[410.13]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2013. Green Pilgrimage Initiatives; in his, Hindu Tradition of...

[410.13]. Singh, Rana P.B. 2013. Green Pilgrimage Initiatives; in his, Hindu

Tradition of Pilgrimage: Sacred Space and System. Dev Publishers & Distributors, New Delhi. ISBN (13): 978-93-81406-25-0; pp. 333-368.

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CHAPTER 10

GREEN PILGRIMAGE INITIATIVES ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Abstract. As globalization accelerates, the expansion of pilgrimage has encouraged environmental cleanliness and eco-development programmes having commitment to protect our living planet sustainably and awakening ourselves though deeper experiences – from realisation to revelation. The Green Pilgrimage Network initiative (GPN) has made the path easy and accessible. The Hindu temples should become models of care and respect for the Mother Nature, reflecting the deep values of Vedic tradition. The strategy of planning and conservation of sacred sites under IUCN are also important to link with pilgrimage-tourism on the line of the initiatives taken by the Green Pilgrimage Network initiative (GPN) organised by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) and the Bhumi Project. Already several pilgrim cities are registered in the GPN. Tirupati-Tirumala presents a model, and followed up by Sabarimala and Rishikesh. Use of faith-based system and pilgrimages would give a new response to environmental sensitivity and conservation. Keywords: ecosystem, faithscape, Green Pilgrimage, Bhumi Project, Sabarimala, sacred sites, spatiality, spirituality, spiritual resort, Tirupati. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. Making a pathway to Green Pilgrimage

As the largest civil society movement and the most attractive means of religious interactions, the pilgrimage has been the vital phenomena in almost all the major religions; of course in Hindu traditions it has recorded the longest history of traditions and continuity. As the transport and communications revolutions took places and further enhanced in a cyclic form, the tradition of pilgrimages advanced and expanded at various levels. Such expansion in huge masses and spatial coverage has devastating effect on the environment. In fact, in some areas like Sabarimala in Kerala, recorded unimaginable flow of pilgrims that turned to have “an extraordinary impact on the forest area surrounding the shrine, as well as on the wildlife so closely associated with Lord Ayyappa (Eck 2012: 445). Most of the sacred rivers near holy places are now facing

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crucial state of pollution, together with social disaster too. Nevertheless, it is now recently realised by community organisations and NGOs, and several programmes are started to protect the ecosystem, such as Clean Sabarimala Project of the Eco Pilgrimage Trust. The attempts of Green Pilgrimage Initiative provide international co-sharedness and further activation to such programmes. The pollution intensity at pilgrim places and attached rivers in India is not largely due to religious causes, but more severely due to factors like tremendous population growth, urbanisation, industrialisation, poverty, mismanagement and intermingled corruption (Jacobsen 2013: 162). The GPN is an alternative march in this direction.

According to a recent estimate more than 250 million people go on ‘pilgrimage’ every year ‒ sometimes for hours, sometimes for days, and some leave home for many months. Out of 23 pilgrim places in the whole world that record above half millions pilgrims annually, and among them in India itself there are nine such sites, viz. Sabarimala (34 mill), Tiupati-Tirumala (33 mill), Amritsar (30 mill), Shirdi (12 mill), Magh Mela [30-35 days] at Allahabad (10 mill; but every twelve year celebrated as Kumbha Mela, and records the highest number, which reached 74 mill in Jan.-Feb. 2013, spread over an area of 20 sq. km and inhabited by ca 200,000 people), Vrindavan (6 mill), Dvaraka (5 mill), Varanasi (1.5 mill), and Amarnath Cave (650,000). If such a mechanism be evolved that uses this resource encouraging pilgrims, and pilgrim places throughout the world to become models of care for the environment and leaving a positive footprint on the Earth, this will be a great leap of human transformation. This noble idea has been conceived and given a structural framework through the Green Pilgrimage Network initiative (GPN).

As globalization accelerates, the expansion of pilgrimage-tourism has encouraged ‘heritage-making’ (‘heritagization’ or ‘patrimonialization’ in French) within an international framework. The Green Pilgrimage Network (GPN) initiative was launched on 1st November 2011 at the Sacred Land Celebration in Assisi, Italy, organised by the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) in association with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Representatives from 15 faith traditions from around the world gathered in the holy city of Assisi, Italy – one of the founder members – with secular and environmental organisations to launch the world’s first global commitment to Green Pilgrimage. The ARC Secretary-General Martin Palmer said on this occasion: “Cities from China to Norway and faiths from all around the world today commit to making one of the most powerful religious experiences – pilgrimage – a living witness to a commitment to protect our living planet. This is an invitation to all holy places to put into practice what they preach – namely, that when we

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walk upon this Earth, we walk on sacred land” (cf. Finlay 2011). The Green Pilgrimage Network initiative was endorsed very recently by some 280 primarily US-based Hindu delegates, representing more than 100 temples and Hindu organizations from across the world at the sixth annual Hindu Mandir (Temple) Executives’ Conference (HMEC) in Columbus Ohio. The Indian representative has declared there: “The Green Pilgrimage Network presents an unprecedented opportunity to Hindus to reclaim the ecological vision inherent in our culture and share it with the rest of the world. Our temples must become models of care and respect for the environment, reflecting the deep values of Vedic tradition”.

The Network (GPN) will inspire Pilgrims to (cf. Finlay 2011): • prepare mindfully for their pilgrimage... • travel responsibly in the spirit of their faith... • choose sustainable tourist agencies... • eat and drink sustainably and ethically... • minimise their water use... • dispose of their rubbish... and pick up after others... • support a fund to green the pilgrim city they are visiting... • bring greener ideas for living home with them...

The Network (GPN) will inspire Pilgrim Cities to (cf. Finlay 2011): • receive and accommodate pilgrim visitors sustainably... • green their religious buildings, energy and infrastructure... • safeguard their natural landscape, wildlife and parks... • create a green pilgrim fund... • create ‘green maps’, highlighting the environmental projects… • achievements and opportunities for volunteering in their cities... • bring faiths and local authorities together to create sustainable cities... • provide clean, accessible drinking water... • improve sanitation for pilgrim routes and halt stations... • work with pilgrimage/tour operators, airlines and other transport

providers to provide carbon neutral travel... • spread greener living habits among their own population... • publicise their status as Green Pilgrim Cities... • celebrate their pilgrims and green their faith festivals... • work with, and support, each other in greening initiatives...

Four of the chief pilgrimage cities of India are now part of the Green

Pilgrim Cities Initiative (GPCI), namely Dvaraka, Somnath, Ambaji (in Gujarat), and Amritsar (in Punjab) (Finlay 2011); while Varanasi and several others are in the process of nomination. The GPCI is affiliated with interfaith Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), which has worked for the environmental conservation of sacred sites and pilgrimage


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routes for over twenty years. Adoption of the GPCI framework has encouraged these Indian cities to awaken, activate and start educating their communities for the conservation of their sacred places and the need for eco-friendly pilgrimage. However, the national government of India has still to institute its ‘Heritage Act’ and, because India was founded as a secular-based system, it finds it hard to legislate on matters in the religious domain. A strategy for managing the development of the economic enterprises associated with pilgrimage-tourism may be another matter (cf. Singh 2012c), in addition with shifting patterns of the worldviews, religious values and civic-oriented utilitarian practices (cf. Reddy 2013).

2. Sacred Places: Spiritual Resort and Holy Sites

The study of ashram (spiritual resort) tourism at Auroville (Pondi-cherry) indicates a continuum of spirituality inherent in tourism, though this is related to tourists’ experience rather than initial motivation.

First, in some cases, the ‘quest in guest’ may be fulfilled. That is, the research revealed a number of tourists who had discovered in Auroville their spiritual home or ‘centre out there’ (Cohen 1979). For some of these tourists, the satisfaction of their spiritual need meant that they had come to the end of their journey – as existential tourists, they had fully immersed themselves in the spiritual ‘Other’, becoming, in a sense, permanent tourists – a seeker in search of deeper spirit. For others, spiritual fulfilment (eternal bliss) is part of the journey – never ending destination, like whole life is a journey itself (cf. Kumar 1992).

Second one is the notion of the tourist as pilgrim (i.e. the religious tourist, dharmayātri) who has, to an extent, been verified; in fact, those who travelled to Pondicherry (both, the ‘devotees’ and ‘spiritual seekers’) with specific spiritual intentions return home stronger or more fulfilled (acquired bliss) and considered as a success in their journey (Sharpley and Sundaram 2005: 170).

