Paper short abstract:

This presentation examines who has been represented as “slaughterer” and how they have been treated in re-Buddhistizing societies where the religious authorities have tried to reinforce doctrines such as the release of living things kept in captivity, under the democratization and secularization processes of contemporary Bhutan

Paper long abstract:

While political democratization was implemented in Bhutan since 2007, the disfranchisement of “religious personalities” occurred at the same time. The policy which meant the elimination of Buddhist monks from public political sphere seemed actually influencing the religious personalities to stimulate their passion for missionary work or re-Buddhistization of the society.

In this presentation, I would like to examine how this tendency affect and transform people’s everyday-lives including cultural, religious, and economical practices in rural societies in Bhutan. Especially the transition of practices of slaughtering animals will be focused this time. In the Buddhistizing societies of contemporary Bhutan, where the religious authorities try to reinforce Buddhist doctrines while to eliminate “barbarous” animal slaughter from the society, examining who has been represented as “slaughterer” and how they have been treated would lead us to look into social and cultural transitions through negotiations between multiple actors in the field. The study consists of interviews with pastoralists and farmers as well as archival research on newspapers and government publications.