Abstract | Keywords | Export | Availability | Bookmark

Choose an application

• Reference Manager
• EndNote
• RefWorks (Direct export to RefWorks)

Dali is a small region on a high plateau in Southeast Asia. Its main deity, Baijie, has assumed several gendered forms throughout the area's history: Buddhist goddess, the mother of Dali's founder, a widowed martyr, and a village divinity. What accounts for so many different incarnations of a local deity? Goddess on the Frontier argues that Dali's encounters with forces beyond region and nation have influenced the goddess's transformations. Dali sits at the cultural crossroads of Southeast Asia, India, and Tibet; it has been claimed by different countries but is currently part of Yunnan Province in Southwest China. Megan Bryson incorporates historical-textual studies, art history, and ethnography in her book to argue that Baijie provided a regional identity that enabled Dali to position itself geopolitically and historically. In doing so, Bryson provides a case study of how people craft local identities out of disparate cultural elements and how these local identities transform over time in relation to larger historical changes—including the increasing presence of the Chinese state.

Buddhist goddesses --- Buddhism --- Ethnicity --- Bai (Chinese people) --- Ethnology --- Tibeto-Burman peoples --- Labbu (Chinese people) --- Leme (Chinese people) --- Min-chia --- Min-kia-tze (Chinese people) --- Minjia (Chinese people) --- Minkia (Chinese people) --- Nama (Chinese people) --- Pai (Chinese people) --- Pe-tso (Chinese people) --- Group identity --- Cultural fusion --- Multiculturalism --- Cultural pluralism --- Ethnic identity --- Religions --- Buddha and Buddhism --- Lamaism --- Ris-med (Lamaism) --- Goddesses --- History. --- Religious aspects --- Buddhism. --- Religion. --- Baijie --- Cult --- Dali Baizu Zizhizhou (China) --- History --- Baijie, --- S03/0625 --- S13A/0310 --- S13A/0402 --- China: Geography, description and travel--Yunnan --- China: Religion--Buddhism: China --- China: Religion--Mythology (incl. pantheon, ghosts, myths and legends) --- Ta-li Pai tsu tzu chih chou (China) --- Dali zhou (China) --- Yunnan Sheng Dali Baizu Zizhizhou (China) --- Dali Baizu Zizhi Zhou (China) --- Ta-li chou (China) --- Dali Prefecture (China) --- Dali Bai Nationality Autonomous Prefecture (China) --- Dali Baizu Zizhizhou ren min zheng fu (China) --- Religious aspects&delete& --- Religion