“Weasternization” of the West
Kumbh Mela as a Pilgrimage Place For Spiritual Seekers from the West
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v44i2.26351Keywords:
Pilgrimage, Western spiritual seekers, Easternization, HinduismAbstract
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.
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Badone, Ellen, and Sharon R. Roseman. 2004. Intersecting Journeys: The Anthropology of Pilgrimage and Tourism. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Bhabha, H. K. 1994. The Location of Culture. London: Rout- ledge.
Bhardwaj, Surinder Mohan. 1973. Hindu Places of Pilgrim- age in India: A Study in Cultural Geography. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bauman, Zygmunt. 2000. Liquid Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Bakkens, Tore and Tor Hermes, eds. 2003. Autopoietic Or- ganization Theory. Drawing on Niklas Luhmann’s Social Systems Perspective. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Busi- ness School Press.
Burke, Peter. 2008. What is Cultural History? Cambridge: Polity Press.
Campbell, Colin. 2007. The Easternization of the West: A Thematic Account of Cultural Change in the Modern Era. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Davidson, Linda Kay, and David Martin Gitlitz. 2002. Pil- grimage: From the Ganges to Graceland: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-Clio.
Dubey, D. P. 2001. Praya?ga, the Site of Kumbha Mela?: In Tem- poral and Traditional Space. New Delhi: Aryan Books In- ternational.
Eck, Diana L. 2012. India. A Sacred Geography. New York: Harmony Books.
Fukunaga, Masaaki, and Rana P. B. Singh. 2000. ”Perform- ing Pilgrimage and Pilgrimage-Tourism: An Experi- ence of the Pancakroshi? Ya?tra? Varanasi.” In Pilgrimage Studies: The Power of Sacred Places, edited by D. P. Dubey. 185–205. Allahabad: Society of Pilgrimage Studies.
Gupta, Subhadra Sen. 2001. Tirtha: Holy Pilgrim Centres of the Hindus: Saptapuri and Chaar Dhaam. Kolkata: Rupa & Co.
Heelas, Paul. 2008. Spiritualities of Life. Oxford: Blackwell. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9781444301106.
Heelas, Paul, and Linda Woodhead. 2005. The Spiritual Revolution: Why Religion Is Giving Way to Spirituality. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Jacobsen, Knut A. 2013. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: Sal- vific Space. London: Routledge.
Lynch, Gordon. 2007. The New Spirituality: An Introduction to Progressive Belief in the Twenty-first Century. London: I. B. Tauris.
MacLean, Kama. 2008. Pilgrimage and Power: The Kumbh Mela in Allahabad, 1765–1954. Oxford: Oxford Univer- sity Press.
———. 2009. ”Seing, Being Seen, and not Being Seen. Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Layers of Looking at the Kumbh Mela.” Crosscurrents 59: 319–49. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-3881.2009.00082.x.
McGuire, Merith, B. 2008. ”Toward a Sociology of Spiritual- ity: Individual Religion in Social/Historical Context.” In The Centrality of Religion in Social Life, edited by Ei- leen Barker, 215–32. Aldershot: Ashgate.
Morinis, E. Alan. 1984. Pilgrimage in the Hindu Tradition: A Case Study of West Bengal. New York: Oxford Univer- sity Press, 1984.
Raj, Razaq and Nigel P. Morpeth. 2007. Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Festivals. Wallingford: CABI. doi: http:// dx.doi.org/10.1079/9781845932251.0000.
Singleton, Mark. 2010. Yoga Body. The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/978019539535 8.001.0001.
Urban, Hugh B. 2003. Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics and Pow- er in the Study of Religion. Berkeley: University of Cal- ifornia Press. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/califor- nia/9780520230620.001.0001.
Urry, John. 1992. ”The Tourist Gaze ’Revisited,’” Ameri- can Behavioral Scientist 36: 172–86. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/0002764292036002005
Published
2015-07-14
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Fibiger, M. (2015). “Weasternization” of the West: Kumbh Mela as a Pilgrimage Place For Spiritual Seekers from the West. Bulletin for the Study of Religion, 44(2), 15-21. https://doi.org/10.1558/bsor.v44i2.26351
