Indigenous Sacred Natural Sites and Spiritual Governance

This book examines the indigenous literature and recent legal cases as the basis for granting juristic personhood to enspirited sacred natural sites.

1 INDIGENOUS SACRED NATURAL SITES WITH REFERENCE TO TIBET Sacred Natural Site: An Overview The Sacred Natural Sites of Tibet The role of Tibetan Spirits of Place in Spiritual Governance The role of local Tibetan people in the ritual protection of SNS The status and scale of enspirited SNS and their spiritual governance The legal status of enspirited SNS 2 THEORETICAL BASIS FOR POST-ANTHROPOCENTRIC APPROACHES TO NATURE AND JURISPRUDENCE Ecocentric Themes Posthuman Relational Themes Polycentric Legal Frameworks 3 INDIGENOUS SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY Animism Shamanism Spiritual owners-masters of Land and Flora & Fauna Personhood Kinship Covenants (of reciprocity or ritual exchange) Reciprocity Equilibrium Auditing Relational Ontologies Agency Sui generis norms 4 LEGAL BACKGROUND TO JURISTIC PERSONHOOD The doctrine of Public Trusts Granting Legal Status to Non-human Persons Legal Status for Mother Earth Granting Recognition to Sacred Natural Sites 5 LEGISLATIVE CHRONOLOGY OF CASES Te Urewera, New Zealand Mount Mauna Kea, Hawaii Te Awa Tupua (Whanganui River), New Zealand The Ganges River, India Uttarakhand Himalaya, India The Atrato River, Colombia Grizzly Bear Spirit valley or Qat'muk, Canada Mount Taranaki, New Zealand 6 LITIGATION TO DATE Ecuador USA (Pennsylvania) India Gaining judicial traction for 'Rights of Nature' and Juristic Personhood 7 CASE STUDY: RITUAL PROTECTION OF SNS IN THE TIBETAN REGION OF KHAM (SW CHINA) Kham Peoples of Eastern Kham History Kham-ba Identity Cultural Context Environmental Perception The status of SNS and the gzhi bdag cult in Eastern Kham Lay participation in the Ritual Protection of SNS in Eastern Kham (with special reference to Danba County) 8 THE CHALLENGE OF PERPETUATING SNS Institutional support for SNS Matching Indigenous beliefs with modern jurisprudence Congruence with animism Legal acceptance The question of Guardians Scaling-Up Establishing priorities Ensuring standing for nature spirits (or environmental spirits) 9 HOW CAN SACRED NATURAL SITES BEST BE PROSECUTED