The Melodious Sound of the Right-Turning Conch
This chapter moves further upriver to one of the poorest villages in the valley, an important rival community to Kharnak village (the focus of Chapter 3). The chapter begins with an account of the author’s “capture” by the village as a donor supporting the repair of their new primary school’s roof. It then tells the story of the village’s conflictual move from their historical location on a mountain peak down to the valley floor and new highway. The author analyzes interactions around village elders’ petition to the local state, as well as a video they made that touts and contextualizes their new Buddhist temple on the valley floor as the abode of a young and rising, charismatic incarnate lama. In the context of school consolidation and state-led resource extraction in the valley, the author considers the historical narratives in the petition and video to be important parts of villagers’ counter-development efforts as they worked to assert the presence of their community in the face of its administrative erasure.