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Dieses Bild wurde auf Platz 9 in Top 100 bei der Swiss Photo Club Ausstellung ausgewählt.
Es war eine tolle Erfahrung !
Andreea
This image was #9 in Top 100 at the Swiss Photo Club exhibition.
It was a great experience !
Andreea
It will be exiting to share your opinions ... :-))
.... published today 09.06.2016 :
Here is the link for who may be interested to have a closer look and insight :
www.blurb.com/books/7161238-thoughts
THOUGHTS holistic photography Von Axel vom Scheidt Buchvorschau
Enjoy the reading !
Long exposure shot of one of Santiago Caltrava's creations at the Valencia Arts and Science centre. While each of the pieces that make up the park are works of art in their own right, seen from this angle one can see how put together, they make up one holistic piece of art of a massive fish reflected inthe tranquil water that surrounds it
Out looking for nature shots and this one raised it's head - another one not for SSC this week . Nature is everywhere and shots kept appearing , but I have stuck with my first idea which takes a more holistic view of nature .
I took this shot from almost the same spot that I took the image in the first comment box . I am right by a wire type fence and this is where the thistle is growing . It is the place of the tumbledown old cottage I took a shot of once . There is a new build going up which is further over in the plot and is going to be a single building in what is a very extensive area of land which has a large pond along one edge . The building is still undergoing ground work which is at a huge depth , can only guess what is going to be down there , underground garage , cinema , gym , who knows and the price does not bear thinking about .
Back to the thistle and Legend has it that the thorny thistle once saved Scotland from a marauding Norse army, a feat that earned this tenacious plant its status as a Scottish national symbol. But these days it’s staging an invasion of its own, causing people all over the British Isles, and elsewhere, to declare war on this invasive weed.
There are some weird and wonderful features on the expansive limestone plateau of Scales Moor. You could easily fill an album with the shapes and foreground features in the bedrock and have the fabulous backdrop of one of the Yorkshire Dales three peaks, with Whernside shown here or the more distinctive Ingleborough as a background.
I thought this curious vent like feature provided an acceptable foreground with the erratic like boulders framing Whernside behind. John Bleakley and I spent a pleasurable hour or so around this spot just after the mist and low cloud disappeared.
I'm certain these Scales Moor boulders have featured in many an image, but I'd not seen this vent before.
no hawkers and salesmen allowed
inside ..a serious thought
on a board confide
to all others access denied
only a poet and photographer
riding a crest of time and tide
hijdas eunuchs naga sadhus
sufis rafaees
dont ever actually collide
a flickr photostream
mutually reside
holistically healing
a soul deep fried
humility is humanity
a world without pride
freedom of expression
regressive recession
though the hands are tied
om mani padme hoon
a blogger mantra
time tried
reinvented god
on his side
alpha inventions
cheru jackson
spiraling blog traffic
provide
Marziya landed in Mumbai , I did not go to the airport, but when she reached home it was my wife and Samiya that she hugged the most..her Uncle Saif and her Aunt are out of station..but she remembered me alright
marziya shakir
in a world without borders or fence
demystifying the magic of a camera lens
awaiting dr glenn losack md
her grand fathers mentor
best friend
his pictures my poetry
a beginning no end
black white multicolored
shia or american jew
as humans we blend
holistically healing
through a photo blog
wounded souls
through our images we mend
photography for peace
that a few bigots
dont comprehend
a few words of wisdom
to those who pretend
false facade
rules that they bend
creating chaos
saying its god sent
Lent
a time for introspection
a time to repent
spiritual satisfaction guaranteed
100 Percent
A warm, calm summer evening where´s haze blurs the line between sea, sky and earth......
Copyright © All rights reserved Peter Vahlersvik! Please do not use this image on websites, blogs or any other media in any way without my explicit written permission
Autumn Polaroid Week 2023
Continuing series called "Holistic Fragments" made with soaked/manipulated new Polaroid film(s).
Soaked Black & Red Duochrome 600 Film.
See more at linktr.ee/ale.di.gangi
"Introducing 'Holistic' 🌿 available at The Dubai Event 04/20 today. - Holistic is about the interconnectedness of all elements, creating a sense of completeness and harmony.
The set includes:
🍃A wooden shelf which carries a rustic charm.
🍃Abstract Wooden sculptures: In nature, nothing exists alone.Each piece telling a unique story and adding character.
🍃Earthy terracotta pots: bring warmth and grounding to the collection.
🍃The leaf carpet rug: lush green hues and delicate leaf pattern, creates a serene and inviting atmosphere.
Embrace the interconnectedness of design and nature.
Digital art by Debbie Golden. We are co-artists on some works. This is entirely her own.
I gave it a not so great title.
Compositionally Challenged Week 5 - Fill the Frame with Vibrant Color
Thank you for viewing, faving or commenting on my images, have a great day!
Originally built as a holistic spring water resort in 1927 it functioned in this capacity until its closure in 1986. It reopened in 1997 as a restaurant with interior details such as a 6 foot chandelier, a European style fireplace & furniture imported from France. Exterior features such as a french style gazebo & large water fountains. The restaurant closed for good in 2012.
Night, near full moon, 180 second exposure, handheld light producing device set to blue, orange & white.
Portrait of my friend's Bichon Frise, "Snuggles".
Inspired by Dooda's classic photo of Mad Max:
www-us.flickr.com/photos/elton/4603685/in/set-250055/
More photos of Snuggles (not taken by me) can be found on the website to their pet store, which caters to pets who are into holistic, and natural living :
. . . I know: rule number one for photographers is, never to picture people from behind! In this exceptional case of perfect upright posture one can brake the rule!
________________________
Puri is a city and a Municipality of Odisha. It is the district headquarters of Puri district, Odisha, eastern India. It is situated on the Bay of Bengal, 60 kilometres south of the state capital of Bhubaneswar. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the 12th-century Jagannath Temple located in the city. It is one of the original Char Dham pilgrimage sites for Indian Hindus.
Puri was known by several names from the ancient times to the present, and locally called as Badadeula. Puri and the Jagannath Temple were invaded 18 times by Hindu and Muslim rulers, starting from the 4th century to the start of the 19th century with the objective of looting the treasures of the temple. Odisha, including Puri and its temple, were under the British Raj from 1803 till India attained independence in August 1947. Even though princely states do not exist in independent India, the heirs of the Gajapati Dynasty of Khurda still perform the ritual duties of the temple. The temple town has many Hindu religious maths or monasteries.
The economy of Puri town is dependent on the religious importance of the Jagannath Temple to the extent of nearly 80%. The festivals which contribute to the economy are the 24 held every year in the temple complex, including 13 major festivals; Ratha Yatra and its related festivals are the most important which are attended by millions of people every year. Sand art and applique art are some of the important crafts of the city. Puri is one of the 12 heritage cities chosen by the Government of India for holistic development.
GEOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE
GEOGRAPHY
Puri, located on the east coast of India on the Bay of Bengal, is in the center of the district of the same name. It is delimited by the Bay of Bengal on the south east, the Mauza Sipaurubilla on the west, Mauz Gopinathpur in the north and Mauza Balukhand in the east. It is within the 67 kilometres coastal stretch of sandy beaches that extends between Chilika Lake and the south of Puri city. However, the administrative jurisdiction of the Puri Municipality extends over an area of 16.3268 square kilometres spread over 30 wards, which includes a shore line of 5 kilometres.
Puri is in the coastal delta of the Mahanadi River on the shores of the Bay of Bengal. In the ancient days it was near to Sisupalgarh (Ashokan Tosali) when the land was drained by a tributary of the River Bhargavi, a branch of the Mahanadi River, which underwent a meandering course creating many arteries altering the estuary, and formed many sand hills. These sand hills could not be "cut through" by the streams. Because of the sand hills, the Bhargavi River flowing to the south of Puri, moved away towards the Chilika Lake. This shift also resulted in the creation of two lagoons known as Sar and Samang on the eastern and northern parts of Puri respectively. Sar lagoon has a length of 8.0 km in an east-west direction and has a width of 3.2 km in north-south direction. The river estuary has a shallow depth of 1.5 m only and the process of siltation is continuing. According to a 15th-century chronicle the stream that flowed at the base of the Blue Mountain or Neelachal was used as the foundation or high plinth of the present temple which was then known as Purushottama, the Supreme Being. A 16th century chronicle attributes filling up of the bed of the river which flowed through the present Grand Road, during the reign of King Narasimha II (1278–1308).
