Journal articles on the topic 'Hindu pilgrimes and pilgrimages'

AbstractThis article discusses the notions of a good death associated with Hindu pilgrimages in the Nepalese and Tibetan Himalayas. Using theories and concepts from the cognitive anthropology of religion and from the cognitive science of religion—particularly the cultural epidemiological method—my objective is to explain why certain systems of thought and behaviour are favoured over others in cultural transmission. My thesis is that the apprehension of contagion and/or contamination, combined with prevailing cultural representations, exerts selective pressure on the formation of beliefs about good death. Pilgrimage sites are associated with intuitions about contagious and contaminating contact, avert the pollution of death, and provide links to supernatural agents.

Management control is associated with the institutionalization of trust inside an organization. It is a control of economic and administrative functionalities like revenue management, future plans to expand income, target-setting as well as public facilities and amenities. Pilgrimage tourism is a fast-growing service industry in modern India, and the majority of them are Hindu because more than 80% of Indian people believe in Hindu. Tirumala Tirupati Devasthalnam (TTD) stands to be the biggest religious trust in India. On this background, this study will clarify the two aspects of the management control of TTD: (i) revenue management and commercial profit,(ii) economic and business impact to the local community. Based on the secondary data, this study focused on revenue management of TTD. First, the author explored that TTD has created a religious market around the world. The excellent management control of TTD with the help of IT in the present period changed into one of the richest temples of Hindu religion. The trust started the pricing of religious objects; changes in marketing policies, diversification strategies, and use of IT lead its success. Second, it explains the idea that the economic impacts and revenue management of pilgrimage tourism with the example of the TTD. Due to the increasing number of pilgrimages in the area, the number of population is increasing, and social infrastructure is also developing. Based on the study result, this study suggests that to establish a new revenue management system/team.

The cultural reality of Indonesia, which is diverse in ethnicity, different traditions, as well as religions and traditions that smell of myths is the basis of social and cultural life. The Indonesian nation has long believed in supernatural powers that rule this universe. This is proven by various historical records regarding various kinds of traditional ceremonies and rituals. Some of these supernatural powers are considered beneficial and detrimental. For this reason, it is believed by some that humans always need to strive to soften the hearts of the owners of magical powers by holding ritual ceremonies, pilgrimages, offerings, and vows, including certain artistic performances. The tradition of earth alms (nyadran) in Kaplongan Lor, Karangampel, Indramayu is one of the local wisdoms that combines Hindu-Buddhist and Islamic traditions. The symbolic meaning contained in it makes a positive contribution to Islamic education for the younger generation in the region

Abstract This paper explores the cultural context and ecological implications of two menstrual festivals in northeastern India: Rajaparba in Orissa and Ambuvaci in Kamakhya, Assam. We argue that these festivals are extremely fruitful sites to explore questions of women and power in religious communities where the Goddess is a central focus as well as their ecological implications for an integral worldview. These festivals, usually held at the beginning of the monsoon when the Hindu Goddess menstruates, are times when the earth is regenerated, when the body of the Goddess is regenerated, and when women and communities are regenerated in various ways. Participants report that pilgrimages to these festivals are indeed transformative and have positive impacts on their lives. As a result, we critique feminist arguments that claim that Hinduism is the basis for women’s social disempowerment, and as a result, the only meaningful social change must occur on a secular basis. We also use these festivals to critique contemporary feminist developmentalist ideologies.

In this article, the focus is on the question as to what motives the pilgrims may have for performing pilgrimage, and, in doing this, the author deals especially with the Hindu tradition, namely with pilgrimage to Varanasi, Banaras or Kāśī, which is often considered the Hindu sacred city par excellence by both Hindus and Westerners alike.The sacred power of Varanasi has three sources: the eternal presence of Śiva from the time of creation, the cremation ghāṭand the presence of the river Gaṅgā. Furthermore, we found that the most characteristic thing about the power of Varanasi is its connection with death and its power to confer on the pilgrim the fruit of complete release from the circle of birth, death, and rebirth, something which is normally the privilege of the adherents of ascetic and other non-worldly systems. This feature is still reflected in the fact that many elderly people come to Varanasi in order to die and get cremated here, and many people from the surrounding areas still take the bodies of their dead relatives to Varanasi for cremation.

