Self-Orientalism at Europe’s Margins: Historical Imaginary, Ritual Practice, and Interfaith Dialogue in an Indo-Baltic Nath Network
In this paper, I discuss Latvian participation in the Nath Sampradaya on the background of a deep history of Baltic fascination with the East. I highlight three different levels of self-understanding for the practitioners of this religious movement: historical imaginary, ritual practice, and interfa...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox
2022
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| In: |
Religions of South Asia
Year: 2022, Volume: 16, Issue: 1, Pages: 66-89 |
| Further subjects: | B
Latvia
B Nāth Saṃpradāya B Tantra B Baltic states B Yoga B Interfaith Dialogue |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | In this paper, I discuss Latvian participation in the Nath Sampradaya on the background of a deep history of Baltic fascination with the East. I highlight three different levels of self-understanding for the practitioners of this religious movement: historical imaginary, ritual practice, and interfaith dialogue. While partaking of the rhetoric of Indo-Baltic kinship that has by now become part of the self-representation of the Balts, the Latvian yogis do not strive for a Hindu-pagan revival, but identify instead in forms of esoteric ritual practice (tantra) and bodily discipline (yoga) a preferred tool to regain a notion of themselves as self-ruling, empowered subjects, thus projecting onto the realm of the embodied self the quest for independence historically expressed in the public sphere. Interfaith dialogue, represented by their collaboration with a Catholic priest, emerges as an unexpected element. |
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| ISSN: | 1751-2697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rosa.23306 |