CLIMATE
According to the Köppen and Geiger the climate of Puri is classified Aw. The city has moderate and tropical climate. Humidity is fairly high throughout the year. The temperature during summer touches a maximum of 36 °C and during winter it is 17 °C. The average annual rainfall is 1,337 millimetres and the average annual temperature is 26.9 °C.
HISTORY
NAMES IN HISTORY
Puri, the holy land of Lord Jaganath, also known popularly as Badadeula in local usage, has many ancient names in the Hindu scriptures such as the Rigveda, Matsya purana, Brahma Purana, Narada Purana, Padma Purana, Skanda Purana, Kapila samhita and Niladrimahodaya. In the Rigveda, in particular, it is mentioned as a place called Purushamandama-grama meaning the place where the Creator deity of the world – Supreme Divinity deified on altar or mandapa was venerated near the coast and prayers offered with vedic hymns. Over time the name got changed to Purushottama Puri and further shortened to Puri and the Purusha became Jagannatha. Close to this place sages like Bhrigu, Atri and Markandeya had their hermitage. Its name is mentioned, conforming to the deity worshipped, as Srikshetra, Purusottama Dhāma, Purusottama Kshetra, Purusottama Puri and Jagannath Puri. Puri is however, a common usage now. It is also known the geographical features of its siting as Shankhakshetra (layout of the town is in the form of a conch shell.), Neelāchala ("blue mountain" a terminology used to name very large sand lagoon over which the temple was built but this name is not in vogue), Neelāchalakshetra, Neelādri, The word 'Puri' in Sanskrit means "town", or 'city' and is cognate with polis in Greek.
Another ancient name is Charita as identified by Cunningham which was later spelled as Che-li-ta-lo by Chinese traveller Hiuen Tsang.When the present temple was built by the Ganga king Chodangadev in the 11th and 12th centuries it was called Purushottamkshetra. However, the Moghuls, the Marathas and early British rulers called it Purushottama-chhatar or just Chhatar. In Akbar's Ain-i-Akbari and subsequent Muslim historical records it was known as Purushottama. In the Sanskrit drama authored by Murari Mishra in the 8th century it is referred as Purushottama only. It was only after twelfth century Puri came to be known by the shortened form of Jagannatha Puri, named after the deity or in a short form as Puri. In some records pertaining to the British rule, the word 'Jagannath' was used for Puri. It is the only shrine in India, where Radha, along with Lakshmi, Saraswati, Durga, Bhudevi, Sati, Parvati, and Shakti abodes with Krishna, also known as Jagannath.
ANCIENT PERIOD
According to the chronicle Madala Panji, in 318 the priests and servitors of the temple spirited away the idols to escape the wrath of the Rashtrakuta King Rakatavahu. The temple's ancient historical records also finds mention in the Brahma Purana and Skanda Purana as having been built by the king Indradyumna of Ujjayani.
According to W.J. Wilkinson, in Puri, Buddhism was once a well established practice but later Buddhists were persecuted and Brahmanism became the order of the religious practice in the town; the Buddha deity in now worshipped by the Hindus as Jagannatha. It is also said that some relics of Buddha were placed inside the idol of Jagannath which the Brahmins claimed were the bones of Krishna. Even during Ashoka’s reign in 240 BC Odisha was a Buddhist center and that a tribe known as Lohabahu (barbarians from outside Odisha) converted to Buddhism and built a temple with an idol of Buddha which is now worshipped as Jagannatha. It is also said that Lohabahu deposited some Buddha relics in the precincts of the temple.
Construction of the Jagannatha Temple started in 1136 and completed towards the later part of the 12th century. The King of the Ganga dynasty, Anangabhima dedicated his kingdom to the God, then known as the Purushottam-Jagannatha and resolved that from then on he and his descendants would rule under "divine order as Jagannatha's sons and vassals". Even though princely states do not exist in independent India, the heirs of the Gajapati dynasty of Khurda still perform the ritual duties of the temple; the king formally sweeps the road in front of the chariots before the start of the Rathayatra.
MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN PERIODS
History of the temple is the history of the town of Puri, which was invaded 18 times during its history to plunder the treasures of the Jagannath Puri temple. The first invasion was in the 8th century by Rastrakuta king Govinda-III (AD 798–814) and the last was in 1881 by the followers of Alekh Religion who did not recognize Jagannath worship. In between, from the 1205 onward there were many invasions of the city and its temple by Muslims of the Afghans and Moghuls descent, known as Yavanas or foreigners; they had mounted attacks to ransack the wealth of the temple rather than for religious reasons. In most of these invasions the idols were taken to safe places by the priests and the servitors of the temple. Destruction of the temple was prevented by timely resistance or surrender by the kings of the region. However, the treasures of the temple were repeatedly looted. Puri is the site of the Govardhana matha, one of the four cardinal institutions established by Adi Shankaracharya, when he visited Puri in 810 and since then it has become an important dham (divine centre) for the Hindus; the others being those at Sringeri, Dwaraka and Jyotirmath. The matha is headed by Jagatguru Shankarachrya. The significance of the four dhams is that the Lord Vishnu takes his dinner at Puri, has his bath at Rameshwaram, spends the night at Dwarka and does penance at Badrinath.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of Bengal who established the Bhakti movements of India in the sixteenth century, now known by the name the Hare Krishna movement, spent many years as a devotee of Jagannatha at Puri; he is said to have merged his "corporal self" with the deity. There is also a matha of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu here.
In the 17th century for the sailors sailing on the east coast of India, the landmark was the temple located in a plaza in the centre of the town which they called the "White Pagoda" while the Konark Sun Temple, 60 kilometres away to the east of Puri, was known as the "Black Pagoda".
The iconographic representation of the images in the Jagannath temple are believed to be the forms derived from the worship made by the tribal groups of Sabaras belonging to northern Odisha. These images are replaced at regular intervals as the wood deteriorates. This replacement is a special event carried out ritulistically by special group of carpenters.
The town has many Mathas (Monasteries of the various Hindu sects). Among the important mathas is the Emar Matha founded by the Tamil Vaishnav Saint Ramanujacharya in the 12th century AD. At present this matha is located in front of Simhadvara across the eastern corner of the Jagannath Temple is reported to have been built in the 16th century during the reign of Suryavamsi Gajapati. The matha was in the news recently for the large cache of 522 silver slabs unearthded from a closed room.
The British conquered Orissa in 1803 and recognizing the importance of the Jagannatha Temple in the life of the people of the state they initially placed an official to look after the temple's affairs and later declared it a district with the same name.
MODERN HISTORY
In 1906, Sri Yukteswar an exponent of Kriya Yoga, a resident of Puri, established an ashram in the sea-side town of Puri, naming it "Kararashram" as a spiritual training center. He died on 9 March 1936 and his body is buried in the garden of the ashram.
The city is the site of the former summer residence of British Raj built in 1913–14 during the era of governors, the Raj Bhavan.
For the people of Puri Lord Jagannath, visualized as Lord Krishna, is synonymous with their city. They believe that the Jagannatha looks after the welfare of the state. However, after the incident of the partial collapse of the Jagannatha Temple, the Amalaka part of the tower on 14 June 1990 people became apprehensive and thought it was not a good omen for the welfare of the State of Odisha. The replacement of the fallen stone by another of the same size and weight (seven tons) had to be done only in the an early morning hours after the gods had woken up after a good nights sleep which was done on 28 February 1991.
Puri has been chosen as one of the heritage cities for the Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana scheme of the Indian Government. It is one of 12 the heritage cities chosen with "focus on holistic development" to be implemented in 27 months by end of March 2017.
Non-Hindus are not permitted to enter the shrines but are allowed to view the temple and the proceedings from the roof of the Raghunandan library within the precincts of the temple for a small donation.
DEMOGRAPHICS
As of 2001 India census, Puri city, an urban Agglomeration governed by Municipal Corporation in Orissa state, had a population of 157,610 which increased to 200,564 in 2011. Males, 104,086, females, 96,478, children under 6 years of age, 18,471. The sex ratio is 927 females to 1000 males. Puri has an average literacy rate of 88.03 percent (91.38 percent males and 84.43 percent females). Religion-wise data is not reported.
