Mark Turin

Sh pa: 'explanation' or 'elucidation' in Tibetan.A form of oral poetry sung antiphonally in a question-and-answer style.This book contains a unique collection of Tibetan oral narrations and songs known as Sh pa, as these have been performed, recorded and shared between generations of Chon Tibetans from Amdo living in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Presented in trilingual format - in Tibetan, Chinese and English - the book reflects a sustained collaboration with and between members of the local community, including narrators, monks, and scholars, calling attention to the diversity inherent in all oral traditions, and the mutability of Sh pa in particular.From creation myths to Bon and Buddhist cosmologies and even wedding songs, Sh pa engages with and draws on elements of religious traditions, historical legacies and deep-seated cultural memories within Chon and Tibet, revealing the multi-layered conceptualization of the Tibetan physical world and the resilience of Tibetan communities within it. This vital and unique collection, part of the World Oral Literature Series, situates Sh pa in its ethnographic context, offering insights into the preservation and revitalization of intangible cultural heritage in the context of cultural Tibet, Indigenous studies and beyond.Scholars and students in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, ethnic and minority relations, critical Indigenous studies, Tibetan studies, Himalayan studies, Asian studies and the broader study of China will find much to reward them in this book, as will all readers interested in the documentation and preservation of endangered oral traditions, intangible cultural heritage, performance and textuality, and Tibetan literature and religions.

Sh pa: 'explanation' or 'elucidation' in Tibetan.A form of oral poetry sung antiphonally in a question-and-answer style.This book contains a unique collection of Tibetan oral narrations and songs known as Sh pa, as these have been performed, recorded and shared between generations of Chon Tibetans from Amdo living in the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Presented in trilingual format - in Tibetan, Chinese and English - the book reflects a sustained collaboration with and between members of the local community, including narrators, monks, and scholars, calling attention to the diversity inherent in all oral traditions, and the mutability of Sh pa in particular.From creation myths to Bon and Buddhist cosmologies and even wedding songs, Sh pa engages with and draws on elements of religious traditions, historical legacies and deep-seated cultural memories within Chon and Tibet, revealing the multi-layered conceptualization of the Tibetan physical world and the resilience of Tibetan communities within it. This vital and unique collection, part of the World Oral Literature Series, situates Sh pa in its ethnographic context, offering insights into the preservation and revitalization of intangible cultural heritage in the context of cultural Tibet, Indigenous studies and beyond.Scholars and students in the fields of anthropology, linguistics, ethnic and minority relations, critical Indigenous studies, Tibetan studies, Himalayan studies, Asian studies and the broader study of China will find much to reward them in this book, as will all readers interested in the documentation and preservation of endangered oral traditions, intangible cultural heritage, performance and textuality, and Tibetan literature and religions.

Science and Religion: Edwin Salpeter, Owen Gingerich and John Polkinghorne is a collection of interviews being published as a book. These interviews have been conducted by one of England’s leading social anthropologists and historians, Professor Alan Macfarlane. Filmed over a period of 40 years, the five conversations in this volume, are part of Social Science Press’s series Creative Lives and Works. These transcriptions also form a part of a larger set of interviews that cut across various disciplines, from the social sciences, the sciences and to the performing and visual arts. The current volume is on three foremost physicists and historians of science. Edwin Salpeter recounts rather dispassionately his departure from Austria to Australia to escape Nazi persecution. And in doing so broaches, not only, on the prevailing anti-Semitic sentiment of the time, but takes the debate forward into the one between science and religion. Though he only touches upon it, this debate finds resonance in the words of Owen Gingerich who belonged to the Mennonite dispensation and who has been rather vocal about the pro-Christian anti-creationist ideology. However, it is John Polkinghorne who provides a deep insight into the ongoing debate on science and religion.Immensely riveting as conversations, this collection reveals how intrinsically related science and religion are, how pertinent it is to understand the workings of science in the context of religion. The book will be of enormous value not just to those interested in Astronomy and Cosmology as well as the History of Science, but also to those with an inquisitive mind.Please note: This title is co-published with Social Science Press, New Delhi. Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.