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Full-Text Articles in Urban Studies and Planning
Revisiting Rajneeshpuram: Oregon's Largest Utopian Community As Western History, Carl Abbott
Revisiting Rajneeshpuram: Oregon's Largest Utopian Community As Western History, Carl Abbott
Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations
Between 1981 and 1985, the intentional community of Rajneeshpuram near Antelope, Oregon, hosted up to 15,000 followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a spiritual leader from Pune, India. In this essay, Carl Abbott examines the rise and fall of Rajneeshpuram within the context of western history, which “centers on the processes of migration, settlement, displacement, and rearrangement.” Drawing parallels to earlier religious closed communities, such nineteenth century Mormon settlements, Abbott describes how Rajneeshees fit into the “overarching storylines of frontier utopias and the…narrative of settler colonialism.” Unlike Mormon communities, however, Abbott concludes that Rajneeshpuram ultimately failed because its leaders were not …
Utopia And Bureaucracy: The Fall Of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, Carl Abbott
Utopia And Bureaucracy: The Fall Of Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, Carl Abbott
Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations
During 1981-1985, the followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh built a large utopian community in eastern Oregon's solitude and named it Rajneeshpuram. While Rajneeshpuram appeared to be physically isolated and removed from government intervention, it was actually embedded in a dense system of laws and bureaucratic regulations, quite within reach of local, state, and national bureaucracies. It was this ability of the local and state regulators to limit the development that was one of the major factors for the sudden collapse of Rajneeshpuram in the fall of 1985. Other contributing factors were the growing disaffection and factionalism within the commune leadership …