Worldly Perspectives
Changing Meanings of Spirituality in Varanasi (Kashi)
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dipannita Chand, Suhita Chopra Chatterjee
The core values of spirituality in Varanasi (Kashi) revolve around the notion of Moksha (salvation), death, and dying. For ages, this sacred city has been a home to many elderly awaiting their imminent death in different old age shelters. The study selects six such shelters and examines the residents’ religious and spiritual orientations through interviews and field observations. The findings reveal that the advent of modernity in Kashi has brought in contradiction of sorts. Although religio-cultural mores were important in maintaining the city’s sacrality, at an individual level, the indoctrination and socialisation into the core Hindu values of renunciation were less than complete. Many residents lacked the ability to transcend the material concerns of the body and its need for care and support.
Road to Improve the Elderly Community Health Post in Indonesia
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ni Wayan Suriastini, Bondan Sikoki, Endra Dwimulyanto
Indonesia has been experiencing a demographic transition, reflected in the increasing proportional trend of the aging population. The proportion has risen from 7.6% in 2010 to 15.8% in 2035. At the village level, communities' resources have been utilized to develop an Elderly Community-Based Integrated Health Post for promotive and preventive care. This study has explores the development of an elderly health post and its correlation with the well being of the elderly. It identifies the problems and prospects of the participation of the elderly in elderly integrated health post and develops solutions to improve the elderly health post. To reach the first aim, we will be using descriptive and logistics methodologies and data from the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS) wave four and five. To achieve Aims two and thre we analyse the data specially collected to anwer these reseach questions. The study was conducted in forty villages in Yogyakarta province.
Buddhist Perspectives on Old Age in Premodern Japan
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Edward Drott
In premodern Japan, religion, particularly Buddhism, played a major role in shaping normative views of old age. On the one hand, religious discourse and practices contributed to the marginalization of the elderly. Didactic texts, for instance, used the aged body as a symbol of the miseries of samsara, in hopes of leading the faithful to an appreciation of impermanence. On the other hand, in the medieval period, the aged body came to be used as a symbol of otherworldly power, with Buddhist legends portraying local gods or avatars of Buddhas or bodhisattvas appearing as mysterious, enigmatic old men (okina). This paper discusses some of the processes by which received notions about old age were subverted and overturned in the medieval period, and how this created new possibilities for the ways in which old age could be performed or adopted as an identity. I conclude my exploration by briefly considering the situation in contemporary Japan, and asking how religious institutions are responding to the challenges facing Japan’s elderly, and contributing to public discourse on what it means to grow old.