AbstractPilgrim journeys are popular religious phenomena that are based on ritual interaction with culturally postulated counterintuitive supernatural agents. This article uses results taken from an anthropological Ph. D. thesis on cognitive aspects of Hindu pilgrimage in Nepal and Tibet. Cognitive theories have been neglected in pilgrimage studies but they offer new perspectives on belief structures and ritual action and call into question some of the current assumptions in this research field. Pilgrim journeys often involve flows of substance of anthropomorphic character. Transferring substance in pilgrimage means leaving material at the pilgrimage site and then receiving other materials to take home. Pilgrim journeys imply ritual interaction, intuitions and ideas regarding the management of sin, impurity and evil. They also imply reception of blessings along with divine agency. This paper investigates how assumptions about agency, psychological essentialism and contagion connected to supernatural agents provides an important selective pressure in formation of beliefs related to pilgrimage. This paper shows that the transfer of substances is an operation on ritual instruments. It creates a supernatural immediacy effect in pilgrims, in the sense suggested by Lawson and McCauley.

Tourism is a prosperous industry; within tourism pilgrimage tourism is evolving a lot in these days. It has been found that pilgrimage tourism increased many fold in every nook and corner of the world. May it be the case of Christine, Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist followers, pilgrimage of all of these has risen in these years. Pilgrims, like tourists, also spends money on traveling, accommodation, donation, eating, and purchasing. Spending of these pilgrims becomes a source for earning natives of pilgrimage destination. Keeping, this thing in mind, this study has been conducted to know various activities of pilgrims. Herein this paper only accommodation related activities, time duration of trip of pilgrims and various activities which were performed by pilgrims has been recorded, specifically from those pilgrims who visits to Shahdra Shrief Shrine Rajouri of State Jammu and Kashmir.

Pilgrimage is an age-old phenomenon for people of all religions. Pilgrimage is often been defined as a journey resulting from religious causes, externally to a holy site, and internally for spiritual purposes and internal understanding. For the Hindus, Pilgrimage is associated with Moksha (liberation), one of the four Purusharthas (virtues), the other three being Artha (material value) Dharma (righteousness), and Kama (pleasure). The concept of pilgrimage tourism in the Hindu tradition is a recent one. In Nepal, where tourism has largely remained a seasonal business, pilgrimage tourism can be a perennial source of income especially because Nepal is home to some of the world’s most important sacred Hindu and Buddhist pilgrimage destinations. It is also noteworthy that according to 2011 official census in Nepal, more than 80 percent of the residents follow Hinduism (Central Bureau of Statistics, 2012, p.4) and Nepal shares a free border with India, the country with the largest number of Hindu residents, in absolute terms, in the entire world. Barahachhetra in Nepal is as important as other pilgrimage destinations in Nepal, however, no studies have been carried out so far on the status and potential of pilgrimage tourism in Barahachhetra. The authenticity of the pilgrimage sites, the hospitality culture and the peace experienced by pilgrims together provide a memorable pilgrimage tourism experience for the pilgrimage tourists visiting Barahachhetra. The prospect of pilgrimage tourism in Barahachhetra is immense and has a direct bearing on the preservation of the religious and cultural heritages as well as the economic condition of the residents therein. A coordinated approach initiated at the highest level of governance is required to study, promote and sustain pilgrimage tourism in Barahachhetra. In this study both pilgrimage tourism and religious tourism interchangeably used. Though spiritual tourism has become recently evolved, the authors did not visit on it although efforts have been made to highlight its significant in the introduction.

