Men honouring a gzhi bdag through the burning of bsang (juniper), near Donggo, Qinghai Province. Photograph: Awang Jikmed, 2017.
Spiritual Governance
Understanding the relationships between people, place and the more-than-human world
Spiritual governance recognises that many indigenous societies regulate their relationships with forests, rivers, mountains and other living communities through customary institutions, cosmology and reciprocal obligations that extend beyond the human world.
Rather than separating nature from culture or religion, spiritual governance understands humans, other-than-human persons and the landscape as participants in a shared moral community. Within these communities, relationships are maintained through respect, reciprocity and customary practices of protection rather than external systems of regulation alone.
My own understanding of spiritual governance emerged from more than four decades of ethnographic fieldwork in Nepal and southwest China, where I explored how territorial spirit owners (gzhi bdag), sacred natural sites and indigenous cosmologies shaped people's relationships with the living world.
Today, these ideas continue to inform my work on Rights of Nature, biodiversity recovery and community-based conservation in Wales.
What is Spiritual Governance?
Spiritual governance describes the ways in which relationships between people and the more-than-human world are shaped by cosmology, customary institutions and reciprocal obligations.
It is concerned not simply with how societies organise themselves, but with how they understand responsibility towards forests, rivers, mountains, animals, ancestors, spirit owners and other-than-human persons.
Unlike conventional models of environmental governance, spiritual governance recognises that authority may be distributed across both human and more-than-human communities.
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Mount Tsomo above Upper Yubeng, viewed from a labtse ("roof altar"). The labtse is the focal point for offerings to the mountain's gzhi bdag (territorial spirit owner), expressing reciprocal relationships between local communities and the sacred landscape.
The village labtse at Upper Yubeng. Juniper offerings are made here as part of customary practices that honour the gzhi bdag (territorial spirit owners) associated with the surrounding sacred landscape
What is Spiritual Governance?
Spiritual governance refers to the relationships through which indigenous peoples recognise the authority, agency and jurisdiction of other-than-human persons within the natural world. These relationships are maintained through customary institutions, reciprocal obligations and ritual practices that have developed over many generations.
Within many indigenous societies, mountains, forests, rivers and other natural features are not regarded merely as physical landscapes or ecological resources. They are understood as enspirited places inhabited by persons who possess agency, authority and responsibilities within their own domains. Human wellbeing depends upon maintaining respectful and reciprocal relationships with these beings through practices of protection, nurturance and ritual observance.
Spiritual governance is therefore not simply a system of beliefs. It is a lived framework through which relationships between people, place and other-than-human persons are negotiated and renewed. These relationships often contribute to the long-term protection of biodiversity, not because conservation is their primary objective, but because care for the abode and domain of spiritual beings is an integral part of indigenous life.
Spiritual Governance in Eastern Kham
My understanding of spiritual governance is grounded in many years of ethnographic research among the Tibetan peoples of Eastern Kham. Through conversations with farmers, nomads, ritual specialists and village elders, I came to appreciate that relationships between people and the natural world are often understood as reciprocal relationships with other-than-human persons who inhabit and exercise authority over particular places.
Many mountains, forests, springs and other landscape features are understood to be the abodes of gzhi bdag (territorial spirit owners). Their domains are recognised and respected through customary institutions, ritual practices and reciprocal obligations that have been maintained across generations. The protection and nurturance of these enspirited landscapes is therefore not simply an environmental ethic; it is an expression of an indigenous system of spiritual governance.
The photographs on this page illustrate some of these institutions and practices as encountered during my fieldwork in Eastern Kham. They are intended not as illustrations of an exotic belief system, but as examples of a living indigenous worldview in which relationships between people, place and other-than-human persons continue to shape everyday life.
Videos: Territorial Numina and Sacred Natural Sites.
Characteristics of Spiritual Governance
Spiritual governance, as encountered during my ethnographic research in Eastern Kham, is characterised by a number of interrelated principles that distinguish it from conventional approaches to environmental governance.
Other-than-human agency
The natural world is inhabited by other-than-human persons who possess agency, authority and the capacity to influence the wellbeing of human communities. These persons are not regarded as symbolic or metaphorical, but as active participants in the life of the landscape.
Territorial jurisdiction
Spiritual governance is inherently territorial. Particular mountains, forests, rivers and other natural features are recognised as the domains of specific spirit owners, each exercising authority within clearly understood geographical boundaries.
Reciprocity
Relationships between people and other-than-human persons are reciprocal. Human communities receive protection, blessing and wellbeing, while recognising obligations of respect, ritual observance, protection and nurturance towards the domains under spiritual jurisdiction.
Customary institutions
Spiritual governance is expressed through customary institutions and practices that maintain these reciprocal relationships across generations. These include sacred places, ritual observances and communal responsibilities that reaffirm the relationship between people and place.
Protection and nurturance
The protection and nurturance of enspirited landscapes are not undertaken primarily to conserve biodiversity. Rather, they arise from responsibilities owed to the resident spirit owners and to the wider community. Biodiversity conservation is often an unintended, though highly significant, consequence of these relationships.
Topocosmic equilibrium
The purpose of spiritual governance is to maintain harmony and equilibrium between people, other-than-human persons and the wider cosmos. When reciprocal relationships are honoured, balance is sustained; when they are neglected or violated, disorder may follow.
Learning from the People of Eastern Kham
My understanding of spiritual governance did not emerge from libraries or religious texts. It developed gradually through many years of living, travelling and learning alongside the peoples of Eastern Kham.
Farmers, nomads, ritual specialists, hunters, village elders and children all contributed to my understanding of the relationships that bind people to place. Rather than explaining abstract doctrines, they demonstrated how everyday decisions concerning forests, wildlife, water and mountains were shaped by reciprocal relationships with other-than-human persons.
This ethnographic journey transformed my own understanding of environmental anthropology. I came to appreciate that indigenous environmental knowledge is not merely a collection of ecological observations but is embedded within a wider moral, spiritual and legal framework that governs relationships between humans and the more-than-human world.
The Role of Spiritual Governance
Spiritual governance provides the framework through which relationships between people, other-than-human persons and enspirited landscapes are established, maintained and renewed across generations. It is expressed through reciprocal obligations, customary institutions and ritual practices that honour the authority of resident spirit owners over their own domains.
Enspirited mountains, forests, springs and other sacred natural sites exist under the jurisdiction of resident gzhi bdag. People honour this jurisdiction through protection, nurturance, ritual observance and reciprocal exchange. These relationships sustain both human wellbeing and the integrity of the wider landscape.
Spiritual governance also provides a moral and normative framework for everyday life. It guides relationships with mountains, forests, wildlife and water, transmitting responsibilities from one generation to the next through customary practice, oral tradition and ritual participation.
The protection of sacred natural sites and their biodiversity emerges naturally from these reciprocal relationships. The primary purpose is not conservation in the modern sense, but the fulfilment of enduring obligations towards the resident spirit owners and their domains. Biodiversity protection is one consequence of maintaining these relationships.
The significance of spiritual governance extends beyond Eastern Kham. It invites us to reconsider assumptions about governance, authority and responsibility, and to explore what indigenous jurisprudence can contribute to contemporary debates concerning conservation, environmental law and the Rights of Nature.