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Reciting the Goddess
Reciting the Goddess is the first book-length study of Nepal's goddess Svasthani and the popular Svasthanivratakatha textual tradition. Drawing on archival and ethnographic research, it examines the making of Hinduism in Nepal, a history that is largely neglected in master narratives of Hinduism on the Indian subcontinent.
A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses
Imagining the divine as female is rare—even controversial—in most religions. Hinduism, by contrast, preserves a rich and continuous tradition of goddess worship. A Garland of Forgotten Goddesses conveys the diversity of this tradition by bringing together a fresh array of captivating and largely overlooked Hindu goddess tales from different regions. As the first such anthology of goddess narratives in translation, this collection highlights a range of sources from ancient myths to modern lore. The goddesses featured here battle demons, perform miracles, and grant rare Tantric visions to their devotees. Each translation is paired with a short essay that explains the goddess’s historical and social context, elucidating the ways religion adapts to changing times.
Menstruation in Nepal
This book examines the complexities of menstrual beliefs and practices in Nepal. Taking an interdisciplinary and intersectional approach, it explores and promotes the rights of women, girls, and people who menstruate to a dignified and healthy menstruation. The volume • collates current research in Nepal from local academics, early career researchers, and the Dignity Without Danger research project; • provides a more nuanced understanding of the complex stigmas and taboos that surround menstruation; • highlights the importance of rethinking ideas of religion, gender, menstruation, stigma and taboos, cultural practises, and discrimination; • proposes a counter-narrative that places sociological studies at the heart of the discussion surrounding menstruation; and • calls for more collaborative action research to strengthen the links between academia and activism across disciplines. An authoritative contribution, the book will be of interest to scholars and researchers of gender studies, public health, sociology, human rights, South Asian studies, medical sociology, cultural studies, and social medicine, particularly for those concerned with Nepal.
The Constant and Changing Faces of the Goddess
The Constant and Changing Faces of the Goddess: Goddess Traditions of Asia contains essays written by established scholars in the field that trace the multiplicity of Asian goddesses: their continuities, discontinuities, and importance as symbols of wisdom, power, transformation, compassion, destruction, and creation. The essays demonstrate that while treatments of the goddess may vary regionally, culturally, and historically, it is possible to note some consistencies in the overall picture of the goddess in Asia. The book provides a comprehensive treatment of the goddess, culminating in the selections that draw from research on Indian, Nepali, Chinese, Japanese, and Vietnamese traditions, s...
Vertical Ethiopia
"What if the very country that claims the Cradle of Humanity is also the next Mecca for adventure: In March of 2007, four women traveled to northern Ethiopia to climb virgin sandstone towers in the Horn of Africa. They explored rock monoliths in a region that is best known for the drought and famine of the 1980s and was the site of one of the bloodiest massacres of the Derg. Vertical Ethiopia is the narrative of their journey. Told through a series of vignettes that reveal what it means to climb, to travel, and to explore, Vertical Ethiopia looks closely at the intersections between adventure and culture, history and opportunity, and sky and sandstone"--Amazon.
Religion and Modernity in the Himalaya
Religion has long been a powerful cultural, social, and political force in the Himalaya. Increased economic and cultural flows, growth in tourism, and new forms of governance and media, however, have brought significant changes to the religious traditions of the region in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This book presents detailed case studies of lived religion in the Himalaya in this context of rapid change to offer intra-regional perspectives on the ways in which lived religions are being re-configured or re-imagined. Based on original fieldwork, this book documents understudied forms of religion in the region and presents unique perspectives on the phenomenon and experience of religion, discussing why, when, and where practices, discourses, and the category of religion itself, are engaged by varying communities in the region. It yields fruitful insights into both the religious traditions and lived human experiences of Himalayan peoples in the modern era. Presenting new research and perspectives on the Himalayan region, this book should be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Studies, Religious Studies, and Modernity.
The Swasthani Vrata Katha
The Swasthani Vrata Katha (The Story of the Ritual Vow to the Goddess Swasthani) is the most widely read, recited, and listened to Hindu devotional text, especially of local indigenous origin, among Hindu laity in Nepal. This book offers the first full-length scholarly English translation of this important text from the original Nepali.
The "Svasthānī Vrata Kathā" Tradition
The SVK bears particular witness to the tensions and interplay between the historical narratives of normative Brahmanical Hindu ideology and practice cultivated in the Nepal Himalaya and those imported from the Indian plains, and between Nepali high-caste Hindu culture and local Newar Hinduism. In retracing the history and development of the SVK, I examine the construction process through which Nepal became "the world's only Hindu kingdom," including the use of the SVK as a conduit for the ruling elite to reach the masses with political discourse in the garb of religious rhetoric. The question at the heart of this project is: How does the SVK, contextualized within Nepal's diverse geopolitical and socioreligious history, inform our understanding of what it means to be a Nepali who is Hindu and a Hindu who is Nepali?