Third, the research also suggests that the notion of a continuum of religious or spiritual intent as proposed by Smith (1992) is valid. Although a variety of motives, from knowledge-driven secular curiosity to more purposeful need satisfaction, were identified in the research, it is evident that, albeit unintentionally, different intensities of spiritual fulfilment were experienced by visitors to the Ashram and Auroville depending on the visitors’ mental setup, life philosophy and intensity of quest. Importantly, however, this was not as an outcome of spiritual need-driven actions; for the most part, curiosity or the desire to learn resulted in spiritual benefits (ibid.). Thus, it is apparent from this study that, within particular


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destinational contexts, tourism can begin to take on the characteristics of a sacred journey although it may not be always spiritually motivated. That is, tourism may not be functionally sacred, although its outcome may be (ibid.). This study further provides a challenging and promising ground to see the potentials of culturally rooted pilgrimage in India.

Tourism in the Gar Mandaran-Kamarpukur-Joyrambati tourist circuit has to be humane and spiritually awakened. After all, one of the greatest human exemplar of “Living in Harmony with Nature” was Sri Ramakrishna Paramhamsa (1836-1886) himself. Thus, it would be in the fitness of things that his native village acts as a torch bearer of ‘Sustainable Rural Tourism’ in West Bengal and show the path of eternal bliss and tranquillity through a tourism phenomenon, which is rooted in the platform of sustainability. By going back to nature, we are in no way hindering our spirit of self discovery (Chakraborty 2011).

The growth of pilgrimage in India has been astonishingly impressive. India is blessed with plenty of well-known religious destinations [see Chapters 1 and 2]. The domestic pilgrimages to the popular holy destinations bring enormous economic gains to local residents, as in case of famous Sabarimala temple in Pathanamthitta district of Kerala that records annual number of pilgrims equal to the population of Kerala state, i.e. 33.3 millions. This pilgrimage helps in giving manifold economic benefits to local residents of Pandalam rural area, which reveals the high positive effects in the pilgrimage season on income, employment and standard of living of local residents in Pandalam rural locality (Libison and Muraleedharan 2008). Of course, deeper quest and devotion of pilgrims are important facets for pilgrimage, referred as “right heart within”, the power of the place with respect to natural beauty, serenity and imposition of religious glories through mythologies are complementary to each other in increasing the intensity of importance of the sacred place; however, sometimes there appears tensions too (cf. Eck 2012: 454).

Some places having special spirit of sacrality, where the sense of ‘tourism’ is not applicable, and still they maintain the traditional overview of pilgrimages. The study of Braj shows that particularly in its more extreme manifestations, the tourist’s goal tends to be the inverse of that of the pilgrim: whereas the pilgrim travels towards the sacred place symbolizing the ‘Centre’ of his or her religion, the tourist is often in quest of the ‘Other’. Of course, this differentiation is far less prevalent in India. Going on pilgrimage is an ancient tradition of the country, religion in India is a way of life. Vaishnava Pilgrims to the Braj region in Uttar Pradesh will never visit the place merely for “vacationing”. It is their religious fervour and their thirst for spiritual development that they feel attracted


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towards Braj Mandala. Despite all obstacles caused by lack of infrastructure in Braj, one hundred per cent of pilgrims want to visit this holy region again. Therefore such places need special care and planning that preserve and promote ‘spiritual heritage’ (cf. Cloesen 2005).

It is a general conception that the increasing pace of tourism and the changing motives and modes of travel deteriorate the tradition of age-old pilgrimage. The study of Orchha, an example of pilgrimage and heritage site, concludes that the traditional religious ethos involved in the pilgrimage-tourists and heritage sites creates obstacle in the environmental cleanliness and the rational development of landscape and economic space. This becomes more crucial during festival events when uncontrolled masses of visitors come and use the limited space and infrastructural facilities like water, drainage, transport and settlement (Jadon and Jadon 2003). Since pilgrimage is not given special recognition under eco-tourism and heritage (intangible) management, rarely such long-term management and strategies are made to handle the situation. Lack of awareness, discontinuity in traditional environment-sensitive practices and increasing high pressures of increasing population together create chaos.

Nevertheless, there are examples that do not justify such pre-conceived statements about negative impacts. A recent study of cultural heritage in the Narmadā Valley reveals that the loss of large sections of the parikamāpatha (pilgrimage circumambulatory path) and many holy places which lay along its course does not seem to have any negative effect on the ever increasing popularity of the Narmadāparikramā (Neuß 2012). On the vast new stretches along the banks of the reservoirs, new temples, monasteries and other religious establishments are presently being founded to accommodate to the needs of ever increasing numbers of pilgrims. The Government of Madhya Pradesh¸ recently even announced plans to build a motorable road all along the Narmadā to make a full circumambulation by motor vehicles possible. This witnesses as to how a very peculiar and popular religious rite, claimed to be of ancient origin, is subordinated to the interests of a modern market economy and transformed to fit into a modern transnational neo-liberal world order (Neuß 2012). In a conser-vative way one can say it is a ‘loss’, but at other end this is an example of the ‘transplantation’ of old temples to new locations that are religiously explained and, at the same time, recently established tirthas strive to integrate themselves into a popular rite which is canonized in traditional Sanskrit texts. Also, new establishments gain religious acceptance, and local and new myths (sthalapurānas, or folktales) are accepted or created, or even old ones reinterpreted and made compliant with the traditional mythological framework of the Narmadāparikramā (ibid.).


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3. Framing the Pilgrimage: Greening Sacred Places

Pilgrimage is no way separate from the sustainable heritage tourism, at least in case of India. Knowing that pilgrimage and nature are integral and reciprocal, this should be kept in mind that if nature is in danger, culture has to pay its price and vice-versa. If both to be taken in an integrated way, it would result to more beneficial in the preservation of the sacredscapes and their sustainable use in long-term by the mankind (cf. Sharma 2000). The following major criteria for the development of sustainable religious-tourism (pilgrimage) facilities should be taken into at least 10-point consideration (cf. Rana and Singh 2000, also see Rana 2003):

1. Site building and other structure should avoid cutting significant tress and minimise disruption, and loss of heritage ruins.

2. Maintenance of eco-system and serenity of nature should be given priority.

3. In the hilly region, trail systems should respect travel patterns and sacredness of wildlife and nature.

4. Building should be spaced to allow the wildlife travel pattern and forest growth and maintenance of serenity of nature.

5. Use of automobiles and other vehicles (ships in the holy river, like the Gangā) should be strictly limited, and not allowed after certain distance from the pilgrimage route and pathways.

6. Provide ecologically sound restroom and trash disposal facilities at trailhead and consciousness among stakeholders be awakened through religious and spiritual insights.

7. Designate a clear area for medical emergency and aids, and spiritual healings based on nature therapy.

8. Site lightening should be limited and controlled to avoid wildlife diurnal cycles and the local religious traditions.

9. Design of house should be made of local construction techniques, materials available and befitting cultural images and keeping the archetypal symbolism and religions notions (spacing the divine beings at proper places).

10. Involvement of local people and their religious traditions at different levels and in different activities should be given priority; future policy and strategy always be made in the local environmental and religious perspectives.

Pilgrimage sites are not only designed for the sole purpose of religious motives but they are the paths to discover our past and a way to learn and


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experience based on the authenticity, learning and discovering our culture, ecology, artistic and ethnic heritage and religious scenarios and the ritual traditions, and also creates a distinct identity for a specific place. Pilgrimage-tourism gives opportunity to a specific region to combine its unique pilgrimage places with the tourism industry to create social, economic and environmental benefits in a sustainable way. These sacred sites, of course to be used as resources for promoting pilgrimage-tourism, moreover these sites and areas need to be given special consideration under the wider strategy of sustainable resource conservation. What Graham, et al. (2000: 259), says for heritage that “It must always be remembered that because all heritage is someone’s, it cannot be someone else’s. As a result, we are observing more and more cases of the problems raised by the sacred and profane connotations of heritage in which someone’s consecrated heritage is sold as someone else’s entertain-ment”― should also be implied to pilgrimage-tourist sites too. In the present scenario, the idea of pilgrimage-tourism is closely associated with its definition as resource, religious identity and educational and sociali-sation process. The interconnections among them can be represented by the triangular connections among pilgrimage sites, place identity and tourism (Fig. 10.1). At one scale, pilgrimage contributes towards religious identity, and further supports pilgrimage in a distinct way, and finally encourage to learn the remembered past in search of linking past to present and make sustainable perspective for future.

