Mountain At A Center Of The World

At the pilgrimage site of Adam’s Peak in Sri Lanka, a footprint is embedded atop the mountain summit. Buddhists hold that it was left by the Buddha, Hindus say Lord Siva, and Muslims and Christians identify it with Adam, the first man. The Sri Lankan state, for its part, often uses the Peak as a prop to convey a harmonious image of religious pluralism, despite increasing Buddhist hegemony. How should the diversity of this place be understood historically and managed practically? Considering the varied heritage of this sacred site, Alexander McKinley develops a new account of pluralism based in political ecology, representing the full array of actors and issues on the mountain. From its diverse people to rare species to deep geology, the Peak exemplifies a planetary pluralism that recognizes a multiplicity of beings while accepting competition and disorder. Taking a place-based approach, McKinley casts the mountain as an actor, exploring how its rocks, forests, and waters promote pilgrimage, inspire storytelling, and make ethical demands on human communities. Combining history and ethnography while furnishing original translations of sources from Pali, Sinhala, and Tamil, this multidisciplinary and stylistically innovative book shows how religious traditions share literal common ground in their reverence for the mountain.

"My house is the red earth; it could be the center of the world." This is Navajo country, a land of mysterious and delicate beauty. "Stephen Strom's photographs lead you to that place," writes Joy Harjo. "The camera eye becomes a space you can move through into the powerful landscapes that he photographs. The horizon may shift and change all around you, but underneath it is the heart with which we move." Harjo's prose poems accompany these images, interpreting each photograph as a story that evokes the spirit of the Earth. Images and words harmonize to evoke the mysteries of what the Navajo call the center of the world.

A fascinating exploration of the symbolism of mountains in the mythologies, religions, literature, and art of cultures around the world.

The studies assembled in this volume focus on two issues: firstly, the analysis and illustration of literary techniques employed by authors and compilers of the books of the Hebrew bible. In several instances, their development is followed into the early post-biblical Qumran writings and Apocrypha. Thus, the essays in this section relate to biblical literature qua literature, an issue which has especially attracted scholars in the field of recent times. In a second group of essays, the author sets out to probe the interconnection of literature and society in biblical Israel. Literary patterns, foremost motifs, are analyzed in the attempt to extract from them facets of underlying conceptual or speculative thought. Since biblical authors refrained, on the whole, from presenting systematically their world of ideas, the proposed evaluation of literary patterns may help in better gauging the conceptual universe of Israel in the biblical period

There is a World Heritage Craze in China. China claims to have the longest continuous civilization in the world and is seeking recognition from UNESCO. This book explores three dimensions of the UNESCO World Heritage initiative with particular relevance for China: the universal agenda, the national practices, and the local responses. With a sociological lens, this book offers comprehensive insights into World Heritage, as well as China’s deep social, cultural, and political structures.

"Loving Stones: Making the Impossible Possible in the Worship of Mount Govardhan is based on ethnographic and textual research with two major objectives. First, it is a study of the conceptions of and worshipful interactions with Mount Govardhan, a sacred mountain located in the Braj region of north-central India that has for centuries been considered an embodied form of Krishna. In this capacity it provides detailed information about the rich religious world associated with Mount Govardhan, much of which has not been available in previous scholarly literature. It is often said in that Mount Govardhan "makes the impossible possible" for devoted worshipers. This investigation includes examination of the perplexing paradox of an infinite god embodied in finite form, wherein each particular form is non-different from the unlimited. Second, it aims to address the challenge of interpreting something as radically different as the worship of a mountain and its stones for a culture in which this practice is quite alien. This challenge involves exploration of interpretive strategies that aspire to make the un-understandable understandable, and engages in theoretical considerations of incongruity, inconceivability, and like realms of the impossible. This aspect of the book includes critical consideration of the place and history of the pejorative concept of idolatry (and secondarily, its twin anthropomorphism) in the comparative study of religions. Accordingly, the second aim aspires to use the worship of Mount Govardhan as a site to explore ways in which scholars engaged in the difficult work of representing other cultures struggle to "make the impossible possible". ""--

Gary Fuller’s entertaining and informative guide uses geographic trivia questions as a springboard to learning about non-trivial aspects of our globe. An enlightening book for all readers, it enhances geographic know-how with good, old-fashioned fun. Discover who named the kangaroo; where can you find Lakers and Salties; what chili peppers, pineapple, chocolate, and vanilla have in common; where Shangri La was; and who was the most successful pirate in the Caribbean. An inveterate traveler and geographer extraordinaire, Fuller provides extensive background, engaging maps and photos, and thorough explanations for each intriguing trivia question. Challenging today’s global generation to truly get to know their world, his book is a delight to read and an essential antidote to our lack of geographical knowledge.