ABSTRACT
The ‘sacred’ natural sites (SNS) of indigenous societies are mostly supported by a worldview predicated on animism and numinous spiritscapes. The spiritscape paradigm is characterised by psycho-spiritual connections (Callicott et al. 2007), eco-spiritual auditing, topocosmic equilibrium and behaviour that could be described as ‘explicit nature conservation’ (Verschuuren et al. 2010). A spiritscape describes an animistic refugia where landscape features or sacred natural sites (mountains, hills, knolls) or bodies of water (lakes, ponds, mires) are inhabited by a divinity or numina. Eco-spiritual auditing is an indigenous double monitoring system (often with the help of a ‘shaman’ or deity) to cross-check and assess local and regional eco-spiritual conditions. Topocosmic equilibrium is defined as the customary ritual main - tenance of harmony and good relations between all the elements (human, natural, spiritual) of the topocosm. In spite of this, the sacred natural sites of indigenous peoples are more vulnerable and threatened than SNS associated with mainstream faiths (Wild et al. 2008), and Tibetan spiritscapes are no exceptions.