Fig. 10.1. Pilgrimage-Tourism, Heritage, and Place Identity: Components of Triangle.


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The commodification of pilgrimage places is simply the creation of tradable commodities from cultural-religious resources, which existed and continued on the scale of time and which previously were not tradable in the open market. The simple framework with tourism industry can be used to demonstrate the system of relationships between the component parts and use of pilgrimage-tourism as an economic resource. The three main components in this system are: pilgrimage resource (including heritage sites), pilgrimage product (ritualistic and souvenir items) and pilgrimage-tourism (religiously motivated organised tours), which are regulated, respectively by the processes of resource activation, maintenance and exposure, and marketing and intensity of economic returns. In response to the growing demand and pressure a policy-plan framework for historical and holy cities need to be worked out with respect to their prospects and retrospect of the religious and sacrality contexts (cf. Ashworth 2000).

The conceptual and managerial links, which allow the conservation of the built environment (temples, shrines, and nature forms) and its derivative idea of sacrality, have to play a substantial role in the contemporary sustainable heritage and religious tourism (pilgrimage) and its management too. Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996: 18-19) have suggested three main ways to which sustainability to be linked to heritage that should be used for pilgrimage in a modified way:

(1) Philosophical links. The natural and built environmental resources both use resources that are external to the production-consumption system, and both confront similar problems of establishing selection criteria in terms of historicity and cultural traditions.

(2) Organisational links. Given the similar motivation for the preservation of both natural and man-made features, it is obvious that in spite of variation in local religious traditions there is an overlap in popular support though overall aim of acquiring spiritual merit. Many of the religious organisation and trusts or such organising agencies cover both types of phenomena.

(3) Linking Management Concepts. If the issues and basic dilemmas are philosophically similar, despite the different nature of the processes powering them, the concepts governing their sustainable management should be equally similar and should also be on the vision of deeper quest. Moreover, there is a complementarity between natural and built environmental sites used for pilgrimages.

The concept of complementary on the demand by the ‘users’ and functional characteristics of the historic-pilgrimage site converges to a


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more complex taxonomy. This divides users into those ‘intentionally’ drawn to the pilgrimage city by its distinctive attributes (spiritual magnetism, religious quests and motives), and those only ‘incidentally’, i.e. by chance (companionship, side-by other motives), and further compared with the spatial dimensions of origin ‘inside’ (stakeholders) or ‘outside’ (pilgrims). Finally it results to a series of combinations of users according to aspects of their uses (cf. Ashworth 1991: 70-71; Fig. 10.2).

Fig. 10.2. Users of the Pilgrimage-historic City: A Complex Taxonomy (modified after Ashworth 1991: 70).

Nv, Non-man use visitors; Nr, Non-man use residents; Pt, Pilgrimage-Tourists; Tr, Trippers.

Ultimately, the integration of cultural with natural pilgrimage sites in a process of environmental management brings us to a deeper meaning of the contemporary idea of sustainability, which bears directly upon the basement of pilgrimage. Sustainability is also of the comprehensive social and cultural meaning as interlinked into the traditions developed into the past, hence cultural sustainability, of this exercise. Nelson (1991) has rightly asked, ‘how do we know what to sustain if we do not understand what natural and human heritage has come to us from the past?’ The most popular and strongly continued tradition from the past is pilgrimage, therefore it should be given a re-appraisal and deeper understanding though experiences, realisation and ultimately revelation.


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4. Green Pilgrimage initiative in India

On 14th of October 2012, eleven of India’s holy towns and cities came together in Hyderabad, India, to launch the India Chapter of the international Green Pilgrimage Network (GPN). The meeting took place on the seventh day of the United Nations’ COP 11 Convention on Biological Diversity and was jointly hosted by the international organisation like ICLEI (International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives) and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), and the Bhumi Project (OCHS Oxford). The key representatives from ARC, Eco-Sikh project, the Hindu Bhumi Project, the Living Planet Foundation, and other representatives of the Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim and Sikh cities of Amritsar, Bodh Gaya, Guntur, Howrah, Leh, Nanded, Rishikesh, Shirdi, Ujjain, Varanasi and Visakhapatnam attended. “On any given day of the year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world are on pilgrimage,” said Alison Hilliard, project manager for GPN at ARC. “The goal of the network is to encourage pilgrims, and pilgrim places throughout the world to become models of care for the environment and leaving a positive footprint on the Earth.”

The Bhumi Project and the ARC, in collaboration with the ‘Ganga Action Parivar’ (founded by Swami Chidananda Saraswati of Parmath Nikentan), held a meeting on 19th January 2013 at the Kumbha Mela to promote greener pilgrimages all around India. This was attended by many officials, administrators, NGOs and chiefs of several monasteries. It is realised that we can work together towards preserving the original spirit and mood of pilgrimage, where every step is an offering to God; our vision is that in 12 years time, every camp at the Kumbha Mela will be green, and every pilgrim will be reminded that it is the sacred duty of every Hindu to protect and care the environment. The Kumbha Mela has been taken as a platform to raise the voices for the Green Pilgrimage initiatives. On India’s 64th Republic day, 26 January 2013, around a thousand pilgrims and activists from over 56 countries had a march in the sacred sandy plain as environmental parade to call for India’s independence from pollution and awakening the ancient spirit of sacrality to save and protect the nature under the guidance of Swami Chidananda Saraswati, who holds the inaugural chair for the Hindu chapter of the GPN. He called for participation from of all castes, creeds and cultures to come together to awaken the spirit for an Indian “Clean Revolution” in India, especially the envisioning “Clean Ganga, Green Ganga, Serve Ganga”.

Member cities that attended COP 11 agreed to meet again in next 12 months time, when they will share sustainable solutions for pilgrim cities


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for greening waste, sanitation, buildings, transport, food and accommo-dation, and share strategies to make the hosting of large scale pilgrimage more sustainable and environmentally friendly and promoting peace and deeper awakening for human interconnectedness. It is expected that the cities in the GPN India Chapter will:

• Create a network of sustainable and earth-friendly pilgrim sites across India;

• Join an existing network of 12 international member cities;

• Create a theological basis for green pilgrimage for each religion;

• Encourage religions and municipalities to work with government agencies, NGOs and private companies including tourist agencies, hotels, restaurants and transport companies to make pilgrimage greener;

• Create plans for promoting sustainability in their pilgrimage city and along their pilgrimage paths;

• Ask and educate pilgrims to walk lightly and travel responsibly in the spirit of their religion;

• Inspire pilgrim sites to green their religious festivals.

The GPN India Chapter framed the following key steps to creating a

Green Pilgrimage Site:

• Join the international Green Pilgrimage Network to share resources, knowledge, ideas and best practices with other Indian and global pilgrimage sites

• Develop a programme to green your temples, ashrams and places of worship

• Work with city or town officials, religious leaders and local conservation-ists to jointly address greening initiatives

• Work together with your partners to develop creative solutions that safeguard and honour wildlife and the natural world

• Be mindful of the impact of pilgrimage on wild places, carefully disposing of trash and limiting noise so as not to disturb wildlife populations. Stay on designated pathways and treat each plant and creature as holy in and of themselves

• Include messages about green pilgrimage in your religious discourses, environmental education, community groups, rituals, blessings and festivals.


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The Bhumi Project, launched at the Windsor Celebration of the Faith Commitments for a Living Planet in November 2009, is a worldwide Hindu response to the environmental issues facing our planet. The initiative is facilitated by the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies, in partnership with the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, with backing from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). With a good intention to have simple steps to green one’s sacred site or place of worship at home or in a temple, four steps are suggested as dharma for promoting rightful ecospiritual sensitivity, viz. Greener puja (worship-rituals), Home grown garden, Greener festivals, Green pilgrimage, and Sacred waste. This is the march on the path of making the Green Temple. The Bhumi Projects provokes for Green Pilgrimages that should be religiously compatible, environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and also economically viable. This is in corroboration with the objectives of Living Planet Foundation; of course they are working independently.