ECONOMY
The economy of Puri is dependent on tourism to the extent of about 80%. The temple is the focal point of the entire area of the town and provides major employment to the people of the town. Agricultural production of rice, ghee, vegetables and so forth of the region meets the huge requirements of the temple, with many settlements aroiund the town exclusively catering to the other religious paraphernalia of the temple. The temple administration employs 6,000 men to perform the rituals. The temple also provides economic sustenance to 20,000 people belonging to 36 orders and 97 classes. The kitchen of the temple which is said to be the largest in the world employs 400 cooks.
CITY MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE
Puri Municipality, Puri Konark Development Authority, Public Health Engineering Organisastion, Orissa Water Supply Sewerage Board are some of the principal organizations that are devolved with the responsibility of providing for all the urban needs of civic amenities such as water supply, sewerage, waste management, street lighting, and infrastructure of roads. The major activity which puts maximum presuure on these organizations is the annual event of the Ratha Yatra held for 10 days during July when more than a million people attend the grand event. This event involves to a very large extent the development activities such as infrastructure and amenities to the pilgrims, apart from security to the pilgrims.
The civic administration of Puri is the responsibility of the Puri Municipality which came into existence in 1864 in the name of Puri Improvement Trust which got converted into Puri Municipality in 1881. After India's independence in 1947, Orissa Municipal Act-1950 was promulgated entrusting the administration of the city to the Puri Municipality. This body is represented by elected representative with a Chairperson and councilors representing the 30 wards within the municipal limits.
LANDMARKS
JAGANNATH TEMPLE AT PURI
The Temple of Jagannath at Puri is one of the major Hindu temples built in the Kalinga style of architecture, in respect of its plan, front view and structural detailing. It is one of the Pancharatha (Five chariots) type consisting of two anurathas, two konakas and one ratha with well-developed pagas. Vimana or Deula is the sanctum sanctorum where the triad (three) deities are deified on the ratnavedi (Throne of Pearls), and over which is the temple tower, known as the rekha deula; the latter is built over a rectangular base of the pidha temples as its roof is made up of pidhas that are sequentially arranged horizontal platforms built in descending order forming a pyramidal shape. The mandapa in front of the sanctum sanctorum is known as Jagamohana where devotees assemble to offer worship. The temple tower with a spire rises to a height of 58 m in height and a flag is unfurled above it fixed over a wheel (chakra). Within the temple complex is the Nata Mandir, a large hall where Garuda stamba (pillar). Chaitanya Mahaprabhu used to stand here and pray. In the interior of the Bhoga Mantap, adjoining the Nata mandir, there is profusion of decorations of sculptures and paintings which narrate the story of Lord Krishna. The temple is built on an elevated platform (of about 39,000 m2 area), 20 ft above the adjoining area. The temple rises to a height of 214 ft above the road level. The temple complex covers an area of 4,3 ha. There is double walled enclosure, rectangular in shape (rising to a height of 20 ft) surrounding the temple complex of which the outer wall is known as Meghanada Prachira, measuring 200 by 192 metres. The inner walled enclosure, known as Kurmabedha. measures 126m x 95m. There are four entry gates (in four cardinal directions to the temple located at the center of the walls in the four directions of the outer circle. These are: the eastern gate called Singhadwara (Lions Gate), the southern gate known as Ashwa Dwara (Horse Gate), the western gate called the Vyaghra Dwara (Tigers Gate) or the Khanja Gate, and the northern gate called the Hathi Dwara or (elephant gate). The four gates symbolize the four fundamental principles of Dharma (right conduct), Jnana (knowledge), Vairagya (renunciation) and Aishwarya (prosperity). The gates are crowned with pyramid shapes structures. There is stone pillar in front of the Singhadwara called the Aruna Stambha {Solar Pillar}, 11 metres in height with 16 faces, made of chlorite stone, at the top of which is mounted an elegant statue of Arun (Sun) in a prayer mode. This pillar was shifted from the Konarak Sun temple. All the gates are decorated with guardian statues in the form of lion, horse mounted men, tigers and elephants in the name and order of the gates. A pillar made of fossilized wood is used for placing lamps as offering. The Lion Gate (Singhadwara) is the main gate to the temple, which guarded by two guardian deities Jaya and Vijaya. The main gates is ascended through 22 steps known as Baisi Pahaca which are revered as it is said to possess "spiritual animation". Children are made to roll down these steps from top to bottom to bring them spiritual happiness. After entering the temple on the left hand side there is huge kitchen where food is prepared in hygienic conditions in huge quantities that it is termed as "the biggest hotel of the world".
The legend says that King Indradyumma was directed by Lord Jagannath in a dream to build a temple for him and he built it as directed. However, according to historical records the temple was started some time during the 12th century by King Chodaganga of the Eastern Ganga dynasty. It was however completed by his descendant, Anangabhima Deva, in the 12th century. The wooden images of Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra were then deified here. The temple was under the control of the Hindu rulers up to 1558. Then, when Orissa was occupied by the Afghan Nawab of Bengal, it was brought under the control of the Afghan General Kalapahad. Following the defeat of the Afghan king by Raja Mansingh, the General of Mughal emperor Akbar, the temple became a part of the Mughal empire till 1751 AD. Subsequently it was under the control of the Marathas till 1803. Then, when British Raj took over Orissa, the Puri Raja was entrusted with its to management until 1947.
The triad of images in the temple are of Jagannatha, personifying Lord Krishna, Balabhadra, his older brother, and Subhadra his younger sister, which are made of wood (neem) in an unfinished form. The stumps of wood which form the images of the brothers have human arms and that of Subhadra does not have any arms. The heads are large and un-carved and are painted. The faces are made distinct with the large circular shaped eyes.
THE PANCHA TIRTHA OF PURI
Hindus consider it essential to bathe in the Pancha Tirtha or the five sacred bathing spots of Puri, India, to complete a pilgrimage to Puri. The five sacred water bodies are the Indradyumana Tank, the Rohini Kunda, the Markandeya Tank, Swetaganga Tank, and the The Sea also called the Mahodadhi is considered a sacred bathing spot in the Swargadwar area. These tanks have perennial sources of supply in the form of rain water and ground water.
GUNDICHA TEMPLE
Known as the Garden House of Jagannath, the Gundicha temple stands in the centre of a beautiful garden, surrounded by compound walls on all sides. It lies at a distance of about 3 kilometres to the north east of the Jagannath Temple. The two temples are located at the two ends of the Bada Danda (Grand Avenue) which is the pathway for the Rath Yatra. According to a legend, Gundicha was the wife of King Indradyumna who originally built the Jagannath temple.
The temple is built using light-grey sandstone and architecturally, it exemplifies typical Kalinga temple architecture in the Deula style. The complex comprises four components: vimana (tower structure containing the sanctum), jagamohana (assembly hall), nata-mandapa (festival hall) and bhoga-mandapa (hall of offerings). There is also a kitchen connected by a small passage. The temple is set within a garden, and is known as "God's Summer Garden Retreat" or garden house of Jagannath. The entire complex, including garden, is surrounded by a wall which measures 131 m × 98 m with height of 6.1 m.
Except for the 9-day Rath Yatra when triad images are worshipped in Gundicha Temple, the rest of the year it remains unoccupied. Tourists can visit the temple after paying an entry fee. Foreigners (prohibited entry in the main temple) are allowed inside this temple during this period. The temple is under the Jagannath Temple Administration, Puri – the governing body of the main temple. A small band of servitors maintain the temple.
SWARGADWAR
Swargadwar is the name given to the cremation ground or burning ghat which is located on the shores of the sea were thousands of dead bodies of Hindus are brought from faraway places to cremate. It is a belief that the Chitanya Mahaparabhu disppaeread from this Swargadwar about 500 years back.
BEACH
The beach at Puri known as the "Ballighai beach} is 8 km away at the mouth of Nunai River from the town and is fringed by casurian trees. It has golden yellow sand and has pleasant sunshine. Sunrise and sunset are pleasant scenic attractions here. Waves break in at the beach which is long and wide.
