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A Naturalistic Inquiry Of Pilgrims’ Experience At A Religious Heritage Site: The Case Of A Shaktipitha In India, Harveen Bhandari, Amit Mittal

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religion in the Indian context is an inseparable element that dominates Indian lives, culture and psyche wherein significant number of people undertake pilgrimages every year. Pilgrims travel to different religious sites spread throughout the country and an intimate bonding exists between people and religious sites that invariably constitute their heritage. The worship of deities is a significant and popular ancient custom in the history of Indian culture. Pilgrims to any religious heritage site participate in different activities and their involvement in these activities builds their spiritual experience. So, the purpose of this research was to investigate the pilgrims experience at …

Encoding And Interpreting Neolithic Sites: World Heritage Temples In Malta, Marie Avellino-Stewart, Dane Munro

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Understanding and interpreting landscapes entails the encoding of symbols and deciphering of codes left on the palimpsest. Interpreting the Neolithic and more significantly Neolithic temple sites, is challenging and rife with contested meanings. The overall landscape is used by adherents of the New Religious Movements, on faith-based visits, and as an extension, spiritual fulfilment is sought in the Neolithic temples of Malta. The same landscape is then part of both the inner and outer pilgrimage in the context of not only the modern designer religions, but also of the established religions. This paper presents a case study of the Neolithic …

How Religious Tourism And Pilgrimages Can Be Beneficial To Communities, Julian C. Zarb

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper highlights the distinction between tourism as a socio-economic industry and tourism as a socio-cultural activity. The defining feature of sustainable , culturally supportive and beneficial tourism is community engagement. This paper proposes that the traditional aspects of hospitality, service and experience can be fully manifest if there is an engagement with local communities, which is thus manifest in immersion by the visitor in the activities around which events are based. This can only occur when development adopts a Community Based Tourism model. If locations such as Malta wish to develop religious tourism to the benefit of all, this …

Peregrinatio: Anever-Ending Pilgrimage To An Unspecified End, Bernice Lamb-Senechal

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

To most modern-day thinkers a pilgrimage entails a journey to a sacred place. Thus, the primary purpose of the voyage is to reach a locale that holds special meaning for the pilgrim. Typically, the end destination is a place where a significant familial, historical or religious event has occurred. In contrast to this contemporary understanding of pilgrimage, some Irish Christian monks of late antiquity undertook sacred journeys of an indefinite duration with no express terminus in mind. Furthermore, these monastic sojourners exiled themselves from their homeland vowing never to return to kith and kin. This working paper explores the practice …

Negotiating With The Sacred Other: The Ancient Mechanisms Of The Personal Vow Practice, Mirela Hrovatin

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

By questioning the anthropological definition of vows as instrumental prayers, which has been generally accepted since William Christian (1989) introduced it, the paper will discuss the notion of a vow as a personal prayer in the effort to expand it beyond the mere request for a miracle or fulfilment of a pilgrim’s or believer’s wish. The votive prayer is mentioned already in the Bible (Deut. 23) as a somewhat problematic way of communicating with God due to a promise it contains. Based on the Amir Mashiach’s (2014) interpretation of prayers as performative utterances in the Jewish tradition and Radoslav Katičić's …

Review Of: The Pilgrimage Of Egeria. A New Translation Of The ‘Itinerarium Egeriae’ With Introduction And Commentary, By A. Mcgowan & P.F. Bradshaw, George D. Greenia

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

No abstract provided.

The Way Of Saint James: A Sacred Space?, Adeline Rucquoi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

An increasing number of pilgrims make their way each year to the Sanctuary of Santiago de Compostela in Galicia. For many, the Way is almost more important than the goal to be achieved, that is, the tomb of the apostle. Can the space thus covered, sometimes taking weeks or months, be considered ‘sacred’? Undoubtedly, the pilgrimage to Compostela unites space and time. But it adds a particular symbolic dimension to them that makes it the quest for the elsewhere, the other and the absolute. As an image of the ‘pilgrimage of human life’, the whole formed by the apostolic sanctuary …

From Private Devotion To Universal Phenomenon: The Way Of Saint James In Spain, The Case Of Navarra, Alban D’Entremont, Jesús Tanco Lerga