Purpose. Showing the ethical nature of the meeting of anthropologist and journalist Krzysztof Renik with Buddhist monk Tashi, in an environment alien to both of them. Analysis of Renik’s book to find out whether the borders between traveler, pilgrim and tourist are luminal and fluid in nature. Method. Critical analysis of literature. Results. Affirmation of the theory regarding the fluid nature of social categories, in this case that of the traveler, pilgrim and tourist. Both Renik and Tashi are pilgrims, but also travelers/ pilgrims who wander through unknown countries. Research and conclusions limitations. No possibility of contact with the monk, the main character of the book. Practical implications. The article can have meaning for persons who try to understand the religious and social landscape of Hindu countries, and want to broaden their perspective of the world taking the point of view of an anthropologist who practiced long-term observation of the behavior of a Buddhist monk into account. Originality. Renik’s book is probably the first work relating the day-by-day common pilgrimage of the Ladakhian Buddhist monk and the Catholic anthropologist and journalist. The latter wanting to better understand Tashi’s engagement, also participated in Buddhist practices. Being a traveler and anthropologist, he becomes a pilgrim, and pilgrim Tashi frequently behaves like a traveler or common tourist. Type of paper. Case study.

Most of the visitors (pilgrims in the majority) and the dwellers (mostly Hindus) perform some sorts of rituals at varying degrees and become involved in the religious activities to gain solace or soul healing. Of course, as sidetrack visitors also perform other activities of recreation and side-show. However, these are the marginal activities. It is obviously noted that personality of pilgrims and dwellers in the context of economic, social, cultural, job status, and perspective of life, has a direct effect on the nature of environmental sensitivity to its sacred landscapes and mythologies that support and make them alive. Ongoing rituals, continuous performances of Ramalila in the evening, pilgrimages and auspicious glimpses to the divine images, and associated happenings together make the whole are a part of the sacred environment. These are categorised within the frame of responsive perception, testing Kevin Lynch’s scale of imageability represented with the five elements, viz. path, edge, node, district, and landmark. The perceptual survey of dwellers and pilgrims are codified into a composite cognitive map that reflects the generalised images of various behavioural attributes that fit the cultural and natural landscapes of the city; this is similar to other holy cities of north India like Varanasi, Mathura, and Chitrakut.

Pilgrimage is one of the most common phenomena found in religious culture, occurring in just about every major religious tradition. Pilgrimage has adapted to a purportedly secularizing world, and even benefited from contemporary modes of transportation and communication. All pilgrims provide the message of human welfare, development of universe and religious and spiritual promotions for the welfare of society, way to truth, salvation and many more through interactions, observations of pilgrimage, but for understanding the cultural system in both intrinsic and extrinsic ways, or as insider and outsider, a human science paradigm would be better as it covers the totality thus attempting to reveal the “whole” of the culture, human psyche and functions at play. It was found that no any kind of discriminations, differences, inequalities on the basis of caste, class, gender, ethnicity etc. among pilgrimage during the visit. Almost all respondents felt the harmony, cohesion and friendly during the visit though cross-border. All Shiva shrines promote the welfare of animals, human and the world. Harmony, cohesion, solidarity and brotherhood and sisterhood were found good. Any kind of discriminations, differences, inequalities were not found on the basis of caste, class, gender, ethnicity etc.

AbstractThis article explores the strategies ofpandas (Hindu pilgrimage priests) in Vrindavan, relating changes in their trade (pandagiri) to tourism. These changes are the result of thepandas’ creative adjustments to shifting travel patterns that affect their market niche. Utilizing audio-recordings of thepandas’ guided tours, the article first portrays howpandas acquire ritual income from pilgrims by ‘inspiring’ donations of which they get a percentage. While commercial interests and economic conditions have always been crucial in shaping and perpetuating pilgrimage institutions and practices, global tourism has become an increasingly significant factor.Pandas all over India modify their services while the traditional exchange model (jajmanisystem) wanes. Changing travel patterns have made the guided tour a crucial component in the operation of Hindu pilgrimage. Vrindavanpandas have therefore turned into guides conducting religious sightseeing tours (darshan yatra). These tours are core to the new strategy for acquiring ritual income. To secure clients,pandas build connections with travel agencies and drivers and, in some cases, establish their own travel agencies that combine priestly and tourism services. Thepandas’ own understandings of their methods and contemporary travel trends further reflect the dynamic interplay between pilgrimage and tourism in India.

