Mountain, Water, Rock, God: Understanding Kedarnath in the Twenty-First Century

by Luke Whitmore

Overview

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In Mountain, Water, Rock, God, Luke Whitmore situates the disastrous flooding that fell on the Hindu Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath in 2013 within a broader religious and ecological context. Whitmore explores the longer story of this powerful realm of the Hindu god Shiva through a holistic theoretical perspective that integrates phenomenological and systems-based approaches to the study of religion, pilgrimage, place, and ecology. He argues that close attention to places of religious significance offers a model for thinking through connections between ritual, narrative, climate destabilization, tourism, development, and disaster, and he shows how these critical components of human life in the twenty-first century intersect in the human experience of place.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780520298026
Publisher:	University of California Press
Publication date:	11/27/2018
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	278
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Luke Whitmore is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations vii

Acknowledgments ix

Note on Transliteration xiii

Introduction: In the Direction of Kedar 1

1 In Pursuit of Shiva 29

2 Lord of Kedar 56

3 Earlier Times 84

4 The Season 107

5 When the Floods Came 145

6 Nature's Tandava Dance 168

7 Topographies of Reinvention 197

Glossary 211

Notes 217

Bibliography 227

Index 251

Editorial Reviews

"We are indebted to Whitmore for providing a glimpse of [Kedarnath]."

Nature and Culture Journal for the Study of Religion

"Whitmore’s analysis gives readers a nuanced and informed perspective on the pilgrimage to Kedarnath. . . . highly recommended for upper-level undergraduate and graduate-level courses in religious studies, sociology of religion, eco-politics, nature and the sacred, sustainability issues, and sacred pilgrimage."

Nova Religio

"Whitmore is the only scholar to have studied Kedarnath in such depth, and this book makes an indispensable contribution to the study of Hinduism. . . . Whitmore resists the temptation to sensationalize what defies description, providing instead a serious, sobering, and holistic analysis of the power attributed to this great Himalayan shrine."

International Journal of Hindu Studies

"This book is a very impressive contribution to the growing scholarship on the relationship between human society and nature, not only in the context of the Himalayan region and Indian society, but also more globally."

Journal of Contemporary Religion