Space, Place, and Religion Unit and Tibetan and Himalayan Religions Unit

Marginal Spaces and Marginal Beings in Tibet and the Himalayas

Panel Organizer - Brandon Dotson (dotson.brandon@gmail.com)

Tibet has long conceived of itself as a frontier or a borderland of unruly human and non-human beings in need of taming, mostly by Indian Buddhism. Now absent from most maps, and facing the erasure of even the name "Tibet," per PRC mandate, Tibetan language and culture occupies an increasingly marginalized space. To put this contemporary space of the margin - and its dynamics of violence and non-violence - into perspective, this panel invites contributions that concern marginal spaces and marginal beings in Tibet and the Himalayas. Contributions might examine marginal figures such butchers and morticians, zombies, wildmen, and revenants; interpersonal relations with beings such sinpos, lumos, and dakinis; utopias ("non-places") such as hidden lands (beyul) and paradises; or liminal spaces of pilgrimage, crossroads, and rivers.