To most scholars of Hinduism, the sage Kapila is a person associated only with ancient India and known mainly as the mythical founder of the Sāmkhya system of religious thought. This is the Kapila whose teaching is known through Yuktidīpikā, the Sāmkhyakārikā by Isvarakrsna and other Sāmkhya texts and the tradition of technical commentaries on them. In India this Kapila belongs to a scholarly tradition preserved mainly by pandits with a knowledge of Sanskrit and, for the last hundred years, also by professors in the Indian university system. In this article, the symbolic significance of one of the most important pilgrimage centres connected with Kapila, Sidhpur in Gujarat, is explored. The close connection between the sacred narratives and the rituals performed at the pilgrimage centre is a significant feature of the sacred places devoted to Kapila. At every place of pilgrimage to Kapila there are narratives about him which account for the sacredness of the place. These narratives belong to the geography of Hindu India as much as to the mythology of the Hindu tradition. The life history of Kapila is engraved in a sacred landscape. The place where Kapila was born, the place where he gave the sacred knowledge of ultimate reality to his mother, the different places where he performed tapas, the place where he killed the sons of King Sagara are all part of India's imagined landscape. The promise of the Kapila pilgrimage sites is that these places have power in themselves to remove moral impurity and grant moksa to the pilgrims. The sacred narratives of Kapila function to make this promise trustworthy.

The final 15 folios of the Nepalese illuminated palm-leaf manuscript of the Sanskrit Gaṇḍavyūha-sūtra of c. 1100 have more paintings per page, larger picture planes, and different types of scenes than are found on the leaves surviving from the first 340 folios. One example is Folio 348 in the Cleveland Museum of Art, which has been painted with scenes of a bodhisattva tossing a blue-skinned heretic, an unusual image of a monk or upāsika wearing blue robes, and a Vajrācārya priest setting a Hindu rishi ablaze. From the point of view of the Mahāyāna Buddhist makers of this manuscript, these figures may personify the wrong views that derail pilgrims on the bodhisattva path to enlightenment. The dramatic shift in imagery appears to reflect the transition from the end of the inspirational pilgrimage of Sudhana to the popular, protective dhāraṇī verses of the Bhadracarī that form the finale to the text. The scenes of destruction and elimination of heretical figures correspond with sentiments in the Bhadracarī, indicating that the artists understood the structure and content of the text.