The GPN initiative together with Bhumi Project has realised that all the pilgrim places are dominated with varies of festivities, which can be taken as resources and ways for mass awakening towards environmental cleansing and eco-development plans. The major issues considered will include:

• Using recycled paper for printing promotional materials. • Using bio-degradable plates, cups and cutlery for serving food. • Promoting greener ways of transport to the temple, e.g. public transport or

car sharing. • Ensuring all energy is used efficiently.

Once the pilgrim cities (as mentioned) have decided to join the Green Pilgrimage Network, they need to create and sign a document of commitment – a simple commitment for the religious group/trust and the city to work together to make their city a green pilgrim city; this would be signed on the following acceptance and commitment (Finley 2011: 11):

— to journey together with the faithful in our city to build a vision of the city we both want to have, a city that is transformed into a place we want to share and a city that aims to leave a positive footprint on this earth.

— to work with those who journey on pilgrimage to our city to make their journey as ecological as possible through transport, accommodation, food, water, sanitation, etc.

— to take existing environmental initiatives by our city and exploring in what ways partnerships with the faiths and pilgrims could enhance and increase the scope of our city’s ambitions, from reducing our city’s


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carbon footprint to increasing our city’s biodiversity and sustainable energy targets.

— to work with the faith communities in our city to green their own buildings and land and other assets such as schools and places of worship.

— to develop an awards certificate for hotels, restaurants, shops for best practice and for providing the best spiritual experience to the pilgrims visiting our city.

— to produce a green pilgrim guide or map to the city, updated on an annual basis; and

— to draw up an action plan to work towards these goals.

The pilgrim cities in India except the four (i.e. Dvaraka, Somnath, Ambaji, and Amritsar – already part of the GPN) are in the process of making such a charter by proceeding through the written commitments as above. And, the following seven key areas are identified for making pilgrim city greener (Finley 2011: 15):

i. Infrastructure, buildings, land, transport, pilgrimage paths; ii. Spiritual and value-based education, young people and volunteering; iii. Faith wisdom, stories and teachings and their relevance today; iv. Lifestyles: hotels and rest houses, food, souvenirs and funerals; v. Media and advocacy: communicating the message of awakening; vi. Partnerships and Fundraising and their channelizing; and vii. Celebrating festivities, performances, and rituals.

The Hindu Theological Statement on Green Pilgrimage declares, “We believe that our life is a sacred journey and we are all pilgrims on planet Earth. Our scriptures tell us that being pilgrims is not just wandering aimlessly, or earning karmic merit by enduring hardship on a strenuous journey: they exhort us to follow dharma so we may lead a daily life of contentment, discipline and righteousness without straining the Earth’s resources” (cf. Finley 2011: 60).

Ancient Hindu sages personified the Earth as ‘Mother Earth’ and worshipped her as Goddess (Devi): “Mātā bhumih putro aham

prithivyaha”, meaning, “the Earth is my mother, I am the Earth’s son” (Atharva Veda, 12.1.12). Thousands of years later it is realised and thus at the World Summit in 1992 in Rio, world experts addressed the earth as ‘Mother Earth’. To the Hindus, the notion of subjugating or exploiting Mother Earth is akin to violating the body of one’s mother. Hindus believe that this teaching may well be the earliest imperative to caution mankind to be mindful of our impact on the Earth. It is felt that we Hindus must acknowledge that our dharma teaches us to love and care the Earth, appreciate her beauty and sanctity, and as “wanderers” explore her many


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mysteries (Finley 2011: 61). As followers of Sanatana Dharma that teaches harmony and respect for nature, the declaration calls on all Hindus to:

• Follow Lord Krishna’s message, “Conserve ecology or perish”, and develop a sustainable lifestyle;

• Reduce your carbon footprint and ideally “leave a positive footprint”;

• Support local conservation programmes that protect terrestrial and marine species and their habitats;

• Protect portions of the planet that are held in common, including the oceans and the atmosphere;

• Help eliminate and clean up open sewers, impure water, unplanned development and polluted air;

• Do not waste water or electricity;

• Dispose of rubbish appropriately, no matter how much litter lies around;

• Eat natural, healthy, fresh foods, avoiding consumption of meat;

• Recycle whenever possible; and

• Support people and initiatives that achieve these Earth-friendly goals.

At the sacred bank of Gangā river at Rishikesh a two-day Green Pilgrimage Network meet was organised recently during 23-24 November 2012 under the guidance of Swami Chidanand Saraswati. The delegates agreed to have a follow-up meeting in 12-18 months to launch their green pilgrimage plans. The ideas emerged from the working groups include:

• Develop partnerships between the municipality and temple authorities;

• Launch a Hindu Environment Week to raise awareness about the links between Hinduism and the environment;

• Create state-wide Green Pilgrimage Networks to allow the network to grow strategically and better facilitate knowledge sharing;

• Develop green school curriculum with a focus on waste management;

• Conduct environmental audits and develop green standards and guidelines in temples that include waste management and energy use;

• Religious leaders bringing about awareness among pilgrims and local communities about Hindu theology and nature protection;

• For pilgrimage sites inside tiger reserves, regulate light, sound, pilgrim movement in parks, and shut temples at certain hours or on certain days. Install bio-toilets. Prohibit private vehicles inside the park and create a


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bussing system for pilgrims to reach the temples and holy sites lying inside park boundaries; and

• Demarcate special places to deposit remnants from puja (rituals/ worship) where pilgrims can receive blessings instead of dumping them on land or in rivers.

Svami-ji pledged to make his ashram the first green ashram in India, and his camp at the Kumbha Mela at Allahabad (14 January to 10 March 2013) the first green camp; of course this plan has not yet seen the reality! Together with the Bhumi Project (OCHS Oxford) and ARC (Alliance of Religions and Conservation, Bath, UK), he has agreed to draw up a plan for how this could be achieved along with developing a long-term plan for various environmental initiatives. A 12-year time-frame was suggested, to tie-in with the cycle of the Maha Kumbha festivals, which holds at six-year cycle at four pilgrim places of Allahabad, Haridvar, Ujjain, and Nasik. The vision was that at the next Kumbha Mela at Allahabad in 2025 every camp would be green. These ideas and visions may be compared with the World Bank programme (2000-05) on faith-based environmental conservation realising through the sublime interconnectedness and moral duty (dharma) and religious understanding of the relationship between humanity and the rest of nature (Whitten and Morgan 2006: 1).

Unfortunately, at least in India (especially Hindu India), no visible results have been observed at the ground, even passing twelve years after initiation of plan by the World Bank. The basic question is still unsolved that as to how to awaken common masses, religious institutions and temples for this ideology and make them active partners together with changing their lifeways. Propaganda and dissemination of ideas are one thing, but realisation and practice are other. In the latest Maha Kumbha Mela at Allahabad (14 January - 10 March 2013), in spite of such attempts for cooperation and unity of thoughts and claim for implementation of such pilot projects, rarely positive results turned up. The issue of personalised supremacy and imposition of hegemony, contradiction and competition between outsider institutions and insider organisations, romanticising the glorious past without realising the contemporary crises, lack of re-interpreting the old texts and mythologies in the present context, involvement of other faith-based organisations for dilution and diversion of the basic issues of Hindu traditions, and so on – disoriented such movements and plans and resulted into a great threat to Hindu culture, from both ‘inside’ and ‘outside’. The Hindu organisations originated and working in diaspora and having programmes for cooperation and collaboration with India-based organisations also suffer by their own


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biasness, choices, limitations, personal whims, ordained conditions and complexity of superiority-inferiority in the wider envelop of power game of money, chiefdomship, superimposition and pontificating and propaganda, increasing the number of adherents, etc. It is argued that by pilgrimage to the sacred sites and performing sacred rituals there, Hindus may transform or cleanse themselves of their moral sins. Then, pilgrimage for Hindus is a spiritual quest of the higher order and highly valued as a right of passage (Singh 2006: 222). However, in passage of time the basic aim of pilgrimage becomes more ritualistic and experiencing awe and wonder in place of spiritual experience that once implied in caring and saving the Mother Nature and the Mother Earth.

5. Pilgrim Places and Eco-development: Some examples

Recent studies of Vrindavan and Tirumala-Tirupati suggest an immediate need, not only to develop comprehensive environmental management policies for such pilgrimage places and cultural landscapes, which should draw the religious institution ‘enterprises’ into some kind of regulatory framework for environmental improvement, but also include for strategies to build stakeholder participation and meet the needs of this community; moreover, a better approach to environmental management through getting involved stakeholders befitting into comprehensive development planning will be more successful (Shinde 2009a). Further, religious entrepreneurship using religious hegemony, social status and networks, that altogether innovate, develop new products and expand the cultural economy of rituals and performances to suit the demands of the burgeoning tourism will be the other prospects (Shinde 2009b).

