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SUMMARY:Guest Lecture: “Tighter Than a Silken Knot and Heavier Than a Go
 lden Yoke”: Tibetan Metaphors of the Religious and Political Between Ima
 gination and Social Reality
DTSTART:20221114T151500Z
DTEND:20221114T164500Z
DTSTAMP:20260405T210743Z
UID:guest-lecture-tigther-than-a-silken-knot-8444@ceres.rub.de
CATEGORIES:
DESCRIPTION:Guest Lecture by Dr. Dagmar Schwerk (Leipzig University)\n\nWh
 at can metaphors in Bhutanese pre-modern legal codices and religious histo
 ries tell us about social differentiation between the spheres of religion 
 and politics and Buddhist cosmology in the Tibetan cultural area? What fun
 ctions do metaphors fulfill in these works and\, how have they become so p
 otent in creating meaning\, identity\, and authority within the Buddhist p
 olity in Bhutan? In other words\, what do metaphors tell us about the tran
 scendence-immanence distinction in the Tibetan cultural area? In this talk
 \, Dagmar Schwerk will reflect on these questions based on a textual analy
 sis of different metaphors from the Bhutanese Legal Code from 1729 and rel
 ated Bhutanese (and Tibetan) works.\n\nAs a background\, Bhutan provides a
  unique historical and analytical setting for two reasons. First\, Bhutan 
 is the only country in the Tibetan cultural area that still possesses a pr
 e-modern structural continuity in the form of the “Joint Twofold System 
 of Governance” (Tibetan: chos srid gnyis ldan/chos srid zung ’jug/chos
  kyi rgyal srid). It represents a pre-modern form of differentiation betwe
 en the societal spheres of religion\,\npolitics\, and economy common in th
 e Tibetan cultural area. However\, today\, Bhutan is the only surviving ex
 ample as Sikkim and Tibet no longer exist independently. Second\, Bhutan
 ’s societal elites have always been intensely engaged in cultural encoun
 ters with Asian and later Western nations and colonial powers\, but Bhutan
  was never colonized. Therefore\, Bhutan is a unique case in point with it
 s continued Tibetan Buddhist form of governance—albeit in a modernized w
 ay institutionalized in the Bhutanese constitution.\n\nHence\, for an addi
 tional diachronic and contemporary perspective in our discussion\, Dagmar 
 Schwerk will also briefly address both the relationship between metaphors 
 and Bhutan’s sustainable development model of “Gross National Happines
 s” (GNH) and\, more broadly\, the conceptual centrality of these metapho
 rs in understanding the complexity of the unique relationship between the 
 spheres of religion and politics in Bhutan today.\n\nThe lecture will also
  be available via Zoom. To participate\, please pre-register until 11 Nove
 mber 2022 at: https://eveeno.com/gl-sfb1475-14-11-2022
LOCATION:CERES Palais\, room "Ruhrpott" (4.13)
URL:https://ceres.rub.de/en/events/guest-lecture-tigther-than-a-silken-kno
 t/
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