In the Blang Mountains, an upland region stretching across the China–Myanmar border, the land has become sick and the forests have lost their biodiversity. In this session of the reading group, we will investigate how changing relations between humans, gods, states, and soils have led to environmental crisis, and what we can all learn from Blang communities in the face of global climate change.
The session is based on work in progress from a forthcoming edited volume, Religion and Ecological Crisis: Responses from Asia (forthcoming 2026). The paper will be circulated in advance of the seminar.
Bio
Daniel Mohseni Kabir Bäckström is a guest researcher on the project Transcendence and Sustainability: Asian Visions with Global Promise at the University of Oslo. His research focuses on ethnic minorities and religion in China, with particular attention to relations between ecology, cosmology, and governance.