Pilgrimage in Islam is a religious act wherein Muslims leave their homes and spaces and travel to another place, the nature, geography, and dispositions of which they are unfamiliar. They carry their luggage and belongings and leave their own spaces to receive the blessings of the dead, commemorate past events and places, and venerate the elect. In Pilgrimage in Islam, Sophia Rose Arjana writes that “intimacy with Allah is achievable in certain spaces, which is an important story of Islamic pilgrimage”. The devotional life unfolds in a spatial idiom. The introductory part of the book reflects on how pilgrimage in Islam is far more complex than the annual pilgrimage (ḥajj), which is one of the basic rites and obligations of Islam beside the formal profession of faith (kalima); prayers (ṣalāt); fasting (ṣawm); and almsgiving (zakāt). More pilgrims throng to Karbala, Iraq, on the Arbaeen pilgrimage than to Mecca on the Hajj, for example, but the former has received far less academic attention. The author expands her analytic scope to consider sites like Konya, Samarkand, Fez, and Bosnia, where Muslims travel to visit countless holy sites (mazarāt), graves, tombs, complexes, mosques, shrines, mountaintops, springs, and gardens to receive the blessings (baraka) of saints buried there. She reflects on broader methodological and theoretical questions—how do we define religion?—through the diversity of Islamic traditions about pilgrimage. Arjana writes that in pilgrimage—something which creates spaces and dispositions—Muslim journeys cross sectarian boundaries, incorporate non-Muslim rituals, and involve numerous communities, languages, and traditions (the merging of Shia, Sunni, and Sufi categories) even to “engende[r] a syncretic tradition”. This approach stands against the simplistic scholarship on “pilgrimage in Islam”, which recourses back to the story of the Hajj. Instead, Arjana borrows a notion of ‘replacement hajjs’ from the German orientalist Annemarie Schimmel, to argue that ziyārat is neither a sectarian practice nor antithetical to Hajj. In the first chapter, Arjana presents “pilgrimage in Islam” as an open, demonstrative and communicative category. The extensive nature of the ‘pilgrimage’ genre is presented through documenting spaces and sites, geographies, and imaginations, and is visualized through architectural designs and structures related to ziyārat, like those named qubba, mazār (shrine), qabr (tomb), darih (cenotaph), mashhad (site of martyrdom), and maqām (place of a holy person). In the second chapter, the author continues the theme of visiting sacred pilgrimage sites like “nascent Jerusalem”, Mecca, and Medina. Jerusalem offers dozens of cases of the ‘veneration of the dead’ (historically and archaeologically) which, according to Arjana, characterizes much of Islamic pilgrimage. The third chapter explains rituals, beliefs, and miracles associated with the venerated bodies of the dead, including Karbala (commemorating the death of Hussein in 680 CE), ‘Alawi pilgrimage, and pilgrimage to Hadrat Khidr, which blur sectarian lines of affiliation. Such Islamic pilgrimage is marked by inclusiveness and cohabitation. The fourth chapter engages dreams, miracles, magical occurrences, folk stories, and experiences of clairvoyance (firāsat) and the blessings attached to a particular saint or walī (“friend of God”). This makes the theme of pilgrimage “fluid, dynamic and multi-dimensional,” as shown in Javanese (Indonesian) pilgrimage where tradition is associated with Islam but involves Hindu, Buddhist and animistic elements. This chapter cites numerous sites that offer fluid spaces for the expression of different identities, the practice of distinct rituals, and cohabitation of different religious communities through the idea of “shared pilgrimage”. The fifth and final chapter shows how technologies and economies inflect pilgrimage. Arjana discusses the commodification of “religious personalities, traditions and places” and the mass production of transnational pilgrimage souvenirs, in order to focus on the changing nature of Islamic pilgrimage in the modern world through “capitalism, mobility and tech nology”. The massive changes wrought by technological developments are evident even from the profusion of representations of Hajj, as through pilgrims’ photos, blogs, and other efforts at self documentation. The symbolic representation of the dead through souvenirs makes the theme of pilgrimage more complex. Interestingly, she then notes how “virtual pilgrimage” or “cyber-pilgrimage” forms a part of Islamic pilgrimage in our times, amplifying how pilgrimage itself is a wide range of “active, ongoing, dynamic rituals, traditions and performances that involve material religions and imaginative formations and spaces.” Analyzing religious texts alone will not yield an adequate picture of pilgrimage in Islam, Arjana concludes. Rather one must consider texts alongside beliefs, rituals, bodies, objects, relationships, maps, personalities, and emotions. The book takes no normative position on whether the ziyāratvisitation is in fact a bid‘ah (heretical innovation), as certain Muslim orthodoxies have argued. The author invokes Shahab Ahmad’s account of how aspects of Muslim culture and history are seen as lying outside Islam, even though “not everything Muslims do is Islam, but every Muslim expression of meaning must be constituting in Islam in some way”. The book is a solid contribution to the field of pilgrimage and Islamic studies, and the author’s own travels and visits to the pilgrimage sites make it a practicalcontribution to religious studies. Nazar Ul Islam Wani, PhDAssistant Professor, Department of Higher EducationJammu and Kashmir, India

