking affective, emotional, and bodily experiences among participants and their felt connections to the 12th Gyalwang Drukpa, the charismatic leader of the Drukpa Kagyü organization. I introduce the term “connectionwork” to emphasize how Buddhist conceptualizations of connections, drelwa (‘brel ba), bring to light how ritual and performances of charisma either work or fail to work in establishing religious belonging among Himalayan and international participants. Connectionwork helps to emphasize not only the work to organize and orchestrate religious rituals with the intention to institute religious belonging, but also the agential role that participants play in charismatic ritual performances. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5276 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Numen
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341637 |