The Tirumala-Tirupati Devasthanam, TTD, temple, called ‘Bālā-Ji’, is the richest pilgrimage centre of any faith (at more than 500 billion rupees, i.e. ca US $12 billions) and the most-visited place of worship in the world, recording about 50,000 to 100,000 pilgrims daily (35 to 44 million people annually on average), while on special occasions and festivals, like the annual Brahmotsavam, the number of pilgrims shoots up to 500,000, making it the most-visited holy place in the world. In fact, “through its donations and properties, the sheer wealth of this religious institution is estimated to be second only to that of the Vatican. With this immense wealth, the TTD Trust also runs numerous charities for social work, including schools for destitute girls and boys, training centres for the handicapped, a school for the deaf, a medical school, and an institute of surgery for the disabled. Its educational work includes colleges, high schools, and elementary schools in the town of Tirupati, at the base of the


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hill. Its literary work includes the study and publication of the thousands of poems written to Lord Venkateshvara by the fifteenth-century poet Annamacharya, and its religious work includes training programs for pujaris, archakas, and other priests who serve in the temple. Tirupati is a premier example of the growing significance of pilgrimage and its economic, social, and cultural implications in modern India” (Eck 2012: 321).

Fame of the TTD is such that even in the United States, one of the first Hindu temples to be built was the Shri Venkateshvara Temple in Pittsburgh, which even today remains an important American pilgrimage destination, although by now there are dozens of American Hindu temples that have consecrated an image of Shri Venkateshvara in their own town—from Los Angeles, to Chicago, to Louisville, to Boston (Eck 2012: 322). The process of spatial transposition, making replica of the original temples, is still in its way, and Tirupati is the most common choice. On 23 November 2012 with the support of TTDT Tirupati Balaji temple was opened in Lucknow, which will help devotees who are unable to visit TTD in Andhra Pradesh. New Delhi is also not far behind; preparations are in process to built Tirupati temple there. On the other hand, the TTDT is also opening new entry and exit points expanding various entry points in order to handle the increasing flow of devotees as well as to ensure a better auspicious glimpse (darshan) of lord Venkateshvara.

The sacred environment in TTD is subjected to two interrelated pressures: direct pressures related to increasing visitor flows and consequential pressures of rapid urbanisation induced by economic opportunities from regular visitation. These pressures affect the environment in three interrelated ways: (i) stress on basic services (water supply, sewerage, and solid waste), (ii) pollution (mainly air pollution), and (iii) degradation of natural resources (forests, groundwater). The former two are almost directly related to the magnitude of visitation and therefore mitigated to a large extent in Tirumala by provisions of adequate infrastructural facilities by the temple trust, Tirumala-Tirupati Devastha-nam Trust, TTDT. The latter one especially concerned with the ecology of the hills, loss of biodiversity and nature conservation. In Tirupati, however, environmental issues are essentially urban in nature and include scarcity of drinking water, lack of sewerage facilities, solid waste disposal, and high contamination of groundwater and air pollution, mainly due to traffic congestion. These problems are further exacerbated due to the competing demands of pilgrimage-tourists and local residents too (Shinde 2007: 355-356). In line with the goal of promoting Tirumala-Tirupati like a Vatican city (Srikrishna 1994; Tourism Futures 1998), the focus of


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TTDT had been to create more amenities and facilities on the Tirumala hills to attract and assemble more pilgrim and tourists, though without much consideration to the carrying capacity of the town. Nonetheless, TTDT as a dedicated institution has prevented any more environmental degradation in Tirumala and in many ways has ensured a good and serene environment for the pilgrimage centre. In fact, TTD is a large enterprise employing many thousands of people and using its enormous income to maintain schools and other educational institutions that carry out social-welfare work and run various cultural activities (Karttunen 2010: 145).

The economic role of the temples was far more complex than that of employer. In his work on the Tirupati temple, Stein (1958: 127, as in Mack 2009: 180) concluded that temples became centres through which state resources were redistributed during the pre-colonial periods. This redistribution has a moral component as well, with shares received from the deity in exchange for donations to temples. As Appadurai and Breckenridge (1976: 195) note, “the deity...commands resources (i.e., services and goods) such as those which are necessary and appropriate for the support and materialization of the ritual process... [These resources] are redistributed in the form of shares to the royal courtiers, the donor, and the worshippers at large”.

In 2004 green fuel solar panels has been installed atop the TTD’s canteen to facilitate operation of steam cookers by Flareum Technologies company. This is the world’s largest solar steam cooking system. Besides being famous places of worship and pilgrimage visited by millions, Amritsar’s Golden Temple and Maharashtra’s Shirdi temple have also shifted from conventional to solar power to cook meals for devotees and light up the premises. As part of the TTD complex’s activities, the community kitchen cooks about 30,000 meals per day. In the past diesel fuel had be used to run generators to power the kitchen. This has been replaced since 2004 with solar cooking technology, allowing a pretty serious reduction in carbon emissions.

The TTD has encouraged others pilgrim places to follow its model. Now, more and more places of pilgrimage are adopting renewable sources of energy to cook ‘prasadam’ (sweet offering to god) and meals for devotees, besides generating power for lightning and cooling systems. Of course, the trend was already started by the Brahma Kumari Spiritual Trust at Mount Abu (Rajasthan) in 1997 followed by Tirupati-Tirumala temple in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra’s Shirdi temple and the ISKCON temple at Ujjain. The Golden Temple at Amritsar, and the Jagannath temple in Puri, Odisha, have recently rolled out plans to draw on solar energy. Such


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initiatives will save the environment and serve the people in a much better way at cheaper prices.

The Sai Baba temple at Shirdi (Maharashtra), is a commemorative site of a fakir who died here on 15 October 1918. He was a saint, closely identified with both the Pandharpur tradition of Vaishnavite devotion and Sufi genealogies in the region (Sriniwas 1999: 245). In 1922 a religious trust, named Sri Sai Sansthan Trust (SSST), was founded to manage and promote pilgrimage to this site; the trust continues to act as an intermediary between visitors and their object of devotion, the saint and his temple (Shinde 2011c: 345). Shirdi was a small town till 1991 when it recorded a population of only 15,129, which increased by rate of 73.02 per cent by 2001 and reached to 26,176, and was well marked by speedy growth of hotels, rest houses, market and supporting shops to fulfil the needs of the huge mass of pilgrims. According to the estimates of SSST the number of visitors in Shirdi ranges from 30-35,000 daily to about 75-80,000 on weekends; about 22,500 are served meals everyday. The annual peaks of about 300,000 per day are reached during the three main festivals. Such expansion creates severe environmental problems. A recent study shows that the levels of noise pollution in Shirdi city far exceed the acceptable limit during peak days (Saturday, Sunday, Thursday and National Holidays ) and Festival Days (Ramanavmi and Gudhipadwa, etc.) as per set by department of Environment, India. Even the residential area and vulnerable institutions like school and hospitals faces noise which has much higher noise level than acceptable limit (Kankal and Gaikwad 2011: 73). Now under the purview of Green Pilgrimage Initiatives it becomes a moral imperative to the SSST to take care of the environmental problems and project the religious trust as a means to save Mother Nature.

The impact of religious consciousness and rise of religiosity in the society is well marked by the drastic increase of pilgrims, and also adaptation and practice of other standard mode of rituals, like organized mass of foot pilgrims moving in close processions called palkhis to Shirdi. It is noted that about 100-125 such processions come every year from metropolitan cities and regional towns, each involving an average of approximately a thousand members. It is noted that “the town of Shirdi is subjected to a constant and heavy influx of visitors that vastly outnumbers the native resident population. The economics of tourism infrastructure and potential opportunities dominate, resulting in a situation where interactions of a commercial nature take over social interactions” (Shinde 2011c: 348). However, “the heterogeneity of visitors and the absence of strong social relationships between guests and hosts contribute to


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reinforcing their differences rather than fostering a sense of togetherness amongst visitors” (Shinde 2011c: 349).