DISTRICT MUSEUM
The Puri district museum is located on the station road where the exhibits are of different types of garments worn by Lord Jagannath, local sculptures, patachitra (traditional, cloth-based scroll painting) and ancient Palm-leaf manuscripts and local craft work.
RAGHUNANDANA LIBRARY
Raghunandana Library is located in the Emmra matha complex (opposite Simhadwara or Lion gate, the main entrance gate). The Jagannatha Aitihasika Gavesana Samiti (Jagannatha Historical Center) is also located here. The library contains ancient palm leaf manuscripts of Jagannatha, His cult and the history of the city. From the roof of the library one gets a picturesque view of the temple complex.
FESTIVALS OF PURI
Puri witnesses 24 festivals every year, of which 13 are major festivals. The most important of these is the Rath Yatra or the Car festival held in the month June–July which is attended by more than 1 million people.
RATH YATRA AT PURI
The Jagannath triad are usually worshiped in the sanctum of the temple at Puri, but once during the month of Asadha (Rainy Season of Orissa, usually falling in month of June or July), they are brought out onto the Bada Danda (main street of Puri) and travel 3 kilometrer to the Shri Gundicha Temple, in huge chariots (ratha), allowing the public to have darśana (Holy view). This festival is known as Rath Yatra, meaning the journey (yatra) of the chariots (ratha). The yatra starts, according to Hindu calendar Asadha Sukla Dwitiya )the second day of bright fortnight of Asadha (June–July) every year.
Historically, the ruling Ganga dynasty instituted the Rath Yatra at the completion of the great temple around 1150 AD. This festival was one of those Hindu festivals that was reported to the Western world very early. In his own account of 1321, Odoric reported how the people put the "idols" on chariots, and the King and Queen and all the people drew them from the "church" with song and music.
The Rathas are huge wheeled wooden structures, which are built anew every year and are pulled by the devotees. The chariot for Jagannath is about 14 m high and 35 feet square and takes about 2 months to construct. Th chariot is mounted with 16 wheels, each of 2.1 m diameter. The carvings in the front of the chariot has four wooden horses drawn by Maruti. On its other three faces the wooden carvings are Rama, Surya and Vishnu. The chariot is known as Nandi Ghosha. The roof of the chariot is covered with yellow and golden coloured cloth. The next chariot is that of Balabhadra which is 13 m in height fitted with 14 wheels. The chariot is carved with Satyaki as the charioteer. The carvings on this chariot also include images of Narasimha and Rudra as Jagannath's companions. The next chariot in the order is that of Subhadra, which is 13 m in height supported on 12 wheels, roof covered in black and red colour cloth and the chariot is known as Darpa-Dalaan. The charioteer carved is Arjuna. Other images carved on the chariot are that of Vana Durga, Tara Devi and Chandi Devi. The artists and painters of Puri decorate the cars and paint flower petals and other designs on the wheels, the wood-carved charioteer and horses, and the inverted lotuses on the wall behind the throne. The huge chariots of Jagannath pulled during Rath Yatra is the etymological origin of the English word Juggernaut. The Ratha-Yatra is also termed as the Shri Gundicha yatra and Ghosha yatra
CHHERA PAHARA
The Chhera Pahara is a significant ritual associated with the Ratha-Yatra. During the festival, the Gajapati King wears the outfit of a sweeper and sweeps all around the deities and chariots in the Chera Pahara (sweeping with water) ritual. The Gajapati King cleanses the road before the chariots with a gold-handled broom and sprinkles sandalwood water and powder with utmost devotion. As per the custom, although the Gajapati King has been considered the most exalted person in the Kalingan kingdom, he still renders the menial service to Jagannath. This ritual signified that under the lordship of Jagannath, there is no distinction between the powerful sovereign Gajapati King and the most humble devotee.
CHADAN YATRA
In Akshaya Tritiya every year the Chandan Yatra festival marks the commencement of the construction of the Chariots of the Rath Yatra. It also marks the celebration of the Hindu new year.
SNANA YATRA
On the Purnima day in the month of Jyestha (June) the triad images of the Jagannath temple are ceremonially bathed and decorated every year on the occasion of Snana Yatra. Water for the bath is taken in 108 pots from the Suna kuan (meaning: "golden well") located near the northern gate of the temple. Water is drawn from this well only once in a year for the sole purpose of this religious bath of the deities. After the bath the triad images are dressed in the fashion of the elephant god, Ganesha. Later during the night the original triad images are taken out in a procession back to the main temple but kept at a place known as Anasara pindi. After this the Jhulana Yatra is when proxy images of the deities are taken out in a grand procession for 21 days, cruised over boats in the Narmada tank.
ANAVASARA OR ANASARA
Anasara literally means vacation. Every year, the triad images without the Sudarshan after the holy Snana Yatra are taken to a secret altar named Anavasara Ghar Palso known as "Anasara pindi} where they remain for the next dark fortnight (Krishna paksha). Hence devotees are not allowed to view them. Instead of this devotees go to nearby place Brahmagiri to see their beloved lord in the form of four handed form Alarnath a form of Vishnu. Then people get the first glimpse of lord on the day before Rath Yatra, which is called Navayouvana. It is said that the gods suffer from fever after taking ritual detailed bath and they are treated by the special servants named, Daitapatis for 15 days. Daitapatis perform special niti (rite) known as Netrotchhaba (a rite of painting the eyes of the triad). During this period cooked food is not offered to the deities.
NAVA KALEVARA
One of the most grandiloquent events associated with the Lord Jagannath, Naba Kalabera takes place when one lunar month of Ashadha is followed by another lunar month of Aashadha, called Adhika Masa (extra month). This can take place in 8, 12 or even 18 years. Literally meaning the "New Body" (Nava = New, Kalevar = Body), the festival is witnessed by as millions of people and the budget for this event exceeds $500,000. The event involves installation of new images in the temple and burial of the old ones in the temple premises at Koili Vaikuntha. The idols that were worshipped in the temple, installed in the year 1996, were replaced by specially made new images made of neem wood during Nabakalebara 2015 ceremony held during July 2015. More than 3 million devotees were expected to visit the temple during the Nabakalebara 2015 held in July.
SUNA BESHA
Suna Bhesha also known as Raja or Rajadhiraja bhesha or Raja Bhesha, is an event when the triad images of the Jagannath Temple are adorned with gold jewelry. This event is observed 5 times during a year. It is commonly observed on Magha Purnima (January), Bahuda Ekadashi also known as Asadha Ekadashi (July), Dashahara (Vijyadashami) (October), Karthik Purnima (November), and Pousa Purnima (December). While one such Suna Bhesha event is observed on Bahuda Ekadashi during the Rath Yatra on the chariots placed at the lion's gate or the Singhdwar; the other four Bheshas' are observed inside the temple on the Ratna Singhasana (gem studded altar). On this occasion gold plates are decorated over the hands and feet of Jagannath and Balabhadra; Jagannath is also adorned with a Chakra (disc) made of gold on the right hand while a silver conch adorns the left hand. However, Balabhadra is decorated with a plough made of gold on the left hand while a golden mace adorns his right hand.
NILADRI BIJE
Celebrated on Asadha Trayodashi. It marks the end of the 12 days Ratha yatra. The large wooden images of the triad of gods are moved from the chariots and then carried to the sanctum sanctorum, swaying rhythmically, a ritual which is known as pahandi.
SAHI YATRA
Considered the world's biggest open-air theatre, the Sahi yatra is an 11 day long traditional cultural theatre festival or folk drama which begins on Ram Navami and ending in Rama avishke (Sanskrit:anointing) every year. The festival includes plays depicting various scenes from the Ramayan. The residents of various localities or Sahis are entrusted the task of performing the drama at the street corners.
TRANSPORT
Earlier when roads did not exist people walked or travelled by animal drawn vehicles or carriages along beaten tracks. Up to Calcutta travel was by riverine craft along the Ganges and then by foot or carriages to Puri. It was only during the Maratha rule that the popular Jagannath Sadak (Road) was built around 1790. The East India Company laid the rail track from Calcutta to Puri which became operational in 1898. Puri is now well connected by rail, road and air services. A broad gauge railway line of the South Eastern Railways connects with Puri and Khurda is an important Railway junction. By rail it is about 499 kilometres away from Calcutta and 468 kilometres from Vishakhapatnam. Road network includes NH 203 that links the town with Bhubaneswar, the capital of Odisha which is about 60 kilometres away. NH 203 B connects the town with Satapada via Brahmagiri. Marine drive which is part of NH 203 A connects Puri with Konark. The nearest airport is at Bhubaneswar, about 60 kilometres away from Puri. Puri railway station is among the top hundred booking stations of Indian Railways.
