Territory, relationality and the labour of deities: Importing Raffestin on the Bhutanese spiritual landscape

Abstract

The Bhutanese landscape is highly contested by not only local livelihood practices and state policies, but also the activity of cosmological deities that lay claim to space. Territory and territoriality are explored in this context, the former of which represents physical space that is demarcated with the latter representing a social process of negotiation for space. These ideas, along with Claude Raffestin’s theoretical work related to a relational approach to territoriality and labour are imported to the Bhutanese context. Respondents from Haa, Phobjikha and Laya illustrate a dynamic landscape in which human tenants are conditioned by deity landlords to act according to particular restrictions/prescriptions. The power of these deities is conceptualized as labour, and represents active shaping of both physical and social space. This work extends analyses within critical geography by illustrating the role of spiritual actors on the landscape that impose their wills and claim territory, which traditionally is understood as an activity of the state.