Lecture | CADS Research Seminar
Reconfiguring Human–Animal Relations in Bhutan and the Himalayan Buddhist World
- Date
- Monday 18 May 2026
- Time
- Serie
- CADS Research Seminars
- Address
-
Agora
Wassenaarseweg 52
2333 AK Leiden - Room
- 1B01
Reconfiguring Human–Animal Relations in Bhutan and the Himalayan Buddhist World: Slaughter, Meat Consumption, Rewilding, and Moral Order
In recent years, Buddhist societies in the Himalayan region have been undergoing a restructuring of the moral order surrounding the killing of animals and the consumption of meat. These changes have been further catalysed by the involvement of Buddhist organisations in livelihood activities and indigenous rituals, the global animal welfare movement, and the tightening of human-animal movement controls in the wake of COVID-19.
Drawing on fieldwork conducted in eastern Bhutan and surrounding areas, this presentation examines how the strict application of Buddhist doctrine and changes in slaughter and meat production practices are reshaping the relationship between humans and animals in the Himalayas. Key indicators of this include changes in the livelihoods of highland pastoralists whose slaughter practices have been restricted, the transformation of mountain rituals involving animal sacrifice, and the expansion of Buddhist civil society organisations and Buddhist networks underpinning these changes. In this presentation, I aim to outline the process of reconfiguring the moral order shaped by these multiple factors.
About Mari Miyamoto
Mari Miyamoto is a Professor at Keio University and a guest researcher at CADS. She received her PhD from Kyoto University in 2009. She subsequently held fellowships with JSPS, NIHU in Japan, and the British Academy in the UK. Her doctoral research analysed the formation of national identity in Bhutan through the conflicts and convergences surrounding environmental policy, and received an academic award from JASAS. Her current research focuses on the eastern Himalayan region since 2008, a period marked by rapid democratization and the expanding influence of neoliberalism. She continues to examine the dynamic interactions between politics and Buddhism, and the ways in which these interactions shape multispecies entanglements.