ARTS AND CRAFTS
SAND ART
Sand art is a special art form that is created on the beaches of the sea coast of Puri. The art form is attributed to Balaram Das, a poet who lived in the 14th century. He started crafting the sand art forms of the triad deities of the Jagannath Temple at the Puri beach. Now sculptures in sand of various gods and famous people are created by amateur artists which are temporal in nature as they get washed away by waves. This is an art form which has gained international fame in recent years. One of the well known sand artist is Sudarshan Patnaik. He has established the Golden Sand Art Institute in 1995 at the beach to provide training to students interested in this art form.
APPLIQUE ART
Applique art work, which is a stitching based craft, unlike embroidery, which was pioneered by the Hatta Maharana of Pipili is widely used in Puri, both for decoration of the deities but also for sale. His family members are employed as darjis or tailors or sebaks by the Maharaja of Puri who prepare articles for decorating the deities in the temple for various festivals and religious ceremonies. These applique works are brightly coloured and patterned fabric in the form of canopies, umbrellas, drapery, carry bags, flags, coberings of dummy horses and cows, and other household textiles which are marketed in Puri. The cloth used are in dark colours of red, black, yellow, green, blue and turquoise blue.
CULTURE
Cultural activities, apart from religiuos festivals, held annually are: The Puri Beach Festival held between 5 and 9 November and the Shreeksherta Utsav held from 20 December to 2 January where cultural programmes include unique sand art, display of local and traditional handicrafts and food festival. In addition cultural programmes are held every Saturday for two hours on in second Saturday of the moth at the district Collector's Conference Hall near Sea Beach Polic Station. Apart from Odissi dance, Odiya music, folk dances, and cultural programmes are part of this event. Odishi dance is the cultural heritage of Puri. This dance form originated in Puri in the dances performed Devadasis (Maharis) attached to the Jagannath temple who performed dances in the Natamantapa of the temple to please the deities. Though the devadadsi practice has been discontinued, the dance form has become modern and classical and is widely popular, and many of the Odishi virtuoso artists and gurus (teachers) are from Puri.
EDUCATION
SOME OF THE EDUCATIONNAL INSTITUTIONS IN PURI
- Ghanashyama Hemalata Institute of Technology and Management
- Gangadhar Mohapatra Law College, established in 1981[84]
- Extension Unit of Regional Research Institute of Homoeopathy; Puri under Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH), New Delhi established in March 2006
- Sri Jagannath Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, established in July 1981
- The Industrial Training Institute, a Premier Technical Institution to provide education in skilled, committed & talented technicians, established in 1966 of the Government of India
PURI PEOPLE
Gopabandhu Das
Acharya Harihar
Nilakantha Das
Kelucharan Mohapatra
Pankaj Charan Das
Manasi Pradhan
Raghunath Mohapatra
Sudarshan Patnaik
Biswanath Sahinayak
Rituraj Mohanty
WIKIPEDIA
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Abstract: Sustainability has the potential to provide a holistic framework that can bridge the gap that is often found between socio-economic justice and environmental discourses. However, sustainability and sustainability education have typically accepted the prevailing socio-economic and cultural paradigm. It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that a truly holistic and visionary sustainability (education) framework ought to demand radical and critical theories and solutions- based approaches to politicize and interrogate the premises, assumptions, and biases linked to the dominant notion of sustainability. If we are to envision and construe actual sustainable futures, we must first understand what brought us here, where the roots of the problems lie, and how the sustainability discourse and framework tackle—or fail to tackle—them. To do this is to politicize sustainability, to build a critical perspective of and about sustainability. It is an act of conscientização (or conscientization), to borrow Paulo Freire’s seminal term, of cultivating critical consciousness and conscience. In lieu of the standard articulation of politics as centralized state administration, ‘critical sustainability studies’ is based on a framing that gives prominence to a more organic, decentralized engagement of conscientious subjects in the creation of just, regenerative eco-social relations. It illuminates the ideological and material links between society, culture, and ecology by devoting particular attention to how knowledge and discourse around and across those realms are generated and articulated. I believe that future scholarship and activism in sustainability and sustainability-related fields would benefit immensely from dialoguing with this framework.
The assumption that what currently exists must necessarily exist is the acid that corrodes all visionary thinking.
– Murray Bookchin, The Meaning of Confederalism, 1990
Introduction: Why Sustainability (and Sustainability Education)?
Despite conflicting opinions over what the terms ‘sustainability’ and its variant ‘sustainable development’ actually mean, the framework of sustainability has gained a lot of traction in the last two decades. Its Western origins can be traced back to the writings of Western philosophers and seminal environmentalists like John Locke and Aldo Leopold (Spoon, 2013). Redclift (2005) asserts that sustainability as an idea was first used during the ‘limits to growth’ debates in the 1970s and the 1972 UN Stockholm Conference. Perhaps the most commonly quoted definition of sustainable development is that of the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) who states that “sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 43).
Sustainability has the potential to provide a holistic framework that can bridge the gap that is often found between socio-economic justice and environmental discourses. After all, recent scholarship indicates that the issue of environmental quality is inevitably linked to that of human equity (Morello-Frosch, 1997; Torras & Boyce, 1998; see Agyeman, Bullard, & Evans, 2002), and thus they need to be thought about together. I hold that an actual sustainable society is one where wider matters of social and economic needs are intrinsically connected to the dynamic limits set by supporting ecosystems and environments.
Sustainability education has emerged as an effort to acknowledge and reinforce these interrelationships and to reorient and transform education along the lines of social and ecological well-being (Sterling, 2001). By being rooted in whole systems thinking, i.e. “the ability to collectively analyze complex systems across different domains (society, environment, and economy) and across different scales (local to global)” (Wiek, Withycombe, & Redman, 2011, p. 207), sustainability education strives to illuminate the complexities associated with the broad, problem-oriented, solution-driven nature of sustainability (Warren, Archambault, & Foley, 2014). If we are to devise cultural systems that are truly regenerative, this “novel” brand of education urges the teaching of the fundamental facts of life by stewarding learning communities that comprehend the adaptive qualities of ecological patterns and principles (Stone, 2012). Sustainability education highlights the centrality of ‘place’ as a unit of inquiry to devise reciprocal—and thus sustainable—relationships where one nourishes and is nourished by their surrounding social and ecological milieus (Williams & Brown, 2012).
Additionally, sustainability and, as a consequence, sustainability education are future- oriented and therefore demand ‘futures thinking’: the ability to assess and formulate nuanced pictures of the future vis-à-vis sustainability predicaments and sustainability problem-solving schemes (Wiek, et al., 2011). In a nutshell, futures thinking suggests that we need to imagine the potential ramifications of past and current human activities by critically analyzing them today if we are to conceive of new, more sustainable futures (Warren et al., 2014). Future studies can therefore help people to pursue their “ontological vocation” as history makers (Freire, 1993, p. 66) and to (re)claim their agency as a means of creating the world in which they wish to live (Inayatullah, 2007).
However, sustainability and sustainability education have typically accepted the prevailing socio-economic and cultural paradigm despite their apparent holistic intent and(theoretical) efforts to reconcile the three pillars of sustainability—equity, environment, and economy. Whether intentionally or not, they have promoted curative solutions instead of reflecting new, critical mindsets that can actually generate meaningful socio-cultural innovation by naming and discursively dismantling the systems and processes that are the root causes of the complex problems we face. And, as Albert Einstein once put it, “no problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it.”
It is my aim in this paper to demonstrate that a truly holistic and visionary sustainability (education) framework ought to demand radical (of, relating to, or proceeding from a root) and critical (of, relating to, or being a turning point) theories and solutions-based approaches to politicize and interrogate the premises, assumptions, and biases linked to the dominant notion of sustainability.