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This article analyses the process leading to the restoring, revitalisation and consolidation of the Way of Saint James in Spain in recent decades, and its conversion from a merely private and residual pilgrimage route of just several hundred individuals, into an important cultural and spiritual reality having a worldwide impact. The region of Navarra is used to highlight typical places of interest located on the Way of Saint James, and as an example of an experience that can be extrapolated and exported, of the activities, projects, events, decisions and actions undertaken in a huge collaborative effort that has given rise …

Religious Tourism Vs. Sacred Space Experience: Conflict Or Complementary Interaction?, Tomasz Duda, Dariusz Doburzyński

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Contemporary religious tourism, which in many cases is incorrectly identified with the phenomenon of pilgrimage, has developed in recent years as a separate form of migration and activity in the tourism space. However, in the literature of the subject, there is a large variety of problem perspectives, depending on the viewpoint chosen by the given author and the scientific discipline that he/she represents. The most frequently occurring problem is the terminological ambiguity regarding the concepts of ‘religious tourism’ and ‘pilgrimage’. The aim of this article is to draw attention to the diversity of understanding of the sacred space presented by …

Pilgrimages Through Time And Space. The Case Of Marian Pilgrimages In Greece, Dimitrios Mylonopoulos, Polyxeni Moira, Spyridon Parthenis

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Since ancient times and throughout history, religious sentiment has been one of the motives for people undertaking pilgrimages, seeking to communicate with the divine in sacred places. Travelling for religious reasons fulfilled a spiritual need and their undertaking was considered to be a redeeming action.

It is indeed difficult to identify any other human activity so widespread in space and so resilient in time as undertaking a pilgrimage to shrines. Since antiquity there has been a firm belief that praying or fulfilling one’s religious tasks is more efficient when it takes place in specific sites: in places where gods or …

Perspectives On The Improvement Of Uzbekistan As A Destination For Multi-Confessional Self-Organised Pilgrims, Bakhtiyor Negmatovich Navruz-Zoda, Nutfillo Ibragimov, Akmal Rakhmanov

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

By accenting the tourism industry as one of the most valuable sectors for prosperity and appreciating its potential in new social-economic reforms, the administration of the Republic of Uzbekistan has been making visible steps for its development. Particularly religious tourism and pilgrimage are noted as offering opportunities for modernisation in a global world. Carrying a major geographical role in the connection of main trade routes between East and West, the country became the crossroad of civilisation and religious diffusions. Consequently, with new religious tourism and pilgrimage flows: following the earliest dominating beliefs of Zoroastrianism, and its New Age followers; being …

Rediscovering The Walisongo, Indonesia: A Potential New Destination For International Pilgrimage, Pierre Fournié

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The current paper explores the tradition of Walisongo, the nine saints or nine friends of God, that according to tradition initiated the islamisation of Java in the XV and XVI centuries. Largely unknown outside of Indonesia, the Wali Songo pilgrimage remains unfamiliar in the archipelago as well.

Besides allowing a deeper understanding of the roots of Indonesian religious history and of the spread and acceptance of Islam, rediscovering the Wali Songo may help to reintroduce a peaceful image of the Muslim world. In such a way, reactivating the tradition of Wali Songo outside of the country but also inside, may …

Pilgrimage And Its Perception In A Local Religious Community, Béla Árvavölgyi, Judit Sági

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In this paper, the authors aim at examining how pilgrimage might positively change the personal life of the participating individual, and the life of the releasing community. In the authors’ perception, where the individual is a member of a local religious community, after returning home he or she reports about his or her experiences to other members of the community; thus one member is positively influencing the community as a whole. This research study is focusing on Christian pilgrimage, however, due to the common nature of pilgrimage in different kind of religions the authors believe that the results of this …

Creating And Contesting Latter-Day Saint Pilgrimage To Nauvoo, Illinois, Scott Esplin

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (frequently referred to as Latter-day Saints or Mormons) share with other faiths a desire to celebrate sites significant to their founding. By memorialising religious sacred space, the Church of Jesus Christ has created a desire among many of its more than sixteen million members to retrace the steps of their early faith leaders as pilgrims. As with other religious sites around the world, Latter-day Saint pilgrimage destinations have also become scenes of contestation. Churches that divided from the original movement offer rival interpretations of the its history and beliefs, leading …

