Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Non-Christian religions > Religions of Indic & Oriental origin > Hinduism
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People Trees - Worship of Trees in Northern India (Hardcover)
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People Trees - Worship of Trees in Northern India (Hardcover)
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This is a book about religious conceptions of trees within the
cultural world of tree worship at the tree shrines of northern
India. Sacred trees have been worshipped for millennia in India and
today tree worship continues there among all segments of society.
In the past, tree worship was regarded by many Western
anthropologists and scholars of religion as a prime example of
childish animism or decadent ''popular religion.'' More recently
this aspect of world religious cultures is almost completely
ignored in the theoretical concerns of the day. David Haberman
hopes to demonstrate that by seriously investigating the world of
Indian tree worship, we can learn much about not only this
prominent feature of the landscape of South Asian religion, but
also something about the cultural construction of nature as well as
religion overall. The title People Trees relates to the content of
this book in at least six ways. First, although other sacred trees
are examined, the pipal-arguably the most sacred tree in
India-receives the greatest attention in this study. The Hindi word
''pipal'' is pronounced similarly to the English word
''people.''Second, the ''personhood'' of trees is a commonly
accepted notion in India. Haberman was often told: ''This tree is a
person just like you and me.'' Third, this is not a study of
isolated trees in some remote wilderness area, but rather a study
of trees in densely populated urban environments. This is a study
of trees who live with people and people who live with trees.
Fourth, the trees examined in this book have been planted and
nurtured by people for many centuries. They seem to have benefited
from human cultivation and flourished in environments managed by
humans. Fifth, the book involves an examination of the human
experience of trees, of the relationship between people and trees.
Haberman is interested in people's sense of trees. And finally, the
trees located in the neighborhood tree shrines of northern India
are not controlled by a professional or elite class of priests.
Common people have direct access to them and are free to worship
them in their own way. They are part of the people's religion.
Haberman hopes that this book will help readers expand their sense
of the possible relationships that exist between humans and trees.
By broadening our understanding of this relationship, he says, we
may begin to think differently of the value of trees and the impact
of deforestation and other human threats to trees.
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