The important aspect of Sai Baba is his secular image. People from all religions, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh and Christian have faith and devotion on Sai Baba, thus this place since the very beginning has had sacred-secular significance (Ghosal and Maity 2011: 175). The Sai Baba Sansthan has multifarious activities, which include financial aid for local infrastructure development, health care, employment generation, and economic revival of local industry, education and patronizing local culture and tradition.

6. Ecosystem & Pilgrimage Sites: Spatiality to Spirituality

Since the turning of the 21st century, cultural and spiritual values have come to be recognised as crucial elements in nature conservation, emphasising sacrality with respect to space, time, function, and human psyche with place-attachment – thus leading to concern with pilgrimage sites. This led the major nature conservation agencies – all work with representatives of faiths and spiritualities. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is at the forefront of these developments, with several commissions working on the cultural and spiritual values attributed to nature, and collaborating with local and indigenous peoples on conservation issues (Verschuuren 2007: 299). The IUCN defines sacred natural sites as ‘areas of land or water having special spiritual significance to peoples and communities’. Examples include mountains, groves of trees, springs and caves. In addition, sacred natural sites are often safe havens for biological and cultural diversity, and represent long-standing relationships between human beings and nature. They offer examples of how people connect to nature in meaningful and often spiritual ways. India is richer in terms of diversity, distinctiveness and mosaicness of sacred natural sites and already used as pilgrimage places.

It is noted obviously that “The way people perceive nature depends on culturally defined value and belief systems that form an important, often intergenerational, source of information. Some of this valuable informa-tion, relating in particular to its spiritual dimensions, may not yet be considered in current ecosystem management. Part of the reason for this may be that such knowledge is inaccessible and difficult to be understood by outsiders such as western-trained conservationists and conventional ecosystem managers. Hence, accounting for the various worldviews and their corresponding cultural and spiritual values in the practice of ecosystem management forms a challenge for managers, policy-makers and local people alike” (Verschuuren 2007: 299).


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The most common view shared by institutionalised and indigenous spiritual traditions alike is that the world is a ‘multiple level hierarchic reality’, similar to that of Mircea Eliade’s hierophany. These relationships may be represented with a simplified model showing three different planes that overlap (cf. Fig. 10.3). It is a way of showing that management of sacred sites should consider all values and stakeholders involved. Therefore, it is necessary to acknowledge that in this world where many different worldviews coexist, each worldview may have its own hierarchy of values. Within these worldviews, different traditional cosmological sciences have evolved over time – often in harmony with nature – and many of which are still alive in different regions around the world (cf. Verschuuren 2007: 308; for full treatment cf. Verschuuren et al. 2010).

Concurrently this would require the inclusion of cultural criteria in ecosystem management and adoption of the concept of bio-cultural diversity, which would inevitably lead to the broadening of management objectives and the enhancement of related and facilitating policies. Simultaneously the concept of SNSs gains recognition because it enables managers and policy-makers to conceptualize and communicate complex spiritual-ecosystem relationships through intercultural learning and local environmental education, while at the same time developing conservation objectives (see Fig. 10.3).

Fig. 10.3. Main constituent values of Sacred Natural Sites, SNS. (after Verschuuren 2007: 308).


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The declaration on the Role of Sacred Natural Sites and Cultural Landscapes in the Conservation of Biological and Cultural Diversity emphasizes the importance of SNSs (Sacred Natural Sites):

1. Considering that SNSs and cultural landscapes are of vital importance for safeguarding cultural and biological diversity for present and future generations;

2. Recognizing that many SNSs have great significance for the spiritual well-being of pilgrims and local communities;

3. Noting the need to promote and safeguard cultural and biological diversity, particularly in the face of the homogenizing forces of globalization;

4. Bearing in mind that SNSs, cultural landscapes and traditional pilgrimage systems cannot be understood, conserved and managed without taking into account the cultures that have shaped them and continue to shape them today.

Embracing the concept of SNSs, it is evident that focal areas of spiritual values and cultural significance exist. However, it is of critical importance to recognize that in many cultures and traditional worldviews their importance generally extends to the wider landscape. Hence, the whole landscape can be permeated with spiritual significance (Verschuuren 2007: 308). This has immense scope in the study of pilgrimage landscapes as their sustainable existence, as already exemplified with getting enlisted 30 sacred sites in the UNESCO World Heritage Sites (till August 2012).

7. ‘Pilgrimage’ as way to Visioning Future

In its Sacred Land programme, Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC) has drawn together from the experiences of all the major faiths and has listed seven separate successive stages of pilgrimage. These are ideals, not rules, and they explore how any journey can become a pilgrimage (cf. Palmer and Finlay 2003, and Palmer 2012), and these may be implied for even Hindu pilgrimage places:

1. Mindfulness – involvement of deeper thinking about being a pilgrim rather than just travelling from one place to another place.

2. Journey – recognizing that journeys are entities in themselves and can – if you allow them – take on a life of their own through spiritual association; they are not just a means to an end.

3. Companionship – becoming aware of the people with whom one is travelling and why one is together, discovering what each of one


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brings as well as being honest about some of the tensions likely to be faced.

4. Illumination – understanding the story/mythology/local tales that has brought one there: and absorbs as one’s own story.

5. Immersion – losing one’s role as an observer and become part of the landscape and performances and part of someone else’s story.

6. Observation – looking and visualising actually at what one is passing through and how one feels as a part in an interrelated way.

7. Metamorphosis – ultimately recognize that at the end of the journey one should be a different person from the person who set out – the outer journey converges into inner journey, and for someone eternal journey.

If every business meeting, every trip anywhere, and every project were to use these ideas, they would be so much more effective and enjoyable and be helpful in making the cultural landscape a mosaic of co-sharing, loving and ever memorable. Let us make the places happy and peace loving sites through pilgrimage/s, but no way keeping conservative ideas, practices of superstitions and promoting fundamentalism.

The Kanvariya tradition of pilgrimage is recently spread all over India, inter-culturally mixing with the local traditions and making its own ways. In fact, it is more like a carnival replacing pilgrimage or spiritual journey in traditional sense. This is an example of “Public Hinduism” that has no essence of spirituality or service to humanity (cf. Zavos et al. 2012; see Chapter 6, pp. 224-229). This is hue and cry of public show through the mediation, mass chanting, shouting, representation of low class unity and identity, and construction of multiple forms of Hinduism in a variety of social and political contexts, and in the process establishes it as a dynamic and developing modern concept of practicing Hindu tradition. The majority of the participants are ignorant of the Sanskrit based literary (“Great”), and by doing this they feel to have success in getting others’ attention. This way it got attraction of politicians who participate, support and get success in getting support of the innocent masses through their well-known process of ‘emotional blackmailing’. This movement further encourages other groups to develop their own ‘pilgrimage processions’ and satisfy them by establishing their identity in this way. In spite of such negative images, there are many religious imageries that can enrich the lives of individuals and small communities and that can further be co-shared with others (cf. Feldhaus 2003: 222).

A recent study that examined 154 Kalpavasis (devout pilgrims that stay for a month in the sacred land) concerning the relationship of


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religiosity, happiness and satisfaction with life in the case of pilgrims in a very special cultural context of the Ardh-Kumbha Melā (held in Allahabad/ Prayag) during the Hindu month of Māgha, January-February 2007), concludes that pilgrims seek happiness and religious blessings and separate themselves from everyday worldly concerns. They spend time in the presence of God in a place of special significance and meaning, which gives them the desired happiness and satisfaction; and gender did not have a significant role on these relations (Maheshwari and Singh 2009). There is a need of followed-up studies to see how much they share and give to the society for spiritual power they received by such tedious austerities, and so-to-say to what extent they exploited the cultural and economic resources of the society! These questions would be serious issues when pilgrimage-tourism would be projected as ‘religious’ and ‘heritage’ resource for preservation, conservation, rational uses and above all their role in the growth of sustainable and Green Pilgrimage in future for world peace and harmony.

Thanks to the planning strategy for tourism in India that considers sustainable tourism development (STD) as a long-term approach having development aims to balance social and economic objectives with environmentally sound management. The STD as a strategic tool requires a process of planning and management that brings together a series of interests and stakeholders’ concerns in the form of planning and development through mass awakening, heritage consciousness and public participation. Therefore, keeping in view the importance and relevance of stakeholder cooperation for STD, and the residents being the key stakeholders, there is a need of perceptual surveys of attitudes and visions of the residents and stakeholders in a way to understand the impacts of the pilgrimage tourism from the insiders (Chauhan 2011).