Preserving Traveller’S Memory In Religious Destinations, Polyxeni Moira, Dimitrios Mylonopoulos, Anastasia Parasxi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Preserving memory from the visit of a tourist destination plays an important role in tourist activity. In pilgrimage in particular, and in religious tourism in general, the preservation of this memory constitutes a spiritual process associated with the sanctity of the place. Obviously, the degree of spirituality varies according to the traveller’s personality and religious beliefs. Following the return home, the religious memorabilia and ‘souvenirs’ play an important role in the ‘confirmation’ of the trip or the fulfilment of the vow, as well as in the preservation of the memory. At first one could claim that religious souvenirs serve or …

Pilgrimage Of The Virgin Of Nazaré (Portugal): Religious And Cultural Itineraries, Isilda Leitão, Carlos Fernandes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In Portugal, the Estremadura Círios (Candles pilgrimages) constitute one of the strongest surviving traditions of popular religiosity that are still present in the traditional and religious calendar of some Portuguese regions. Deriving from the tradition of religious devotion to Mary during the Middle Ages, sites such as the Shrine of Our Lady of Cabo Espichel, and prior to that the Shrine of Our Lady of Nazaré (Nazareth), generated a particular level of devotion by the 17th century, based on miracles which the Virgin of Nazaré granted to a local inhabitant. Since the 18th century, and the establishment of the Brotherhood …

Determinants Of Intentions To Use A Pilgrimage App: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Suzanne Amaro, Paulo Alexandre O. Duarte, Angela Isabel Lopes Antunes

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The main aim of this study is to examine which features pilgrims from six nationalities walking the Camino de Santiago most value in a pilgrimage app and to determine which ones most influence intentions to use it. Data were collected through an online questionnaire. The 911 responses were analysed using ANOVA and PLS-SEM. The features related to general information are the strongest predictor of intentions to use a pilgrimage app and there is only one significant difference among nationalities regarding the determinants of intentions to use it. The findings of the study are useful for the development of pilgrimage apps.

Biographical Motivations Of Pilgrims On The Camino De Santiago, Christian Kurrat

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The question of what leads people from a biographical perspective to go on pilgrimage has been a research object in the Department of Sociology at the FernUniversität in Hagen, Germany. This qualitative study examines the biographical constellations which have led to the decision to go on pilgrimage and therefore a typology of biographical motivations was developed. To achieve the aim of a typology, methods of qualitative research were used. The database consists of narrative interviews that were undertaken mostly with German pilgrims. The life stories of the pilgrims were analysed with Grounded Theory Methodology and made into a typology of …

Wood Mountain Walk: Afterthoughts On A Pilgrimage For Andrew Suknaski, Ken Wilson

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Ken Wilson’s ‘Wood Mountain Walk: Afterthoughts on a Pilgrimage for Andrew Suknaski’ reflects on a 250-kilometre walking pilgrimage made in honour of the late Canadian poet Andrew Suknaski. Wilson’s autoethnographic essay considers the possibilities and challenges of walking as a way to engage with land and community; Suknaski’s book Wood Mountain Poems and the issue of cultural appropriation; what it is like to walk in a sparsely populated and arid agricultural province where trespassing laws confine walkers to roads; and walking as both pilgrimage and artistic practice.

From The Dark Green Hill To Our Lady Of The Harbour, Stacey Engels

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Stacey Engels narrates the pilgrim body in ‘From the Dark Green Hill to Our Lady of the Harbour’ by bringing her reader along on a pilgrimage that sprang up almost instantly in downtown Montreal on the day that Leonard Cohen’s death was announced. In her travelogue-style vignettes, even a sausage sandwich becomes a sacred relic when mingled with community and intention.

Walking On Walls: Shifting Perspectives In A Post-Modern World, Philip Szporer

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In ‘Walking on Walls,’ Philip Szporer brings dance and pilgrimage into fascinating relationship. He resituates American choreographer and dancer Trisha Brown’s radical approach to the human body in terms of core concepts that have shaped pilgrimage theory. Szporer proposes that pilgrimage, place, and mobility theories provide useful lenses for an innovative re-examination of Brown’s pioneering dance pieces. Like pilgrimage, her ideas and contributions were enacted outside - and often in contradistinction to - the control of institutional authority.

