For roughly two thousand years, the veneration of sacred fossil ammonites, called Shaligrams, has been an important part of Hindu and Buddhist ritual practice throughout South Asia and among the global Diaspora. Originating from a single remote region of Himalayan Nepal, called Mustang, Shaligrams are all at once fossils, divine beings, and intimate kin with families and worshippers. Through their lives, movements, and materiality, Shaligrams then reveal fascinating new dimensions of religious practice, pilgrimage, and politics. But as social, environmental, and national conflicts in the politically-contentious region of Mustang continue to escalate, the geologic, mythic, and religious movements of Shaligrams have come to act as parallels to the mobility of people through both space and time. Shaligram mobility therefore traverses through multiple social worlds, multiple religions, and multiple nations revealing Shaligram practitioners as a distinct, alternative, community struggling for a place in a world on the edge.

About the Author
Dr. Holly Walters is a cultural anthropologist (Wellesley College, Massachusetts) whose work focuses on sacred objects, ritual practices, pilgrimage, and mobility in South Asia. Her work also addresses the interpretation of fossils as texts and the challenges of religious revival online.

Reviews
"In Shaligram Pilgrimage in the Nepal Himalayas, the author's careful treatment of the subject matter allows the reader to consider the lives of stone persons alongside our own and personhoods that derive from vast natural cycles beyond human control. To do so was no easy task, I'm sure, and the result is an important addition to interdisciplinary object studies."
- Donna Yates, Journal of Material Religion, July 2021

"Walters' book represents almost a decade of in-depth study in India and Nepal in search of the meaning of shaligram worship. [...] Her meticulously researched book provides deep insight into the culture of these sacred fossils and of the age-old pilgrimage to Muktinath. Shaligram Pilgrimage is the most comprehensive study of the "living fossils" written to date."
- Don Messerschmidt, Himal Southasian, July 2021



Book Information
ISBN 9789463721721
Author Holly Walters
Format Hardback
Page Count 294
Imprint Amsterdam University Press
Publisher Amsterdam University Press