Author: wbtd

Scholar and activist, working on anthropology, ecology and Buddhism. Long-term research in ethnobiology of Asian mountain communities and culturally signficant landscapes (e.g. sacred sites, protected areas) and anthropogenic bidoversity (biocultural diversity). Visiting fellow at University of Hamburg.

  • Buddhist exclusivism in Sri Lanka

    Is this modernism, exclusivism or fundamentalism? I’ve got a chapter coming out (in Sharing the Sacra, ed. Glenn Bowman) in which I discuss local responses to a similar attitude among...

    By Buddhism, Fomenting, Himalayas, people, research

  • Tweets and twinges

    I’ve been using twitter, linked to SecondLife and to FaceBook, as a way of communicating publicly. It’s a good thing because the FaceBook pages act like a sort of commentary;...

    By Mac, research, Virtuality

  • Studentisms

    Okay, okay, I know everyone does these, but mine are much funnier mistakes. On the left, what the student wrote. On the right, the correct word. ‘rest bite’                respite ‘peat bog’                pīṭha

    By glaikit

  • My office smells

    I walked in the door of my office this morning, having trod across the Old Aberdeen landscape. Rotting leaves, frozen ponds, barking dogs. Having heaved one sack each of papers...

    By Fomenting, people, Serendipity

  • Open source at the blunt edge.

    Here is an object lesson in why free and open source software is a symbol of good ethics. The other day, I had a PDF sent to me by the...

    By Fomenting, Himalayas