Troubling (Monolithic) Sustainability
In order to be able to unveil and critically analyze the propositions and suppositions of what I call ‘the monolithic sustainability discourse,’ it is fundamental to start with the etymology of the word ‘sustainability’ itself. The operationalization of the term can be problematic for it implies prior judgments about what is deemed important or necessary to sustain. While some of these judgements might resonate with an array of environmentalists who perceive that the health of the planet and the well-being of our descendants are being—or are already—compromised by certain human activities, various other perilous premises and assumptions are generally left unacknowledged as a result of the depoliticized character of the dominant discourse of sustainability. Lele and Norgaard (1996) have put forward three questions that can help us to uncover and think more critically about these presuppositions in and across various contexts and scales: (a) what is to be sustained, at what scale, and in what form?; (b) over what time period, with what level of certainty?; (c) through what social process(es), and with what trade-offs against other social goals? (p. 355).
By building on these critical questions and clarifications, we can better understand the nuances of how the destructive and thus unsustainable ethos of dehumanization and socio- ecological exploitation may inform and permeate normative notions and articulations of sustainability. Yet, this is only plausible if sustainability is politicized. To politicize is to engage the existing state of socio-political affairs, to problematize that which is taken for granted, to make explicit the power relations that are an innate part of everyday life and experience (Bailey & Gayle, 2003). In an attempt to comprehend why sustainability is typically depoliticized we ought to examine briefly its discursive history.
The term ‘sustainable development’ became a part of the policy discourse and almost every day language following the release of the Brundtland Commission’s report on the global environment and development in 1987 (Redclift, 2005). While their definition included a very clear social directive, its human and political dimensions have been largely overlooked amongst references to sustainability, which, due to its environmental origins (Lele & Norgaard, 1996) and neoliberal focus on rights rather than needs (Redclift, 2005), have typically focused on bio- physical, ecological issues (Vallance, Perkins, & Dixon, 2011). Social sustainability, which has been conceptualized in response to the failure of the sustainability approach to engender substantial change (Vallance et al., 2011), is the least developed of the three realms and is frequently framed in relation to ecological and/or economic sustainability (Magis & Shinn, 2013). I assert that the reason for this is twofold: first and foremost, the sustainability agenda was conceived by international committees and NGO networks, think tanks, and governmental structures (Agyeman et al., 2002), which makes it a top-down approach and, consequently, less likely to recognize and address themes such as structural poverty, equity, and justice (Colantonio, 2009); and second, because social sustainability is made subservient to economics and the environment, it fails to examine the socio-political circumstances and elements that are needed to sustain a community of people (Magis & Shinn, 2013).
Sustainability, since its inception as a Western construct, has been progressively viewed as a crucial driver in economic development and environmental management worldwide. Nevertheless, as delineated above, its almost universal focus on reconciling the growth model of economics and the environment has served to covertly depoliticize the dominant discourse and therefore render it uncontentious if not intrinsically benign. It is worth further exploring the dynamics of depoliticization for I believe they are at the radicle of the issues sustainability attempts to address in the first place.
Bailey and Gayle (2003) identify a series of acts that can be associated with the dynamics of depoliticization, three of which can be observed when examining the monolithic sustainability discourse: (a) eschewing political discourse; (b) removing from the discourse the recognition that social advantages are given to certain constituent groups; (c) not disclosing underlying viewpoints or values. These processes are enmeshed with intricate ideological instances that help to mask the systemic and/or structural nature of a social or cultural matter (Bailey & Gayle, 2003). Further, as Foucault (1984) has stated, “power is everywhere” (p. 93) and it is embodied and enacted in discourse and knowledge. Hence, possessing the analytical tools to name and unpack these discursive ideological formations and power dynamics ought to be a prerequisite to the development of more holistic and critically conscious understandings and applications of sustainability.
Politicizing Sustainability
If we are to envision and construe actual sustainable futures, we must first understand what brought us here, where the roots of the problems lie, and how the sustainability discourse and framework tackle—or fail to tackle—them. To do this is to politicize sustainability, to build a critical perspective of and about sustainability. It is an act of conscientização (or conscientization), to borrow Paulo Freire’s seminal term, of cultivating critical consciousness and conscience (Freire, 1993). It is a call for the necessity to highlight, problematize, and disrupt what I have termed ‘the ethos of unsustainability’ and its interrelated ideologies of dehumanization and exploitation. Ultimately, to embrace a stance that fails to scrutinize the sources of degradation and exploitation is to uphold the power relations that sustain oppressive structures (Freire, 1993; Perry, 2001). I assert that only by delving into the origins of the ‘ethos of unsustainability’ can we really devise sustainability paradigms that are capable of promoting significant socio-cultural transformation.
To comprehend the contours of the predicaments that loom on our horizon as well as their premises and logics, we must go back over 500 years in history to 1492, the year that marks the beginning of the current colonial era and the globalization of the European colonial imaginary (Tuck and Yang, 2012). It is important to note that my intention in doing so is not to provide a sweeping, all-encompassing description of this genealogy/historical process, but rather, to simply name, connect, and emphasize the ideological systems and patterns that have been conceptualized and reconceptualized so as to sustain the ethos of unsustainability and its exploitative power structures. After all, as Freire (1993) has indicated, “to name the world is to change it” (p. 88).
(World) Capitalism: A Technology of European Colonialism
According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the word ‘colonialism’ stems from the Roman word ‘colonia,’ which meant ‘settlement’ or ‘farm.’ The OED describes it as:
… a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state; the community so formed, consisting of the original settlers and their descendants and successors, as long as the connection with the parent state is kept up.
In Colonialism/Postcolonialism, Ania Loomba (2001) points out that this definition fails to link the word ‘colonialism’ to its ideologies of conquest and domination as it eschews any testimonial about those peoples who were already living in the places where the colonies were formalized. She offers another, more nuanced definition that hints to the processes of conquest and control of other peoples’ land and resources (Loomba, 2001, p. 2):
The process of ‘forming a community’ in the new land necessarily meant unforming or re-forming the communities that existed there already, and involved a wide range of practices including trade, plunder, negotiation, warfare, genocide, slavement and rebellions.
Loomba (2001) illuminates that while European colonialisms from the late fifteenth century onwards included a miscellany of patterns of domination and exploitation, it was a combination of these patterns that generated the economic disparity required for the maturation and expansion of European capitalism and industrial civilization; thus, capitalism demands the maintenance of colonial expansion in order to flourish. In spite of colonialism not being a monopoly of capitalism because it could be—and has been—utilized by so-called ‘socialist’ or ‘communist’ states as well (Dirlik, 2002), capitalism is a technology of colonialism that has been developed and re-structured over time as a means of advancing European colonial projects (Tuck and Yang, 2012). Colonialism was the instrument through which capitalism was able to reach its status as a global, master frame (Loomba, 2001).
A distinction between the three historical modes of colonialism might help to further elucidate the interrelationships between capitalism and colonialism.
Theories of coloniality as well as postcolonial theories typically acknowledge two brands of colonialism: external colonialism, which involves the appropriation of elements of Indigenous worlds in order to build the wealth and the power of the colonizers—the first world—, and internal colonialism, the bio- and geo-political management of people and land within the borders of a particular nation-state (Tuck and Yang, 2012). A third form, settler colonialism, is more suitable to describe the operationalization of colonialisms in which the colonizers arrive and make a new home on the land (Tuck and Yang, 2012). The settler objective of gaining control over land and resources by removing the local, Indigenous communities is an ongoing structure that relies on private property schemes and coercive systems of labor (Glenn, 2015).
In these processes of colonialism, land is conceived primarily if not exclusively as commodity and property, and human relationships to the land are only legitimized in terms of economic ownership (Tuck and Yang, 2012). These combined colonialist ideologies of commodification and private property are at the core of the various political economies of capitalism that are found in today’s globalized world (O’Sullivan, 2005). By relying on the appropriation of land and commodities through the “elimination of the Native” (Wolfe, 2006, p. 387), European colonialisms wind up restructuring non-capitalist economies so as to fuel European capitalism (Loomba, 2001). The globalization of the world is thereby the pinnacle of a process that started with the formation of the United States of America as the epitome of a Euro- centered, settler colonialist world power (Quijano, 2000).
