Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas

1.) Ethnographically describes a community of religious practitioners who include sacred objects (fossils) and divine beings as persons and kin complimentary to human persons and kin. 2.) Demonstrates how the inclusion of object-kin helps the religious community to resist political or State-imposed identity during a time of social and environmental upheaval. In other words, how Shaligrams help to re-define what it means to be Hindu, Buddhist, or Bon (shamanic) in relation to what it means to be Nepali, Tibetan, or Indian both within Mustang and globally. 3.) Discusses how threats to the object-mobility of Shaligrams becomes metonymic for the mobility/immobility of people in and out of Mustang, Nepal and as a result, how continuous political and economic restrictions on pilgrimage and out-migration are translated into the decreasing religious movement of Shaligrams and their increasing commodification.