The pilgrimage processions are such an organised and emotionally bonded march that they can easily be used for promoting sustainable religious-tourism development (SRTD). In the USA the nonviolent protest at the Nevada Test Site has been an example of constant procession since 1980s that has created a unique spiritual practice combining religious ritual and political action (cf. Butigan 2003). If such example exists in the West, naturally with care, conscience, command and control such pilgrimage processions can easily be used for SRTD. The annual or seasonal pilgrimages would help to protect the heritage value of the sacred sites and to preserve the serene and healing qualities of the surrounding environment together with personal transformation of people “on both sides of the fence” – at the sacred site itself and to the worldwide emergence of the concerns for conserving the sacred nature.


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Sacred landscape and spirit of place that affected the cultural ecology and also the symbolism, ritualisation, and interpretation of the sacred landscape and associated social spatialization, religious socialization, and interpreting cultural theory are to be taken as first step of documentation and understanding (Shinde 2011a). This would help planning the sacred landscape as base of religious tourism industry, which is largely centred on devotion-based informal activities in pilgrimage centres (2011b), and planning pilgrimage sites and related pilgrimages (Shinde 2012).

In India, while pilgrimage-tourism remains centred on devotion-based informal activities in pilgrimage centres, the two aspects within religious travel remain. Religious-tourism (dharma) and spiritual-tourism (moksha), while intertwined, have different infrastructural needs, require different services, and have different driving forces, organizers, managers and modes. In practical terms, understanding these differences is a necessary prerequisite for the effective development of strategies for sustainable development within the overall framework of India’s national development and within this religious institutions and charitable trusts have a vital role to play (Shinde 2011b). To promote the study of pilgrimages, issues like myth-making and evolution, demography, socio-economic, motivational, movement genre and experiences, spatial characteristics of the sites, sacred functions and functionaries, inter-relations among sacred centres, routes and their linkages and uses – all to be taken in the broad frame of “peregrinology” or metaphorically in Hindu terminology as “tirthalogy” (cf. Bhardwaj 1997: 17). Still there is enough scope to study basic geographic concepts of circulation, diffusion, and spatial hierarchy in the light of “integrated role” of pilgrimages in environmental management and mass awakening of the people that will satisfy the perpetual human quest (ibid.: 20).

The potential ground and future research in the geography of pilgrimages is envisioned in Wagner’s (1997: 299) statement that “Geographical principles illustrate the nature of pilgrimage, and pilgrim-age in turn illustrates important principles of geography. …. In a geographical sense, all pilgrimage sites are “resources”, available for action propitious to spiritual welfare.” Since every time a pilgrim searches and experiences the sprit of place inherent at a sacred place in a distinct and unique way through sacral processes in the frame of spatiality of time and temporality of space, the ‘place’ converges into ‘sacredscape’ is an act of geographical discovery. While each and every sacred sites and their appropriation with pilgrimage/s varied and distinctively marked, there also appear co-existence and mutual cohesiveness, therefore ‘pilgrimage’ exists as relative and reciprocal between human realm of consciousness and


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divine realm of super-consciousness. That is how the conceptualisation, meaning, manifestive reflection, experiences and glorification of place become the other attributes of concerns. Additionally the theological, psychological and the faith systems are also crucial in inspiring, motivating and sustaining the pilgrimage system (ibid.: 321). Wagner’s (ibid.: 321) viewpoints that – “the geographers’ oft-bemoaned lack of expertise in psychological, sociological, and abstract cultural explanation almost compels them to march in the forefront of a new movement toward more circumstantial models of explanation” – is now accepted as challenge and new ways of marching already started, however study of Hindu tradition of pilgrimage by geographers is still neglected.

Let us realise, reveal and march upon to have the understanding what Richardson’s (1997: v) exposed upon: “Pilgrimage brings together earth and humankind in a manner so distinctive as to make it stand out among the other endeavours we humans launch upon. Perhaps only with pilgrimages do spirituality and earthiness combine in such intriguing fashions. On the other hand, there is the pilgrim’s quest for an extramundane revelation.”

With the increasing interest and appealing conviction the nature theology and its sacral power are receiving strong consensus for study, understanding and global conscience in making the humanity more humane, pleasant and happy. That is how pilgrimage linking sacred geography with inclination towards feminine divine has been accepted so simply. Moreover this consciousness is also on the line of post-modernist thought where meaning, metaphor and milieus are taken as common vision to see the other half that has been oppressed and depressed in history.

In terms of Jungian psychology, pilgrimage is “a march from the inner to the outer in search of understanding the universal expositions of interconnectedness between the physical realm of human consciousness and the divine realm of super-consciousness” (Singh 2003: 16). It abides by the archetypal human motivation to contemplate the self within the grander context of nature and the divine. Similarly, following Jungian approach to religion (Jung 1933), Cousineau (1998) interprets spiritual journeys as symbolic representations of subjective inner realities, and his “seven-stages to a pilgrimage” may also be taken for development of sustainable religious tourism in coming future, viz.:

The Longing: The quest in continuity from the Past ― what through the voice of Upanishad, Juan Mascaro (1965: 20) says: “The greatest prayers of men have always been prayers for light and love”. It is a quest for seeking and searching for an understanding of interconnections between “earthly” and “spiritual” realms.


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The Call: Music of Creation ― every pilgrimage begins with a call, a moment or inspiration that triggers the journey. Responding to the events and encounters of their lives, pilgrims journey towards sacred centres in order to pay homage, to fill a vow, to do penance, or to be rejuvenated spiritually (Cousineau 1998: 14).

Departure: Commitment to Proceed ― through which ‘each individual learns what he or she must do to seek his or her piety and higher level being’. Thus, every step on the pilgrim’s journey depends on the pilgrim him or herself, and what calls he or she decides to follow.

The Pilgrim’s Way: Rituals ― established by the intentions and actions of the pilgrim, involving the active participation in rituals that play a vital within sacredscapes, “places of spiritual transformation”. Rightly said Cousineau (1998: 120) that “Pilgrimage, like art and poetry, is at every station concerned with meaning”. The metonymy of the term “pilgrimage” for a quest for truth recalls a verse from the Kāshi Khanda (IV.i.6.30) of the Skanda Purāna: “Truth, forgiveness, control of senses, kindness to all living beings and simplicity are tirthas.”

The Labyrinth: Om ― “the purpose of the labyrinthine journey is exactly an initiation to a higher plane of consciousness,” writes Cousineau (1998: 134). Vedic traditions refer that ‘all the activities and the order of this world are generated and harmoniously regulated through the origin and vibration of an omnipresent subliminal sound, Om’.

Arrival: The Source ― although pilgrims may have certain expectations from visiting a tirtha, such as gaining entry into a temple or touching a relic, the ultimate goal of a pilgrimage is to “participate in the flow of energy between two worlds” (Cousineau 1998: 172). Says the Kāshi Khanda (IV.i.6.41), “he who takes his holy bath in the mental holy spot that is cleaned with perfect knowledge, that has mediation for its waters and that removes the dirt of attachment and hatred, attains the greatest goal”.

Bringing Back the Boon: Recollection ― Says the Kāshi Khanda (IV.i.6.54), “a person who has no faith, a sinful soul, an atheist, one who is constantly in doubt and one who is too much a rationalist – these five never attain the benefit of pilgrimages to holy spots”. The boon that the pilgrim brings back from the journey is the story, “an insight from our spiritual life, a glimpse of the wisdom traditions of a radically different culture, a shiver of compassion, an increment of knowledge” (Cousineau 1998: 218). An young western pilgrim-student expresses her feelings, “Just as the river absorbs the pilgrim’s physical remains as he or she bathes in her waters, allowing him to “become part of an eternal current that constantly renews itself” (Alter 2001: 12), upon arrival at the


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pilgrim’s port of call, the pilgrim is “renewed” through a “sacred” encounter” (Bataineh 2011: 28).