Pilgrimage in Islam is a religious act wherein Muslims leave their homes and spaces and travel to another place, the nature, geography, and dispositions of which they are unfamiliar. They carry their luggage and belongings and leave their own spaces to receive the blessings of the dead, commemorate past events and places, and venerate the elect. In Pilgrimage in Islam, Sophia Rose Arjana writes that “intimacy with Allah is achievable in certain spaces, which is an important story of Islamic pilgrimage”. The devotional life unfolds in a spatial idiom. The introductory part of the book reflects on how pilgrimage in Islam is far more complex than the annual pilgrimage (ḥajj), which is one of the basic rites and obligations of Islam beside the formal profession of faith (kalima); prayers (ṣalāt); fasting (ṣawm); and almsgiving (zakāt). More pilgrims throng to Karbala, Iraq, on the Arbaeen pilgrimage than to Mecca on the Hajj, for example, but the former has received far less academic attention. The author expands her analytic scope to consider sites like Konya, Samarkand, Fez, and Bosnia, where Muslims travel to visit countless holy sites (mazarāt), graves, tombs, complexes, mosques, shrines, mountaintops, springs, and gardens to receive the blessings (baraka) of saints buried there. She reflects on broader methodological and theoretical questions—how do we define religion?—through the diversity of Islamic traditions about pilgrimage. Arjana writes that in pilgrimage—something which creates spaces and dispositions—Muslim journeys cross sectarian boundaries, incorporate non-Muslim rituals, and involve numerous communities, languages, and traditions (the merging of Shia, Sunni, and Sufi categories) even to “engende[r] a syncretic tradition”. This approach stands against the simplistic scholarship on “pilgrimage in Islam”, which recourses back to the story of the Hajj. Instead, Arjana borrows a notion of ‘replacement hajjs’ from the German orientalist Annemarie Schimmel, to argue that ziyārat is neither a sectarian practice nor antithetical to Hajj. In the first chapter, Arjana presents “pilgrimage in Islam” as an open, demonstrative and communicative category. The extensive nature of the ‘pilgrimage’ genre is presented through documenting spaces and sites, geographies, and imaginations, and is visualized through architectural designs and structures related to ziyārat, like those named qubba, mazār (shrine), qabr (tomb), darih (cenotaph), mashhad (site of martyrdom), and maqām (place of a holy person). In the second chapter, the author continues the theme of visiting sacred pilgrimage sites like “nascent Jerusalem”, Mecca, and Medina. Jerusalem offers dozens of cases of the ‘veneration of the dead’ (historically and archaeologically) which, according to Arjana, characterizes much of Islamic pilgrimage. The third chapter explains rituals, beliefs, and miracles associated with the venerated bodies of the dead, including Karbala (commemorating the death of Hussein in 680 CE), ‘Alawi pilgrimage, and pilgrimage to Hadrat Khidr, which blur sectarian lines of affiliation. Such Islamic pilgrimage is marked by inclusiveness and cohabitation. The fourth chapter engages dreams, miracles, magical occurrences, folk stories, and experiences of clairvoyance (firāsat) and the blessings attached to a particular saint or walī (“friend of God”). This makes the theme of pilgrimage “fluid, dynamic and multi-dimensional,” as shown in Javanese (Indonesian) pilgrimage where tradition is associated with Islam but involves Hindu, Buddhist and animistic elements. This chapter cites numerous sites that offer fluid spaces for the expression of different identities, the practice of distinct rituals, and cohabitation of different religious communities through the idea of “shared pilgrimage”. The fifth and final chapter shows how technologies and economies inflect pilgrimage. Arjana discusses the commodification of “religious personalities, traditions and places” and the mass production of transnational pilgrimage souvenirs, in order to focus on the changing nature of Islamic pilgrimage in the modern world through “capitalism, mobility and tech nology”. The massive changes wrought by technological developments are evident even from the profusion of representations of Hajj, as through pilgrims’ photos, blogs, and other efforts at self documentation. The symbolic representation of the dead through souvenirs makes the theme of pilgrimage more complex. Interestingly, she then notes how “virtual pilgrimage” or “cyber-pilgrimage” forms a part of Islamic pilgrimage in our times, amplifying how pilgrimage itself is a wide range of “active, ongoing, dynamic rituals, traditions and performances that involve material religions and imaginative formations and spaces.” Analyzing religious texts alone will not yield an adequate picture of pilgrimage in Islam, Arjana concludes. Rather one must consider texts alongside beliefs, rituals, bodies, objects, relationships, maps, personalities, and emotions. The book takes no normative position on whether the ziyāratvisitation is in fact a bid‘ah (heretical innovation), as certain Muslim orthodoxies have argued. The author invokes Shahab Ahmad’s account of how aspects of Muslim culture and history are seen as lying outside Islam, even though “not everything Muslims do is Islam, but every Muslim expression of meaning must be constituting in Islam in some way”. The book is a solid contribution to the field of pilgrimage and Islamic studies, and the author’s own travels and visits to the pilgrimage sites make it a practicalcontribution to religious studies. Nazar Ul Islam Wani, PhDAssistant Professor, Department of Higher EducationJammu and Kashmir, India

This paper will, with reference to fieldwork carried out during the Kumbh Mel? 2013, the big pilgrimage among Hindus in India, discuss the impact that the East is having on the West. Cambell has termed this process for: ’The Easternization of the West’ (2007)when Eastern notion s and world views is becoming a part of the West but in a new and changed form. This process of reinterpretation or translation is also the case, when it comes to the understanding of and participation in the Kumbh Mel?; especially in relation to understanding the snaan or holy dip in the water on the most auspicious days at Kumbh Mel?. This paper will give examples of how this is interpreted or translated in such a way that it suits the Western oriented spiritual seeker or pilgrim in his or her spiritual auto biographical patchwork, constructed by the Western oriented mind.

