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Abstract
At the intersection of Vajrayāna Buddhism and indigenous ‘Bon’ in the Eastern Himalayas, complex relational and spatial ontologies exist between protective territorial deities- yul lha (ཡུལ་ལྷ་); gzhi bdag (གཞི་བདག་); gnas bdag gzhi bdag (གནས་བདག་གཞི་བདག་), and the communities that propitiate them. In Bhutan, a suite of local deities and more-than-human spirits are known to occupy territory in trees, forests, cliffs, mountains, lakes, and springs mediating & intermediating relationships between communities and their environments. Different local deity classes occupy and exhibit agency and tenurial power within areas described as “the deity’s palace” or “citadel of the deity” (pho brang), wherein specific social & communal rules govern entry, extraction, & development activities within the deity’s territory. These more-than-human worlds inevitably intersect with the political ecologies and ontologies of environmental conservation and development in the Kingdom. While characteristics of gnas bdag gzhi bdag are historically documented in ritual texts (gser skyems dpe cha) there have been relatively few efforts to document this knowledge with community practitioners. Moreover, even fewer efforts to map deity citadels in a participatory capacity exist, precluding richer geographical understanding of their relational complexities, protected status, spatiality, territoriality, and resulting ontological frictions. Due to the centrality of deity citadels to lived religious experience and cosmopolitical ecologies in Bhutan, documenting the range, extent, and overlap of this knowledge in relation to conservation protected areas for focal species will work towards the preservation of intangible cultural knowledge in areas of historical and contemporary ecological significance; moreover, such efforts will articulate with existing measures to safeguard biodiverse landscapes for priority species, namely the locally-revered Black-necked Cranes & the critically-endangered White-bellied Herons. Our research engages with integrative techniques in participatory mapping to document locally meaningful cultural geographies and relationalities, whilst foregrounding more-than-human agencies and spatial ecologies within conservation protected areas. Drawing insights from Himalayan visionary worlds, cosmologies, and traditions, notably thang kha & ldebs ris, we painted a series of countermaps to accentuate cosmopolitical landscape realities and center often marginalized local ecological knowledge in conservation & development arenas.