Custodians of the Tibetan Spiritscape: A Bio-cultural audit of Sacred Natural Sites in NW Yunnan

Numinous spiritscapes, presided over by “place gods” or gzhi bdag, have been a defining cultural feature of Tibetan lay society, as well as being exemplars of explicit nature conservation. Little is known about the recovery of Tibetan spiritscapes since the revival of traditional religious practices in the 1980’s. The audit was predicated on a literature review, participatory field methods and GIS technologies and highlighted the importance of gzhi bdag spiritscapes in NorthWest Yunnan and their status as Community Conservation Areas. The paper concludes by elaborating the challenges posed by the audit and provides some recommendations for those interested in enhancing and protecting the bio-cultural diversity of the Tibetan spiritscapes of Southwest China.