Two Days in the Life of a River: Glacier Floods in Bhutan
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3138/anth.582.T05Keywords:
Bhutan, floods, Buddhism, disasters, temporality, waterAbstract
An analysis of glacier lake outburst floods in the Bhutanese Himalayas in 1994 and 2015 demonstrates the social importance of the temporality of water, understood as the variability in its flow and its capacity to disturb human activity. The ways in which social institutions and cultural meanings change and influence the perception, understanding and modes of interaction with water are examined here, to indicate how the relations between people and a river are neither stables nor in flux, but rather in ongoing reconfiguration. The importance of these social institutions and cultural meanings are demonstrated by a comparison of two types of buildings which are vulnerable to the floods: the traditional temple-fortresses and the new hydroelectric power plants.
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