Preserving Offerings, Prolonging Merit: Efficacy, Skillful Means, and Re-purposing in Plastic Buddhist Material Culture in Contemporary Sikkim

Despite official bans, public criticism and concern over pollution, plastics are widely used in Buddhist material culture the Indian Himalayan state of Sikkim. Using framework seven bowls water offerings, undertaken every morning to Buddhas deities domestic shrine rooms, ethnographic observations, as a way frame discussions changing culture, I will interrogate how waste is re-purposed Sikkimese interdimensional engagements offerings spirits. argue that continue be seen efficacious generative for communities due their ability recycled, acting exemplars skillful means allow exercise own agency determining efficacy making new futures. This paper engages with scholarship from anthropologists studies scholars on materiality, plastic, consider malleability plastics, even when they not malleable, demonstrate this generates positive creative across dimensions nuanced complex responses anxieties people have about plastic Himalayas.