Inspired by the European colonial imaginary, which transforms differences and diversity into a hierarchy of values (Mignolo, 2000) as well as by economic liberalism, which erases the production and labor contexts from the economy (Straume, 2011), the capitalist imaginary constitutes a broad depoliticization that disconnects its ‘social imaginary significations’ from the political sphere (Straume, 2011). Given that capitalism is imbued with European diffusionist constructs (Blaut, 1989), namely ‘progress,’ ‘development,’ and ‘modernity,’ the depoliticization of this now globalized imaginary is required not only to maintain the resilience of capitalism as a master frame (Straume, 2011), but also to camouflage its interconnectedness to European colonial systems.
Antonio Gramsci’s (1971) study and articulation of the conceptualization and operation of ideologies proves fruitful in terms of understanding how the capitalist imaginary has been used to facilitate processes of globalization that benefit European colonialisms. He argued that ideologies are invaluable when manufacturing consent as they are the means through which certain ideas and meanings are not only transmitted, but held to be true (Gramsci, 1971). Hence, hegemony, the power garnered through a combination of ideologies and coercion, is attained by playing with people’s common sense (Gramsci, 1971) and their lived system of meanings and values (Williams, 1976; see Loomba, 2001). Since subjectivity and ideology are key to the expansionist capitalist endeavor and its interrelated logics of commodification and domination (Gramsci, 1971), it becomes necessary to summon and dissect the colonial ideas and belief systems that have served and continue to serve as its conduits. This can in turn help us to interrogate the value systems and mental models that directly and/or indirectly inform the dominant notion of sustainability (education).
White Supremacist, Heteropatriarchal State Capitalism
As devised and practiced by Europeans and, later, by other Euro-centered powers such as the United States, colonial ideologies of race and racial structures smooth the way for capitalist production (Wolfe, 2006). The Eurocentric construct of race as “a system of discrimination, hierarchy and power” (Olson, 2004, xvii, p. 127-128) conveys colonial experience and infuses the most essential realms of world power and its hierarchies (Quijano, 2000). The state and its many institutions are particularly pivotal in sustaining these racialized ideologies that are obligatory for the development and continuance of capitalism (Loomba, 2001).
Slavery, as the foundation of notions of race and capitalist empire and one of the pillars of white supremacy, marks the concepts of ‘progress’ and ‘development’ as white (Painter, 2010) and renders black people as innately enslaveable, as nothing more than private property (Smith, 2010a). Within the context of the United States, the forms of slavery can and, indeed, have changed—from chattel slavery, to sharecropping, and more recently, to the prison industrial complex, which is still grounded in the premise that black bodies are an indefinite property of the state (Smith, 2010a)—yet, slavery as a logic of white supremacy has persisted (Smith, 2010a). The other two pillars of white supremacy are genocide, which expresses the need for Indigenous Peoples to always be disappearing, and orientalism, which builds on Edward Said’s influential term to explain how certain peoples and/or nations are coded as inferior and, therefore, a constant threat to the security and longevity of imperial states (Smith, 2010a).
The pillars of white supremacy may vary according to historical and geographical contexts (Smith, 2010a). Nonetheless, the centering of whiteness is generally what defines a colonial project. The formation of whiteness, or white identity, as a racialized class orientation stems from political efforts by capitalist elites and lawmakers to divide and conquer large masses of workers (Battalora, 2013). White identity is perhaps one of the most successful colonial and capitalist inventions since it “operates as a kind of property … with effects on social confidence and performance that can be empirically documented” (Alcoff, 2015, p. 23). It is a very dynamic category that can be enlarged to extend its privileges to others when white supremacist social and economic relations are jeopardized (Painter, 2010). It sustains itself, at least partially, by evading scrutiny and shifting the discursive focus to ‘non-whites’ (Silva, 2007). Whiteness is to be made invisible by remaining the norm, the standard, that which ought not to be questioned.
Capitalism therefore depends on and magnifies these racial hierarchies centered on whiteness. And, since race is imbricated and constructed simultaneously with gender, sexuality, ability, and other colonial categories—a conceptualization that serves to obscure white supremacy in state discourses and interventions (Kandaswamy, 2012)—, it is crucial to investigate the other ideologies that also shape class formation processes.
Heteropatriarchy, the combination of patriarchal and heterosexual control based on rigid and dichotomous gender identities—man and woman—and sexual orientations—heterosexual and homosexual—where one identity or orientation dominates the other, is another building block of colonialism. Patriarchy is employed to naturalize hierarchical relations within families and at a larger, societal level (Smith, 2010b). Similarly, heteronormativity paints heterosexual nuclear-domestic arrangements as normative (Arvin, Tuck, and Morrill, 2013) and is thus the bedrock of the colonial nation-state (Smith, 2010b). These social and cultural systems that configure heteropatriarchy are then apprehended as normal and natural whereas other arrangements or proclivities are demonized and perceived as repulsive and abnormal (Arvin et al., 2013). Heteropatriarchy is directly linked to colonial racial relations as it portrays white manhood as supreme and entitled to control over private property and to political sovereignty (Glenn, 2015). This indicates that the process of producing and managing gender frequently functions as a racial project that normalizes whiteness (Kandaswamy, 2012).
The laws and policies that were designed to institutionalize the formation of whiteness and white supremacy demonstrate that race, class, and gender are intertwined systems that uphold, constitute, and reconstitute each other (Battalora, 2013). The state and its ideological institutions are therefore major sites of racial struggle (Kandaswamy, 2012); they are responsible for devising and constantly revising the rationale that guides a white supremacist, heteropatriarchal settler colonialism grounded in the need to manufacture collective consent. These discourses are rooted in a pervasive state process that combines coercive state arbitration with societal consent by articulating the ideologies that link racial structure and representation as an effort to reorganize and distribute resources according to specific racial lines (Ferguson, 2012).
Despite increasing globalizing neoliberal urges toward deregulation and privatization, capitalism is still enabled and supported by the state. Its ‘ideological apparatuses,’ the state institutions and ideologies that enable and support the classist structure of capitalist societies (Althusser, 1989), is still fundamental to the expansion of capitalist enterprises; the nation-state is capitalism’s atomic component. The neoliberal state has utilized innovations in methods of social discipline and control along with legal practices to facilitate the process of economic globalization (Gill, 1995). Yet, all these schemes that involve retention of power through dominance and manufactured consent are rooted in divide and conquer strategies that cause those in subservient positions in society to engage in conflicts with one another (Hagopian, 2015). The interlinked logics and ideologies of white supremacy and heteropatriarchy conceived by state capitalism serve to spur dissent between potential opponents and thereby further stratify socio-economic classes. This prevents them from building a unified basis that can present a tangible threat to the status quo (Hagopian, 2015). Colonial and neocolonial powers have repeatedly deployed this stratagem to not only increase their geographical reach, but also to normalize and standardize the economic growth model of capitalism.
Colonialism is hence not just an ancient, bygone incident. The ideologies and processes delineated above demonstrate that it has remained very much in effect within contemporary capitalist and neoliberal frameworks (Preston, 2013). It then becomes critical to investigate how the dominant sustainability discourse may or may not collude in these schemes so that we may conceive of holistic blueprints that beget positive socio-ecological transformation.
Sustainability and Colonialism: Contradiction or Conscious Ideological Maneuver?
By unearthing what I believe are the roots of the predicament that sustainability attempts to heal, namely the ethos of dehumanization and exploitation rooted in divide and conquer systems, it becomes easier to analyze how the colonial political economy of capitalism may conserve hegemonic ideologies that pervade social relations and knowledge generating processes.
Yet, these ideologies and knowledge schemes have been given minimal attention in sustainability (education) scholarship. Even though some academics have contributed to the generation of a more critical comprehension of the interrelationships between capitalism, environmental degradation, and socio-economic justice (see Cachelin, Rose, & Paisley, 2015; Martusewicz, Edmundson, & Lupinacci, 2011; Pellow & Brulle, 2005), this major blindspot in linking sustainability to the colonial imaginary and its legacies prompts the following questions:(awhy are critiques of colonialism and capitalism so infrequent in the sustainability literature?: (a) why are critiques of colonialism and capitalism so infrequent in the sustainability literature?; and (b) how does that impact the discourse of sustainability?
