Navel of the Demoness : Tibetan Buddhism and Civil Religion in ...

70 the navel of the demoness
figure 2.2. Ruined houses in the abandoned settlement of Kog, the provenance
of three of Te’s clans. The snow-capped mountain in the background is Gang Zhurpo,
the territorial divinity of Kog.
whole and the surrounding political environment. The Shöyul as we see them
today are the result of a demographic concentration process whereby a more
scattered population was drawn into a remnant group of five settlements, and
further set apart from its surroundings by the Tibetanisation of the rest of
Baragaon.
The long-term advantage of the alliance was the relative security it provided
against troublesome rulers and factions, but there was always a risk that
this solidarity might be compromised by one of the five pursuing some shortterm
advantage against the common interest.
The next chapter will look beyond the unified front presented by the alliance
to see the prevailing tensions underneath. Every village, of course, has its
own story to tell; the point of view adopted in the survey is that of Te, since this
is the only one that really matters here.