HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies
Volume 39 Number 2 Article 4
March 2020
Editorial
Mona Bhan DePauw University
David Citrin University of Washington
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Recommended Citation Bhan, Mona and Citrin, David. 2020. Editorial. HIMALAYA 39(2). Available at: https://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/vol39/iss2/4
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We are excited to bring you Volume Buddhists, Sikhs, and Christians. In Within this fraught political context 39, Number 2 of HIMALAYA, with tandem with the implementation of then, emphasizing the historical and its emphasis on exploring religious a nation-wide National Registry of aesthetic aspects of religion, and diversity and social change in Ladakh. Citizenship (NRC), Indian citizens will viewing religion as an important This special issue foregrounds the have to ‘prove’ their Indian ancestry, dimension of community building and plural faith traditions and religions in a move that will predominantly belonging, as our authors show in this Ladakh, and presents religion as a site disadvantage Muslims, lower castes, issue, is critical to foreground Ladakh’s of creativity, visuality, innovation, and adivasis, and populations from lower plurality and multiculturalism. social and political change. An array of socio-economic classes. In September HIMALAYA is the result of the academic articles, perspective pieces, 2019, millions of Indians in the state dedicated labor and commitment of and photo essays examine religion of Assam, mostly Muslims, were a wonderful team of people; Jacki in Ladakh as a set of practices and stripped of their citizenship and Betsworth and her diligent team epistemologies that are hardly insular, rendered stateless. Although the long- of student aides at the Macalester but rather embody decades of material term implications of these policies College’s Dewitt Wallace Library and ideological encounters with for Ladakh’s Muslim and Buddhist continue to amaze us with their the world outside. Taken together, populations remain uncertain, a slew efficient workflows and their the articles debunk the imaginaries of constitutional changes in August meticulous and close reading of of Ladakh as an isolated mountain 2019 transformed Ladakh into a Union manuscripts. Special congratulations frontier, and center religion to track Territory and separated it from the to Emma Wellman who is graduating and explore the rich regional and state of Jammu and Kashmir. Such this year. Our Pre-Production global connections that continue to political maneuverings have further Editors, Emily Leischner at the influence Ladakh’s profuse cultural intensified Ladakh’s regional and University of British Columbia, and and political heritage. religious divisions. Megan Ramaiya, at the University of A focus on Ladakh’s complex religious In addition to the reorganization Washington, helped us standardize histories, as well as on the diversity of the state of Jammu and Kashmir, our style-guide in addition to working and antiquity of both its Buddhist the BJP government also revoked closely with the manuscripts, and and Muslim traditions, is even more Articles 370 and 35A that maintained Scott Halliday, our Managing Editor, critical and timely within the context the region’s semi-autonomous as usual, was generous with his of the controversial Citizenship status in India. As this issue goes valuable time and wisdom. Amendment Act (CAA) that Prime to print, Kashmir suffers from an We also welcome Mason Brown Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya unprecedented media black-out, who replaces our wonderful former Janata Party (BJP) recently passed in which has now entered its seventh Editor, Jessica Vantine Birkenholtz, the Indian parliament. The act has month, and populations in Ladakh as our incoming Reviews and Reports spurred widespread protests across remain divided over the long-term Editor. Mason is a Visiting Scholar at the country and transformed the implications of such unprecedented the Center for Asian Studies at the relationship between religion and constitutional changes. For many, the University of Colorado Boulder, and citizenship in India. The CAA prevents revocation has triggered anxieties we are delighted that he has joined the persecuted Muslims from neighboring about Ladakh’s cultural and political HIMALAYA team. countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, autonomy, while also raising concerns and Bangladesh from seeking refuge that Ladakh’s ecology will be ravaged in India, while at the same time, by external investments and worsen fast-tracking citizenship for Hindus, the impacts of climate change.
2 | HIMALAYA Fall 2019 As always, please do reach out to us with any thoughts or feedback on the current issue. Additionally, we continue the search for the next editors of HIMALAYA and welcome your leads and referrals, so please do continue to send those our way at <@anhs-himalaya.org>. We hope you enjoy this issue!
Mona Bhan and David Citrin Co-Editors, HIMALAYA
Correction
Sehnalova, Anna. 2019. Medicinal Mandala: Potency in Spatiality. HIMALAYA 39(1). Available at:
Table 6, row 2, column 5: original cell: “béken (earth, water)». The corrected table cell should instead read: «The cold and cooling water medicine».
A scene from the annual festival at Spituk monastery, Ladakh. Copyright: Elisa Read. Reproduced with permission.
(Elisa Read, 1928)
Front Outside Cover: Dancers at the Naropa Back Outside Cover: Windows of a Namgyal Front Inside Cover: Herd of goats walking festival in Ladakh. Tsemo Monastery in Leh, India. beside lake near mountains.
(Stanzin Khakyab, 2016) (Ashwini Chaudhary) (Simon Matzinger)
Photo adjusted using Prisma
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