Paper short abstract:

The paper examines how the threat of exploitation at the sites of two sacred hills in Bashkortostan has provoked a renewed attachment to the landscape among Bashkir Muslims. While attempts to protect the hills correspond to a rediscovery of traditions, they also generate more modern imaginaries.

Paper long abstract:

Situated not far from the city of Sterlitamak in Bashkortostan, the four Shikhan hills - Toratau, Shakhtau, Yuraktau and Kushtau - are considered sacred by many Bashkir Muslims. Over the last years, conflicts have erupted around two of these sacred hills, Toratau and Kushtau, over limestone exploitation by the Bashkir Soda Company. An earlier victim of these extraction practices, Shakhtau has mostly disappeared. In the last years and particularly during the summer of 2020, local Bashkir activists have organised protest actions to protect the hills, enjoying a broad support in Bashkortostan. In this paper, I examine how the threat of exploitation and environmental damage has provoked a renewed attachment to the sacred landscape among Bashkir Muslims. The sacred history of these hills is revisited, generating a new sense of connection and identification with the natural landscape. Thus, the environmental activism around the hills also corresponds to a process of rediscovering ancient Bashkir clan lineages and also spiritual lineages, for example a Sufi heritage. While attempts to protect the sacred hills are anchored in a rediscovery of Bashkir traditions, they also generate more modern and future-oriented imaginaries. Local activists are connected to transnational environmental networks and seek to generate an environmental-friendly tourism around the sites. They also want to promote the use of environmental-friendly technologies to protect them. The protection of the Bashkir sacred landscape is thus an example of how the re-attachment to a sacred landscape and traditions converges with the search for modern solutions to environmental problems.