Enlightenment and the Gasping City : : Mongolian Buddhism at a Time of Environmental Disarray / / Saskia Abrahms-Kavunenko.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2019
• VerfasserIn: Abrahms-Kavunenko, Saskia,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2019]; ©2019
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (252 p.) :; 12 b&w halftones

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- 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