Event Running And Pilgrimage: A Comparative Case Study, Janice Poltrick-Donato

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Janice Poltrick-Donato’s ‘Event Running and Pilgrimage’ links pilgrimage with the trials and triumphs of the amateur event runner. She demonstrates the statistical and existential parallels between the two practices, and shows how the suffering and accomplishments of running are experienced by some runners as a form of secular pilgrimage, a ‘journey to the self.’

The Physiological Effects Of Walking Pilgrimage, M. Brennan Harris

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

M. Brennan Harris presents in ‘The Healthy Body’ his kinesiological research conducted on the Camino de Santiago, examining the effects of walking pilgrimage on the self-identified experience of well-being in pilgrim bodies.

Pilgrimage, Existence, And Psychic Distress: An Exploration Of The Bodily And Psychic Phenomenon Of Pilgrimage, Christine Jamieson

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In ‘Pilgrimage, Existence, and Psychic Distress,’ Christine Jamieson draws on the work of psychoanalyst and linguist Julia Kristeva, tracking the haunting desire for healing and liberation inherent in pilgrimage as it touches the deep and irresolutely corporeal experience of what it means to be human.

Luther And The Trajectories Of Western Pilgrimage, Matthew R. Anderson

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In ‘Luther and the Trajectories of Western Pilgrimage,’ Matthew R. Anderson asserts that after his long trek from Erfurt in 1510-1511, monk and Protestant reformer Martin Luther’s negative remembrances of Rome became one of the catalysts for his influential critique of pilgrimage. Luther’s fear of social unrest, Protestant theological attacks on the doctrines of merit, and Luther’s own personality solidified his antipathy to the practice. The Reformation led to the near-demise of pilgrimage in Protestant areas and the disruption of travel to those shrines that had an international draw. Because of this temporary eclipse, the rebirth of a form of …

Bartered Bodies: Medieval Pilgrims And The Tissue Of Faith, George D. Greenia

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

In ‘The Bartered Body,’ George Greenia disentangles the complex desires and experiences of religious travellers of the High Middle Ages who knew the spiritual usefulness of their vulnerable flesh. The bodily remains of the saints housed in pilgrim shrines were not just remnants of a redeemed past, but open portals for spiritual exchange with the living body of the visiting pilgrim.

The Eschatological Body: Fleeing The Centre In Pre-Modern Insular Christianity And Post-Modern Secularity, Sara Terreault

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

‘The Eschatological Body’ examines the practice peregrinatio pro Christo among the Insular Christians living at the north-west edge of Europe in the early Middle Ages. The paper distinguishes this peregrinatio ex patria from the more conventional understanding of pilgrimage as peregrinatio ad loca, or destinational pilgrimage. It explores the theological and existential meanings of exile, foreignness, and home inherent in the practices, and suggests that for these Insular peregrini, the body becomes the dynamic ‘centre’ in decentred, itinerant lives awaiting the eschaton. The paper concludes by considering the possible links between this ancient practice and the postmodern notion of ‘existential …

Written By The Body: Early Christian Pilgrims As Sacred Placemakers, Jenn Cianca

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper uncovers how the journeys of the earliest Christian pilgrims constructed the very notion of sacred bodies and sacred place, consequently establishing the networks of pilgrimage routes that would be used by Western travellers from Late Antiquity onward.

Introduction : The Body Is The Place Where Pilgrimage Happens, Sara Terreault

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper lays the groundwork for reflection on pilgrimage in Christian and postChristian contexts, specifically as a cluster of performative practices of movement through time and across space, originating and substantiated in the lived flesh of pilgrim bodies-in-the-world. Thinking with Eade, Sallnow, and Poteat, no less than with Badiou, Eagleton, and Ricoeur, the author theorises the pilgrim body at the nexus of bodies, topographies, mobilities, and narratives.

Regional Economic Impact Of Small-Scale Pilgrimage Sites: Local Value Added By Small Sanctuaries In Rural Areas (Bavaria, Germany), Markus Hilpert

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Today, pilgrimage is experiencing increasing interest, although the reasons for doing so are changing. Locations along pilgrim routes and popular sacred sites, normally profit economically, but to date, the regional economic effects of even very small pilgrimage sites are underexplored. Therefore, in this regard, this study examines two small-scale pilgrimage sites in Biberbach and Wigratzbad (both in Bavaria, Germany), using interviews and calculations. We find that even small pilgrimage sites can produce a notable increase in regional EVA and create jobs through local businesses. There is much to suggest that this is not only due to demand, but also, and …