INTRODUCTION: The sacred cave of Amaranth, located deep in the Himalayas, is one of the holiest pilgrimage sites of Hindu religion in general and among Shiva followers in particular. Because of high altitude, rough terrain and harsh weather, pilgrims are prone to sicknesses which sometimes may prove fatal. OBJECTIVES: To study the profile and outcome among Shri-Amarnathji Yatra patients attending a Tertiary Care Centre in North-India, and to examine whether there is any change in the clinical pattern of yatra patients over time METHODS: This was a prospective, observational study carried out during the yatra period of 2017. Ninety-seven Yatra patients who were on a pilgrimage to Shri-Amarnathji cave and referred to SKIMS between July and August 2017 for various illnesses were studied. All the necessary clinical details were recorded in a pre-designed and pre-tested Proforma prepared for the study; admitted patients were followed from admission till discharge. The profile and outcome of illness of these 2017 Yatra patients were compared with the results of the study conducted in the year 2011. RESULTS: Out of 97 Yatra patients ( referred to our Centre, 54 (55.7%) patients were managed in the outpatient department (OPD) of the hospital; the majority of these patients (33, 61%) were male and were having minor ailments. Out of these 54 patients managed in OPD, 18 (33%) had respiratory tract infection, while 11 (20%) had Hypertension. Patients who were sick (n=43) were admitted and managed in the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department of the institute. Majority of the admitted patients were males (74%); trauma, particularly road traffic accidents constituted 32.5%, followed by acute myocardial infarction (16.3%). Out of admitted 43 Yatra patients, 36 (84%) patients improved, five patients (12%) expired, one was discharged on request, and one referred to a higher centre for further management. CONCLUSION: As compared to previous studies, more male patients were admitted this time, most of whom were in the age-group of 21-40 years. The proportion of patients due to injury and road traffic accident has increased, forming a significant proportion of the referred cases. INTRODUCTION: The sacred cave of Amaranth, located deep in the Himalayas, is one of the holiest pilgrimage sites of Hindu religion in general and among Shiva followers in particular. Because of high altitude, rough terrain and harsh weather, pilgrims are prone to sicknesses which sometimes may prove fatal. OBJECTIVES: To study the profile and outcome among Shri-Amarnathji Yatra patients attending a Tertiary Care Centre in North-India, and to examine whether there is any change in the clinical pattern of yatra patients over time METHODS: This was a prospective, observational study carried out during the yatra period of 2017. Ninety-seven Yatra patients who were on a pilgrimage to Shri-Amarnathji cave and referred to SKIMS between July and August 2017 for various illnesses were studied. All the necessary clinical details were recorded in a pre-designed and pre-tested Proforma prepared for the study; admitted patients were followed from admission till discharge. The profile and outcome of illness of these 2017 Yatra patients were compared with the results of the study conducted in the year 2011. RESULTS: Out of 97 Yatra patients ( referred to our Centre, 54 (55.7%) patients were managed in the outpatient department (OPD) of the hospital; the majority of these patients (33, 61%) were male and were having minor ailments. Out of these 54 patients managed in OPD, 18 (33%) had respiratory tract infection, while 11 (20%) had Hypertension. Patients who were sick (n=43) were admitted and managed in the Accident & Emergency (A&E) Department of the institute. Majority of the admitted patients were males (74%); trauma, particularly road traffic accidents constituted 32.5%, followed by acute myocardial infarction (16.3%). Out of admitted 43 Yatra patients, 36 (84%) patients improved, five patients (12%) expired, one was discharged on request, and one referred to a higher centre for further management. CONCLUSION: As compared to previous studies, more male patients were admitted this time, most of whom were in the age-group of 21-40 years. The proportion of patients due to injury and road traffic accident has increased, forming a significant proportion of the referred cases.

