Fortunate Futures: Tibetan Religious Narratives of Fecundity and Possibility

Tibetan Buddhist narratives of decline and degradation are closely linked with the proliferation of Buddhist teachings. Academic discourses also often engage deconstructivist narratives that critique and breakdown systems (gender inequality, language loss, economic and political corruption) without moving toward reinvention. These discourses not only belie a reality of complexity and constant change, but also lead to a sense of hopeless inevitability. Engaging Indigenous Futurism as a critical framework for reclaiming Indigenous agency through embodied, land-based practices of relationality that counter colonial narratives of Indigenous disappearance, this roundtable will highlight concepts, movements, institutions and literary devices that illustrate future-making in Tibetan religious and intellectual traditions. Bringing together scholars from the fields of literature, education, music, anthropology and religion, this roundtable proposes Tibetan narratives of future-making that buttress against grand narratives of decline.