1. Putting the Festival Participants Back into the Festival: Rethinking Communal Identity Formation in Buddhist Cham Festivals in Bhutan
- Author:
- Mareike Wulff
- Publication Date:
- 12-2019
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- Journal of Bhutan Studies
- Institution:
- Centre for Bhutan & GNH Studies (CBS)
- Abstract:
- This paper investigates how the practice of communal festivals in Bhutan results in forming communal identity, with a focus on Vajrayana Buddhist cham1 festivals. It seeks to close the gap between scholarly publications that address the formal content of festivals, and arguments for identity formation as an outcome of festival practices by centring the festival participants between these two positions. Drawing on the results of my long-term case study of the Korphu Drub, a cham festival performed by the Korphu community in Trongsa District, the paper shows how social actors carry out festival action in relation to their status and knowledge as community members throughout time. I trace the different age grades and genders in their lives coming along with specific social statuses, and connect these to the changing ascribed / achieved positions and works taken up during the festivals throughout one lifetime. This is to show how communal identity evolves as an ongoing process of reflexivity between the individual festival participant and his/her community. Last, I relate my observations to the concept of rites of passage and propose that the Korphu Drub can be understood as a substitute for missing rites of passage in Korphu, which additionally fosters identification with one’s community.
- Topic:
- Buddhism, Identity, Tradition, Communal Identity, Agency, and Festivals
- Political Geography:
- South Asia and Bhutan