This thesis examines the ongoing division between nature and culture in international heritage management. Despite efforts to integrate both aspects, the division persists and is often reinforced...Show moreThis thesis examines the ongoing division between nature and culture in international heritage management. Despite efforts to integrate both aspects, the division persists and is often reinforced by international heritage processes and categorisations, historically established, and promoted by organisations like UNESCO, which contributes to a disconnect between local, national, and international processes, frequently marginalising local communities. Through a multidisciplinary approach this thesis examines the impact of World Heritage listings that incorporate both natural and cultural criteria, using the case study of Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) in the Indian state of Sikkim. Inscribed as India’s first mixed natural and cultural World Heritage Site in 2016, the KNP boasts a remarkable range of environments, resulting in exceptional biodiversity. Additionally, the landscape holds deep spiritual and cultural significance for local communities such as the Lepcha, and international Buddhist communities, who consider it a sacred hidden land. These relationships have established unique customs, worldviews, material culture, and traditional knowledge. In this context, natural and cultural heritage are intricately interconnected, providing an opportunity to explore whether mixed listings can transcend the traditional Western dichotomy of nature versus culture and enable more integrated heritage management.Show less
Anorexia Nervosa is a debilitating illness characterized by the limitation of food intake and a fear of weight gain. While we might at face value take the illness to be irrational, within this...Show moreAnorexia Nervosa is a debilitating illness characterized by the limitation of food intake and a fear of weight gain. While we might at face value take the illness to be irrational, within this project we find that the dangerous condition is fueled by a foundation of justifications based on shared cultural ideas and the values derived from them. I will argue that anorexia occurs when an individual manages to embody attitudes of mind, body, and desire found in the Western philosophical tradition. For the anorexic, rather than being a project of vanity, losing weight can be understood as a spiritual project of transcending the human body and dissolving craving, thus, a quest for liberation. The illness functions in a way in which the anorexic individual sees the world through a filter that seeks out motivation to continue starving, as the self-denial is so extreme that it goes against the individual’s basic human instinct of survival and thus requires constant fuel to persist. What I call the anorexic worldview is a system of values and beliefs that promises the individual who adopts it liberation through transcending one’s ordinary humanity and becoming invulnerable, but at the end of the day, this worldview serves merely the contrary purpose of powering the mental and physical deterioration of the individual. Interestingly, themes inherent to anorexia such as a negative view of the body and the strict denial of craving are also prevalent in early Buddhist philosophy.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (BSc)
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This bachelor thesis focuses on the novel integration of robots within Japanese Buddhism. It does so by zooming in on the integration and assignment of different roles to three robots.
Bachelor thesis | South and Southeast Asian Studies (BA)
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It is a sensitive question for many Tibetans nowadays what the use and thereby the survival of the Tibetan language could or could not mean for the preservation of a Tibetan cultural identity and...Show moreIt is a sensitive question for many Tibetans nowadays what the use and thereby the survival of the Tibetan language could or could not mean for the preservation of a Tibetan cultural identity and the survival Tibetan Buddhism.Show less
This thesis compiles views on music and dance scattered throughout the Pāli Canon and its commentaries. It starts with negative views, widely considered the most characteristic, and lists the...Show moreThis thesis compiles views on music and dance scattered throughout the Pāli Canon and its commentaries. It starts with negative views, widely considered the most characteristic, and lists the spiritual, emotional and even social reasons given in the early texts for the avoidance of musical art forms. The rest of the work addresses less known, wholesome uses of music: ‘devotional’ compositions, apparently as old as the oldest strata of the Pāli Canon (according to the texts themselves, many eons older), and a handful of episodes where advanced practitioners are led to Nirvana by the lyrics of peasant songs. The last chapter is dedicated to two meditational states that seem to involve perceptions of beauty, the ‘beautiful-liberation’ (subha-vimokkha) and the samādhi of divine sounds of the Mahāli Sutta. The conclusion argues that a more balanced image of the early Buddhist approach to art is needed to make sense of modern Buddhism and its embrace of a perhaps not so foreign ‘Romantic’ aestheticism.Show less
This paper proposes another axis of understanding for the Minamata case study by analyzing the philosophical intricacies of the Japanese culture in contrast with Japan's politics and industrial...Show moreThis paper proposes another axis of understanding for the Minamata case study by analyzing the philosophical intricacies of the Japanese culture in contrast with Japan's politics and industrial goals. Instead of offering a technical solution to such a far-reaching event, it looks at the hidden potential of Japanese cultural practices in transforming the way politics consider the priorities of human development and how local communities’ expectations can be met when their lifestyle is taken into consideration. In that sense, the Minamata incident reveals to be more than a local disaster but also to a larger extent the illustration of a societal and philosophical discordance.Show less
This paper facilitates a conversation between a classical Chinese Zen Buddhist story and contemporary French feminist theory. Hélène Cixous' work is used as a mirror to explore the significance of...Show moreThis paper facilitates a conversation between a classical Chinese Zen Buddhist story and contemporary French feminist theory. Hélène Cixous' work is used as a mirror to explore the significance of the exceptional appearance of a nude female body and a celebrated vagina in this Zen text.Show less
Over the centuries the Silk Road networks spanned from Europe till Eastern Asia. The diverse cultures and traditions that existed along these networks has always been an area of interest for...Show moreOver the centuries the Silk Road networks spanned from Europe till Eastern Asia. The diverse cultures and traditions that existed along these networks has always been an area of interest for scholars. This paper focuses on the Northern reaches of the ancient region of Gandhara, which is a region in the North of present day Pakistan. This paper focuses on Buddhist anthropomorphic images found along the Indus river course that would have been used by merchants and traders to travel from the northern regions of Asia towards the southern regions. By analyzing the Buddhist anthropomorphic rock carvings found within this area, further information on the diversity of interactions can be gained and deeper knowledge of the intricacies of the Silk Road networks can be gained. The dataset I present produces an interesting result in terms of interactivity along these trade routes. From the evidence found, it becomes clear that throughout the long history of this trade route, different ideas of religion and religious imagery was transmitted from the southern regions northwards and vice versa. By conducting a stylistic and iconographic analysis on specific Buddhist anthropomorphic images from this dataset, I argue that there is a certain fusion of Buddhist imagery taking place within the research area.Show less
A comparative analysis between the concept of emptiness in the Buddhist and Daoist tradition. A general introduction of the Buddhist tradition was given, followed by a specific discussion of the...Show moreA comparative analysis between the concept of emptiness in the Buddhist and Daoist tradition. A general introduction of the Buddhist tradition was given, followed by a specific discussion of the Madhyamaka school and its concept of śūnyatā. Śūnyatā designates the absence of an intrinsic essence to any aspect of existence and can thus be considered a form of philosophical emptiness. This was followed by an analysis of the Daoist tradition, which deals with emptiness in multiple forms: its central concept of ‘way-making’, the notion of spatiality, and the ethically relevant wu-forms. Finally, a comparison between Daoist and Buddhist forms of emptiness was offered. Both philosophies consider the meaning of emptiness to involve the ambiguity of linguistic definition, the utility of spatial or causal receptivity, and the ethics of selflessness. In the conclusion, emptiness was offered up as a philosophical through-line that can unite disparate schools of thought and provide the foundation for a more global philosophy.Show less
