Pilgrimage : Sacred Landscapes and Self-Organized Complexity
Contents: Foreword/R.K. Bhattacharya. Introduction/John McKim Malville and Baidyanath Saraswati. I. Theory and case studies: 1. Sacred theory of pilgrimage/Baidyanath Saraswati. 2. Complexity and self-organization in pilgrimage systems/John McKim Malville. 3. Circulation and circumambulation/Surinder M. Bhardwaj. 4. Pilgrimage and space: case studies from Bhaktapur, Muktinath and Varanasi/Niels Gutschow. II. Pilgrimage in India, Tibet and Nepal: 5. Kashi as Cosmogram: Panchakrosi route and complex structure of Varanasi/Rana P.B. Singh. 6. Death and transformation at Gaya : Pilgrimage, ancestors and the sun/Rana P.B. Singh, John McKim Malville and Anne L. Marshall. 7. Earthly presence of heavenly bodies: Navagraha Yatra of Tamil Nadu/Marianna Kropf. 8. Complex landscapes and the Ramayana legend/Amita Sinha. 9. Traces of Buddhist pilgrimage in ancient India/Kurt Behrendt. 10. Pilgrimage places and sacred geometries/Robert L. Stoddard. 11. Complexity and economy in Pilgrimage centers of the Vijayanagara Period/Alexandra Mack. III. World pilgrimage: 12. Adaption and adjustment in the Shikoku Pilgrimage/Hiroshi Tanaka Shimazaki. 13. Pilgrim in individualistic context/Kaj Noschis. 14. Basilica of La Madeleine, vezelay: spatial and symbolic narratives in the medieval western Christian church/Thomas Barrie. 15. Pilgrimage and ritual movements in Cuzco and The Inca Empire/R. Tom Zuidema. 16. Conchero’s sanctuaries and pilgrimages/Yolotl Gonzalez Torres. 17. Transplanting pilgrimage traditions/Carolyn V. Prorok. 18. Washington, D.C. and power of pilgrimage/Jeffrey F. Meyer. IV. Sacred landscapes and personal transformation: 19. Pilgrimage as spatial representation of complexity/Pradeep A. Dhillon. List of contributors. Index.
“Pilgrimage involves movement of people, either as individuals or as members of a group, in search of the sacred. Spontaneous behaviour, miraculous events, and/or ecstatic visions of individual pilgrims have often resulted in complexity in ritual, meaning and movement. Pilgrimages may start with individual ecstatic visions, unusual strange unworldly experiences, which are the experiences of “ordinary” people, certainly not of priests or politicians. Often they are uniquely human experiences which embarrass ecclesiastical authorities.
As a pilgrimage tradition evolves, sacred sites may become formalized in organized socio-political systems with economic overtone. Even in these structured situations, individual people may still have powerful individual experiences. Eventually a pilgrimage tradition may be taken over by religious and political authorities, lose spontaneity, and become frozen in time. But even in these situations, in which large numbers of people may gather, there is a tremendous amount of “primal” energy in which innovations and visions may be evoked.
Using case studies from pilgrimages around the world, the volume explores the ways many of these traditions have started and evolved. A common perspective is that of self-organization of complex structures in space and time.
The variety of pilgrimage described in the book is remarkable. The subcontinent of India is the location of many sites such as the temples to the nine planets in Tamil Nadu, the pilgrimage circuits of Varanasi, early Buddhist pilgrimages in Sanchi and Bodh-Gaya, the great ruined city of Vijayanagara, those associated with the Ramayana, and the death ceremonies at Gaya. Beyond India, the self-organization and stability of pilgrimage systems are analyzed for pilgrimages in Nepal (Kathmandu), Japan, Mexico, the Caribbean, Peru, Norway and the US.” (jacket)
