Jacob N. Kinnard is Professor of Comparative Religions at Iliff School of Theology.

• Acknowledgments


• Preface: The Questions of Places


• 1. Place, Contestation, and the Complexities of Agency


• 2. Power Fallen from the Sky


• 3. The Polyvalent Padas of Vishnu and the Buddha


• 4. The Drama of Vishnu and the Buddha at Bodhgaya


• 5. Bodhgaya, UNESCO, and the Ambiguities of Preservation


• 6. The Power and the Politics of Emplacement


• 7. Public Space or Sacred Place?


• 8. Fences and Walls: A Not-So-Final Reflection On Preservations, Prohibitions, and Places in Motion


• Notes


• Bibliography


• Index

Jacob Kinnard offers an in-depth examination of the complex dynamics of religiously charged places. He argues that places are sacred because we make them sacred, and that they remain in perpetual motion, transforming themselves from moment to moment and generation to generation.