David Hecht

Research Interests:

Community-based conservation, anthropology of landscapes, Himalayan anthropology, critical geography, participatory mapping, ethno-ornithology, Bhutan studies

Research Summary:

At the intersection of Tibetan Buddhism and indigenous ‘Bon’ animism in the Eastern Himalayas, complex relational and spatial ontologies exist between protective territorial deities (gnas bdag gzhi bdag; yul lha) and the communities that propitiate them. In Bhutan, a suite of local deities and more-than-human spirits are known to occupy territory, in forests, cliffs, trees, lakes, and springs, mediating relationships between people and their environments. Different local deity classes occupy and exhibit agency within the landscape, places described as “the deity’s palace” or “citadel of the deity” (pho brang). These landscape-scale relational ontologies inevitably intersect with the politics of conservation and development in the Kingdom. While characteristics of gnas bdag gzhi bdag are historically documented in religious text, there have been relatively few efforts to document this knowledge with community practitioners. Moreover, even fewer efforts to map deity citadels in a participatory capacity exist, precluding richer geographical understanding of their relational complexities, protected status, spatiality, and territoriality. Our research engages with integrative and collaborative techniques in cultural mapping to document local understandings of the landscape and foreground the more-than-human agencies and political ecology of conservation protected areas for priority species. Drawing insights from Himalayan artistic traditions, than kha and ldeb ris, we painted a series of deity counter-maps to accentuate cultural landscape realities and re-center marginalized traditional knowledges in conservation & development arenas.