Trees, Birds and Other Non-Humans Mythological Entanglements with Landscape, Flora, Fauna and Spirits of the Himalayas

Abstract

his paper takes into account ideas about landscape and environment as they emerge from the study of beliefs, mythology and ritual activities of religious specialists of the Himalayan region, showing a deep and enduring web of relational entanglements between human and other-than-human communities. The notion of persoonhood seems, in fact, to transcend the human dimension in order to include a wider and larger set of other-than-human communities, including mountains, waters, plants, animals and other classes of beings.