Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems

Contents: Preface and acknowledgements. Foreword/Dallen J. Timothy. 1. Sacredscapes and sense of geography: some reflections/Rana P.B. Singh. 2. Pilgrimage and literature/Jamie S. Scott. 3. Sufi views on pilgrimage in Islam/Muhammad Khalid Masud. 4. The Architecture of light : Between sacred geometry to biophotonic technology/Aritia Poenaru and Traian D. Stanciulescu. 5. Kailash-the center of the world/Tomo Vinscak and Danijela Smiljanic. 6. Rolwaling: a sacred Buddhist Valley in Nepal/najice Sacherer. 7. Landscape, memory and identity: a case of Southwest China/Zhou Dandan. 8. The miracles of Mt. Wutai Chaina: the spirit of sacred place in Budhism/Jeffrey F. Meyer. 9. Sacred spaces, pilgrimage and tourism at Muktinath, Nepal/Rana P.B. Singh and Padma C. Poudel. 10. The mythic landscape of Buddhist places of pilgrimages in India/Rana P.B. Singh and Pravin S. Rana. 11. Current Jewish pilgrimage tourism/Current Jewish pilgrimage-tourism/Noga Collins Kreiner. 12. The road to St. James, El Camino de Santiago: the spirit of place and environmental ethics/Kingsley K. Wu. 13. Sacred places of Japan: sacred geography in the vicinity of the cities of Sendai and Nara/James a. Swan. Index.

The twelve essays deal with current debate in pilgrimage studies and spirit of place that helps to understand the deeper relationship between human psyche and sacred environment, citing illustrations from different parts of the world, like Canada, China, India, Israel, Nepal, Pakistan, Romania, Spain, and Tibet, representing many religions, linking locality with universality and narrating the prospective features. These studies will pave the path of the newly emerging discipline of pilgrimage studies and heritage ecology