I assert that, in spite of calls for paradigm shifts, the dominant disancourse of sustainability in the West embodies a transnational, globalized standard of economic growth. The promise that economic development can eradicate or at least alleviate poverty and hunger in a sustainable way reflects some of the same goals and values of the optimistic ‘ecological modernization’ concept and perspective, which suggest that the development and modernization of liberal capitalism result in improvements in ecological outcomes (Buttel, 2000). The neoliberal, capitalist overtones of sustainable development not only expose the contradiction inherent in the term, but they also serve to further commodify nature (Cock, 2011). This neoliberalization of nature, which has recently gained a lot of attention in the corporate world and academia under the lexicon of ‘ecosystem services,’ alienates people from their physical surroundings and therefore reinforces the society-nature divide. In short, the sustainability discourse has been appropriated by the capitalist master frame and has transformed most if not all social and ecological relations into financial ones. In lieu of addressing social and environmental justice issues, this form of “green” or “natural” capitalism is responsible for deepening both social and environmental inequalities (Cock, 2011).
Since sustainability (education) is (supposed to be) a praxis-oriented framework that symbiotically combines thought and action for transformative, liberatory ends, it ought to embrace this critique of colonial capitalism and the subsequent neoliberalization of the political economy if it is to oppose and resist hegemonic ideologies in its multiple and diverse manifestations. After all, whether intentionally or not, what matters in the end is that those discourses of sustainability that do not take a stance against colonialism and capitalism only serve to preserve them and the status quo. An understanding of these interdependent systems allows for the development of critical sustainability dialogues and actions that can actually promote the paradigmatic shifts required to redress the socio-cultural problems that are at the heart of the environmental crises. Thus, sustainability can and should be reframed to suggest a process of personal, social, and cultural conscientization that is environmentally sound, i.e. one that follows ecological principles and patterns, instead of upholding the dehumanizing, exploitative, and paradoxical ‘development as growth’ standard of global capitalism.
The following section combines the analyses and critiques presented in the preceding (sub)sections into a single, cohesive, and holistic framework, and further elucidates the distinctions between monolithic sustainability and critical sustainabilities.
The Framework of Critical Sustainability Studies
[T]he political cannot be restricted to a certain type of institution, or envisioned as constituting a specific sphere or level of society. It must be conceived as a dimension that is inherent to every human society and that determines our very ontological condition.
- Chantal Mouffe, The Return of the Political, 2005
‘Critical sustainability studies,’ while not exactly novel in the sense that it draws on principles, concepts, and positions that are foundational to other frameworks and fields—more specifically, critical Indigenous and ethnic studies, postcolonial theory, queer theory, feminist theory, crip theory, social ecology, political ecology, and cultural studies—, presents itself as an alternative to the sustainability theories and conceptualizations that have failed to engage a truly intersectional analysis of dominant sustainability and environmental discourses, policies, and practices. Its primary objective is to rearticulate sustainability as it has the potential to provide a more holistic conception of conscientization that can bridge the gap between social and economic justice and environmental sustainability.
The framework indicates a crucial double political intervention: to put sustainability and critical theory in conversation; to embed sustainability and ecology into critical theory and vice- versa. As I discussed in the previous section, sustainability has, for the most part, become a hegemonic and, therefore, highly problematic discourse that refuses to transform the complex ideologies and systems that undergird the ethos of unsustainability and the current socio- ecological crises. On the other hand, critical theory, which seeks to extend the consciousness of the human self as a social being within the context of dominant power structures and their knowledge management operations (Kincheloe, 2005), could benefit from incorporating ecological principles and the sustainability notion of ‘place’ into its analytical toolbox. After all, I am as interested in localizing critical knowledge—without disconnecting it from global matters and realities—as I am in putting forth more critical and radical views of sustainability. Hence, this framework brings together what I believe are some of the most robust and cutting edge theories and methodologies to facilitate the deconstruction of the questionable ideologies that guide Western epistemologies like (hegemonic) sustainability.
Critical sustainability studies encourages sustainability scholars and/or educators to move from a defined methodology of problem-solving to the more critical moment of calling something into question (Freire, 1993). By rooting it in conscientization, I propose an orientation to sustainability and sustainable development that politicizes and reveals it as an agenda, discourse, and knowledge system that ought to be contested and rearticulated so that it can incorporate and critically engage with emancipatory understandings of power and power relations. Furthermore, by problematizing and closing the culture-nature divide, it can lay down the groundwork for the paradigmatic changes necessary to heal widespread colonialist alienation from the wider ecological community and to create visions of deep sustainabilities that can engender ecologically sound socio-cultural transformation.
I stress that the notion of sustainabilities is necessary if we have the intention of opposing and displacing the monolithic, top-down and now universalized sustainability agenda, which I refer to as ‘big S Sustainability.’ After all, much like science (Parry, 2006), sustainability is not the property of any one culture or language. There are different ways of seeing and knowing sustainability, so it is time to pluralize it in the literature and discourse. This simple act is an extraordinary intervention in itself because within the colonial imaginary “sustainability” means “Western sustainability.” By centering “novel” understandings of sustainability that are concerned with the specificities of geo-political, cultural, and historical contexts and power relations, sustainability scholars and educators can create theories and visions of sustainability that can lead to the development of more just, place-based cultures and social ecologies.
Critical sustainability studies as I envision it is a consciousness-raising exercise that is particularly useful in educational settings. It indicates methodology as much as content. This praxis-oriented framework can help teachers and students alike to develop consciousness of freedom and to acknowledge authoritarian socio-cultural tendencies that have toxic environmental ramifications. The next section provides an overview of its tenets, the educational philosophy that underpins it, as well as the four preliminary methodological principles and examples of related pedagogical interventions that directly inform the framework and its liberatory, decolonizing ambitions.
Epistemological Position, Preliminary Methodological Principles, and Pedagogical Interventions for Conscientization
The epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical implications of critical sustainability studies are rooted in an ethical and political vision, one that is found in the vast majority of social ecology and political ecology projects: that “the domination of nature by man [sic] stems from the very real domination of human by human” (Bookchin, 2005, p. 1). In other words, we cannot overcome the ecological crisis unless we rid ourselves of the colonial ideologies of domination and hierarchy that permeate all forms of systemic and systematic exploitation and dehumanization. While much easier said than done, critical sustainability studies seeks to conceptualize this vision by building on the following tenets:
That sustainability and sustainability education are not neutral, they either advance or regress justice and Critical sustainability studies strives to promote justice and ecological regeneration.
That an analysis of power is central to understanding and engendering positive socio-cultural Critical sustainability studies strives to be conscious of power relations and to identify power inequalities and their implications.
That it is crucial to foreground the sociocultural identities and experiences of those who have been (most) oppressed – people of color, people with disabilities, queer and transgender people, the working class and the economically poor, undocumented immigrants, Critical sustainability studies acknowledges that just, healthy cultures and societies can only be cultivated if we examine the circumstances that cause and maintain socio-economic marginalization.
That positive socio-cultural transformation comes from the bottom up. Critical sustainability studies emphasizes and advocates a collective and decentralized approach to sustainable change.
And, finally, that the human community is inherently a part of rather than apart from the wider ecological world. Critical sustainability studies affirms that this relational ethos serves as the epistemological foundation of novel, dynamic worlds where healing and justice are at the front and center of our cultural and ecological identities.
In addition to delineating critical sustainability studies as a praxis that is founded on the above tenets, the framework is guided by a critical constructivist epistemological position. Strongly influenced by Freirean pedagogies and the Frankfurt school of thought, critical constructivism endeavors to dissect the processes by which knowledge is socially constructed; in other words, what we know about the worlds we live in always demands a knower and that which is to be known, a contextual and dialectical process that informs what we conceive of as reality (Kincheloe, 2005). This epistemological position problematizes and extends constructivism by illuminating the need for both teachers and students to develop a critical awareness of self, their perspectives, and ways their consciousness have been shaped and/or reshaped by society (Watts, Jofili, & Bezerra, 1997). Critical constructivists attempt to comprehend the forces that construe consciousness and the ways of seeing and being of the subjects who inhabit it (Kincheloe, 1993, as cited in Watts et al., 1997). This political, counter- Cartesianism, and anti-objectivist philosophy (Kincheloe, 2005) is central to an emancipatory approach to sustainability and sustainability education, and is, therefore, at the root of the critical sustainability studies conception of holistic conscientization.
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