This paper describes the development of a vernacular form of religious art upon the surface of the Jeepney, one of the most popular modes of public transport in the Southeast Asian megacity of Metro Manila. Through a focus on the pious visual culture of the crowded streets of Manila, the essay proposes a new way to describe and theorize paratransit, or informal modes of urban transportation. By examining the Jeepney and its religious images, the paper demonstrates how this form of paratransit has refashioned the urban landscape into a mobile network of miraculous appearances, communal prayers and divine blessings.

Keywords: art, Christianity, infrastructure, Jeepney, Southeast Asia, paratransit, pollution, prayer, urban transit

Suggested bibliographic reference for this article:
Blanton, A. (2015). The Sacred Diesel: Infrastructures of Transportation and Religious Art in Manila. New Diversities, 17(2), 73-86. Retrieved [todaysdate] from https://newdiversities.mmg.mpg.de/?page_id=2187