AbstractIdeas and practices about the transfer of substances believed to be charged with positive or negative properties are significant features of pilgrimages. Oftenneglected features of pilgrimages can be addressed by adopting concepts from the Cognitive Science of Religion. Religious pilgrimages are popular phenomena that are based on ritual interaction with culturally-postulated counterintuitive supernatural agents. This article partly refers to and analyses ethnographic data gathered during fieldwork among Hindu pilgrims in Nepal and Tibet. The pilgrims received items to take home from the pilgrimage site but they also left other items there. This constituted a transfer of contagious substances that carried blessings and supernatural agency/power and it enabled the discharging of defilement, sin or evil. The aim of this article is to show how the beliefs about substance transfer are shaped by cultural institutions and by cognitive selection pressures related to psychological essentialism and concepts of agency and contagion relating to counterintuitive agents.

In response to the new era of the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) since year 2015 – Bali, as the primary gateway of Indonesian tourism, must improve the quality of Hindu Balinese human resources in tourism (HB HRT). Winata (2014: 6) explained that adat istiadat (customs and traditions) is one of the cause for their low commitment in their job, as HB HRT often take leave due to adat obligations. Therefore, one of the impact, as in the case of a hotel in Kuta, is that hotels often avoid recruiting HB HRT. Hence, issue to be discussed in this study is to understand the role of Balinese Cultural Values as a potential and as an obstacle in HBHRT’s competency to achieve managerial positions in star-rated hotels in Bali. The research will use a concurrent triangulation method on data collected through interviews and questionaires.While sampling will be done with Purposive Sampling method on star-rated hotels located in Sanur, Kuta and Nusa Dua. Finally, the data analysis will be carried out by referring to Motivation Theory (McClelland, 1976), Competency Theory (Spencer and Spencer, 1993), Value Orientations Theory (Kluckhohn and Strodtbeck, 1961), through a descriptive interpretative qualitative approach as well as a quantitative approach based on Principal Component Analysis (PCA) statistics. The research results will show that based on the data, HB HRT have good set of competencies, and these good competencies are inseparable from their background of Balinese Cultural Values (BCV), mainly derived from Hindu culture and religion. As part of upholding their culture, a HB HRT is a person with pawongan concept of harmonious relationship between human beings indicated by 79.1% people with tresna (love), the parhyangan concept of harmonious relationship between human beings and God indicated by 75% people engaging in dharma yatra pilgrimages and study, and the palemahan concept of harmonious relationship between human beings and nature indicated by 69.8% people valuing Bali shanti (a peaceful Bali). On the other hand the obstacles in occupying manager positions in star-rated hotels in Bali are mostly due to internal factors – namely, their own personal motives which are often based on erroneous understandings of BCV. Therefore, in order to increase the Spiritual Quotient (SQ) of HB HRT in achieving managerial positions, the strategy will be through career development with motivation programs while redefining their Balinese Cultural Values to give positive impact to their living standard, to the company, to the environment, and to God. Keywords: Hindu Human Resources, motivation, manager position, rated hotels, Bali

India has one of the largest pilgrim traffic in the world as it has large number of sacred and holy sites of different religions. Besides tourism has been a rising industry in India during last few decades thus providing excellent opportunities for pilgrimage tourism until the outbreak of Novel Coronavirus hit the Pilgrim industry. The Covid-19 global pandemic has led to fatal situation and is inextricably affecting the economy of the nation. One such case is of Haridwar “The Gateway to the abode of Gods” in the Uttarakhand state of India. Every year lakhs of devotees visit Haridwar to take bath in the holy river Ganga in order to attain virtue. Haridwar is a famous religious city for the Hindus and it is also attractive to other domestic and foreign tourists because of its marvellous geographic location and physio-cultural tourist resources. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has raised awareness about the recent outbreak and the Government is taking several measures and formulating various concord at both central and state level to prevent the adversities of COVID-19. In this paper, an attempt has been made to highlight how the pandemic has left the pilgrimage industry gasping. The paper also suggests certain measures to cope up the Covid-19 outbreak thus consequently moving the economy of the region.