1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910807180803321

Autore

Abrahms-Kavunenko Saskia

Titolo

Enlightenment and the gasping city : Mongolian Buddhism at a time of environmental disarray / / Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Ithaca, New York ; ; London : , : Cornell University Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

1-5017-3765-1

1-5017-3766-X

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (251 pages)

Disciplina

294.3095173

Soggetti

Buddhism - Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar

Air - Pollution - Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar

Human ecology - Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar

Human ecology - Religious aspects - Buddhism

Ethnology - Mongolia - Ulaanbaatar

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Transliteration and Terms -- Introduction -- 1. Dust and Obscuration in a New Economy -- 2. A History of Enlightenment in Mongolia -- 3. Buddhism, Purification, and the Nation -- 4. Ignorance and Blur -- 5. Networks and Visibility -- 6. Karma and Purification -- 7. Removing Blockages, Increasing Energy -- 8. Temple Critiques -- 9. White Foods, Purification, and Enlightenment -- Conclusion: Stillness and Movement -- Glossary -- Notes -- References -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

With air pollution now intimately affecting every resident of Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko seeks to understand how, as a physical constant throughout the winter months, the murky and obscuring nature of air pollution has become an active part of Mongolian religious and ritual life. Enlightenment and the Gasping City identifies air pollution as a boundary between the physical and the immaterial, showing how air pollution impresses itself on the urban environment as stagnation and blur. She explores how air pollution and related phenomena exist in dynamic tension with



Buddhist ideas and practices concerning purification, revitalisation and enlightenment. By focusing on light, its intersections and its oppositions, she illuminates Buddhist practices and beliefs as they interact with the pressing urban issues of air pollution, post-socialist economic vacillations, urban development, nationalism, and climate change.