Of course, looking at pilgrimage studies through different lenses (psychological, experiential-ethnographic, anthropological, art historical, economic, historical, geographical, etc) will shed light on a wide range of different perspectives on the topic, and allow for more specific studies, but overall a holistic frame of multidisciplinary approach would be more appropriate. It would be a danger if the western juxtapositions to be imposed upon such a historically rich culture and tradition of Hindu pilgrimages, nevertheless it seems worthwhile to evaluate the complexity of pilgrimage systems through as many lenses as possible in order to gain a holistic image of their role in functioning and maintaining ordering in a culture or society like India. There are overlaps between Indian existential and mystical traditions, and psychoanalysis, but no way one can replace other; in fact several times they overlap (cf. Akhtar 2005). For example, an exploration of the history of pilgrimage and an analysis of how this relates to contemporary pilgrimage may add a more contextual layer to this study (cf. Bataineh 2011: 37).

8. Marching on the pathway to Green pilgrimage

Pilgrimage is a prayer in search of peace, love, courage, human relations and singing together with other the song of Mother Nature. This results into creation, vision and co-sharing. There is no end, there is no final destination, and it is just journey, journey and journey without the sense of beginning. Everything sacred moves into circle, but it get transformed in the passage of time in spiral, where nexus is known but journey always proceeds (Cousineau 1998). Let us have inspiration from the discourses between Zi Zhang and Confucius that aptly applies to pilgrimage (Cousineau 1998: 126):

Practice the act of attention and listening.

Practice renewing yourself everyday.

Practice meandering toward the centre of every place.

Practice the ritual of reading sacred texts.

Practice gratitude and praise-singing.

Let us share the feelings of a great pilgrim and pilgrimage scholar Turnball (1992: 274), who says “the quest for society is one and the same thing as the quest for the self, which for some of us is also the quest for the Sacred that ultimately unites us all” – reflecting in love and compassion.


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According to the Atharva Veda (17.4.7) one can get relief from all the sufferings the moment s/he reaches in the territory of sacredscape. In the cosmogonic frame of sanctifying environment, the whole India is portrayed as sacredscape and symbolized as Mother (Bhārata Mātā) consisting of holy spots (pithas) as representative of her body (see Chapter 3). The Yajur Veda (10.17.1), a text of the 10th century BCE says:

I pray for peace to pervade all the worlds; I pray for peace in the Sky and on the Earth;

Peace in the cooling water; peace in healing herbs; The plants and forests are peace-giving;

There be harmony in the celestial objects; Also peace in perfection of knowledge;

Peace among everything in the universe; Peace pervades everywhere and for everyone.

May that real peace come to us! I pray for that very peace!”

Also, let us co-share and understand the interconnectedness of Mother Earth and the Divine man through pilgrimage, and pray:

From the falseness lead me to the truth, From the darkness lead me to light,

And from death lead me to immortality; Oṁ (‘the universal sound of God’),

Let there be Peace, Peace and only Peace.

“Asato mā sad gamaya/

Tamaso mā jyotir gamaya,

Mrityur mā amritam gamaya; Om Shānti Shānti Shāntih”

― as in the Brihadāranyak Upanishad (1.3.27-28).

Let the ecological frame of pilgrimage come across the tidy wall of seducing history and encountering socio-cultural contestation and make the world of happy, harmonious and peaceful places and spaces where variety of flowers bloom in the different fields and corners, borders and peripheries, routes and destinations, with distinct, beautiful and soothing fragrances that make environment congenial and spiritual. Think universally, see globally, act locally but insightfully. This is an appeal for cosmic vision, global humanism, and self-realisation – that altogether will pave the path of lifeways based on co-existentiality, called Kyosei in Japan (Singh 2011d: 90). Pilgrimage and pilgrim places also need be attuned with this system what Green Pilgrimage paradigm now being accepted


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through GPN initiatives expanding its horizon in the frame of environmental planning and ecological sensitivity. Shinde’s remarks (2011c: 143) is a worth consideration in this context: “As cultural constructs, they are ever evolving and therefore it is of little value to keep romanticising about the past landscapes or judge them within the binaries of sacred and profane. It is necessary to recognize that as traditional pilgrimage metamorphoses into religious tourism, the sacred landscape also tends to become a tourist landscape. This realisation is of utmost importance because of the negative ecological implications that accompany contemporary patterns of travel in sacred landscapes”. I feel that the bridging between dharma (moral duty) and karma (phenomenal action) was once nucleus of Hinduism, but now loosened its ties in the current era of globalisation and materialistic world. Let us hope that in time Hinduism, with its inherent virtues of tolerance, ethical values, and concept of dharma linked to the four ends of life (economic gain, pleasure, religious duty, and liberation), will resuscitate itself and rise from own ashes like the phoenix and that one of the world’s oldest religions will live on and present a model of green and sustainable world (Singh 2013).

On the occasion of getting three holy cities of Gujarat (western India), viz. Dvaraka, Somnath and Ambaji nominated to the Green Pilgrimage Network initiative (GPN) on 25 February 2012, the chief minister, Mr. Narendra Modi has highlighted some of the green projects already initiated in the state of Gujarat, under the umbrella of the Yatra Dham Vikas Board that ensures that environmental issues are essentially be addressed at every level of policy, especially in the context of local faith and traditional culture. Additionally, innovative concepts such as solar parks and tree planting are being implemented in each of these three cities and could be models for other cities in India and elsewhere. “Our pilgrim cities will be models of care and respect for the environment that will showcase environmentally sound technologies and practices and in doing so pilgrims, local officials, faith leaders and millions of faithful around the world will be inspired to be part of an unprecedented collaboration to combat climate change and loss of biodiversity,” Mr. Modi said. Gujarat has already paved the model path for green initiatives and faith-based sustainable environment development with the collaboration of ARC. Let us hope that other pilgrim cities would join the hands, like Rishikesh, Haridvar, Vishakhapatnam, Ajmer-Puskar, Kolkata, Vrindavan, Ujjain, Nasik, Allahabad are in the process of nomination in the GPN initiatives. If we want to keep alive, survive and continue the salvific power of pilgrim places, we should minimise human greed and awaken ourselves through changes in our lifestyles and deeper quest of realisation.


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The Author

Contact & Corresponding Address:

Prof. Dr. RANA P. B. SINGH Professor of Cultural Geography & Heritage Studies,

Banaras Hindu University # New F - 7, Jodhpur Colony; B.H.U.,

Varanasi, UP 221005. INDIA. Tel: (+091)-542-2575-843. Cell: (+91-0)- 9838 119474.

Email: [email protected] ; [email protected]

§ Rana P.B. Singh [born: 15 Dec. 1950], M.A. 1971, Ph.D. 1974, F.J.F. (Japan) 1980, F.A.A.I. (Italy) 2010, Professor of Cultural Geography & Heritage Studies at Banaras Hindu University since January 1999, has been involved in studying, performing and promoting the heritage planning, sacred geography & cultural astronomy, pilgrimage studies and goddess landscapes in the Varanasi region for the last four decades, as consultant, project director, collaborator and organiser. He is also the Member, UNESCO Network of Indian Cities of Living Heritage (- representing Varanasi), since 2005. As visiting scholar on these topics he has given lectures and seminars at various centres in Australia, Austria, Belgium, China PR, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, USA (& Hawaii), USSR. His publications include over 225 papers and 41 books on these subjects, including Banaras (Varanasi), Cosmic Order, Sacred City,

Hindu Traditions (1993), Environmental Ethics (1993), The Spirit and Power

of Place (1994), Banaras Region: A Spiritual & Cultural Guide (2002, with P.S. Rana), Towards pilgrimage Archetypes: Panchakroshi Yatra of Kashi (2002), Where the Buddha Walked (2003), The Cultural Landscape and the

Lifeworld: The Literary Images of Banaras (2004), Banaras, the City

Revealed (2005, with George Michell), Banaras, the Heritage City:

Geography, History, Bibliography (2009), and the eight books under ‘Planet Earth & Cultural Understanding Series’: ‒ five from Cambridge Scholars Publishing UK: Uprooting Geographic Thoughts in India (2009), Geographical Thoughts in India: Snapshots and Vision for the 21

st Century

(2009), Cosmic Order & Cultural Astronomy (2009), Banaras, Making of

India’s Heritage City (2009), Sacred Geography of Goddesses in South Asia (2010), and ‒ three from Shubhi Publications (New Delhi): Heritagescapes

and Cultural Landscapes (2011), Sacredscapes and Pilgrimage Systems (2011), Holy Places and Pilgrimages: Essays on India (2011), and Hindu

Tradition of Pilgrimage: Sacred Space and System (2013). Presently he is working on a book, Kashi & Cosmos: Sacred Geography and Ritualscape of

Banaras.

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