International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

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Volume 12, Issue 4 (2025)Read More

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Academic Paper

21 January 2025

The Kyoto Trail: Sacred Sites on a Pseudo-Pilgrimage

Wayne Arnold, John Shultz

How should we conceive of a secular walking trail that traverses a country’s premier holy sites in and around its spiritual capital? The Kyoto Trail is something of an oddity in comparison to the plentiful sacred walking paths throughout Japan. The 84-kilometer circuit probes and circumambulates the city of Kyoto via a horseshoe-like arc. It links an array of holy mountains with lush realms of nature and connects dozens of famous pilgrimage locations of exceptionally varied descriptions. However, while the trail sometimes overlaps with medieval pilgrimage routes, it is a relatively new course, established in the early 1990s through initiatives by the City of Kyoto and several allied partners. This paper looks carefully at the trajectory of the footpath to consider (1) how the trail itself is a fantastic primer of Japanese religion and pilgrimage culture and (2) what language and theoretical orientations might be best employed to analyse that which looks like pilgrimage, but is not, in fact, pilgrimage.

Academic Paper

21 January 2025

A Spiritual Pilgrimage to a Celtic Homeland: Searching and Internalising in Grief from Stone to Sea. A Collaborative Autoethnography

Laura Lewis, Eunice Gorman

This collaborative autoethnography poses the research question; How does one’s experience of grief and anticipatory grief mobilise pilgrimage journeys to ancestral homelands? Two theoretical constructs found in the academic literature related to grief and loss are explored for their influence on both authors’ respective pilgrimage journeys to the Celtic ancestral homeland of their deceased and ‘vanishing’ fathers in Wales and Ireland. The theoretical constructs explored through an extensive review of paternal personal documents of one author (Laura), revealed thematic ideas that could be best understood through an elaboration of the academic literature(s) that inform understandings of grief and bereavement. These being: 1) Searching for the deceased or ‘vanishing’ other in grief, and 2) The process of internalising those who are no longer with us. For both authors these two conceptual understandings were instrumental in mobilising pilgrimage journeys to Celtic paternal homelands. For myself (Laura), encounters with Aberystwyth University, St David’s Cathedral and small chapels in the Welsh countryside where ancestral relations were interred were organised more than two decades after the death of my father. For Eunice, a pilgrimage journey to Ireland decades earlier with her living, recently diagnosed (Alzheimer’s disease) but ‘vanishing’ elderly father was similarly shaped by these two theoretical considerations in grief / anticipatory grief. Further expansion of these ideas allows for a deeper understanding of the personal and generalisable motivations that influenced the mobilisation of two separate and distinct pilgrimages to the Celtic ancestral homelands of the authors’ beloved fathers.

Current Articles

Academic Paper21 January 2025

The Kyoto Trail: Sacred Sites on a Pseudo-Pilgrimage

Wayne Arnold, John Shultz

Academic Paper21 January 2025

A Spiritual Pilgrimage to a Celtic Homeland: Searching and Internalising in Grief from Stone to Sea. A Collaborative Autoethnography

Laura Lewis, Eunice Gorman

Academic Paper21 January 2025

Khuralgarh Sahib: A Pilgrimage Destination for Adi Dharm Followers

Anna Bochkovskaya

In the 1920s, a protest movement named Ad(i) Dhar(a)m, or Original Religion, emerged in the British province of Punjab with the aim of establishing a religious identity for the untouchable castes and low-caste people, basically from the Sikh community. The Adi Dharmis venerated Sant (Saint) Ravidas, a medieval mystic poet, a Chamar or tanner by origin. The list of their gurus also included Maharishi Valmiki, the legendary first poet — Adi Kavi, or the author of Ramayana, as well as two low-caste Bhakti poets — Kabir and Namdev. The colonial Census of 1931 listed Adi Dharm as a new religion boasting over 420,000 followers; in subsequent censuses, Adi Dharm was listed as a caste. By the mid-1940s, the protest movement subsided, but in the 1970s it came back to life mainly due to the efforts of Punjabi diaspora. Its revival was also linked to the socio-political activities of Dalits (the downtrodden) in India, especially in Punjab where Scheduled Castes account for over 30 percent of the population nowadays. The current phase of the Adi Dharm history is associated with the activities of the All-India Adi Dharm Mission; its main temple is located in at foothills of the Himalayas in the village of Kharali in the district Hoshiarpur, Punjab. This paper presents a brief overview of the Adi Dharm history and highlights the role of the Khuralgarh Sahib pilgrimage site in maintaining and boosting the Adi Dharm religious identity in present-day Punjab and beyond.

Academic Paper21 January 2025

A Sacred Mountain and Storytelling about Pilgrimage: Contemporary Religious Practice of Incense Associations at Mount Tai

Ziqi Xuan

As a form of pilgrimage in China, the Chaoshan jinxiang (朝山進香, ‘offering incense towards the mountain’), is a ritual that has garnered significant academic attention. However, research on contemporary incense offering practices remains inadequate. Grounded in fieldwork conducted from September 2023 to January 2024, this paper delves into the pilgrimage practices of local incense associations at Mount Tai, a historical site steeped in profound religious significance for centuries. Within the framework of collective memory studies, the paper posits that the contemporary practices of incense offering used to connect with spiritual beings during the pilgrimage to Mount Tai highlight a shift towards storytelling and preserving oral traditions. Specifically, while spirit mediums are marginalised and deemed superstitious by both Daoist priests and the state, they assert their influence through storytelling and often contend with religious and governmental entities over the narrative authority of this sacred site. In circumstances where traditional rituals and written documentation are discouraged, storytelling emerges as the paramount method for transmitting collective memory. By constructing specific narratives within defined spaces, the storytellers and stories forge a profound connection with the essence of this location. Consequently, the practices at Mount Tai exemplify the adaptability and flexibility of storytelling and embodied rituals in shaping collective memory.

Academic Paper21 January 2025

Women Walking: Experiences of Sacred Time on Mexican Guadalupan Pilgrimage

Sadie Yates

Each July, 60,000 Catholic pilgrims walk from their home state of Querétaro, Mexico, to the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe in Mexico City, a journey totaling 17 days and 450 km. Roughly 25,000 of these pilgrims are women, who walk in their own group, one day ahead of the men (Catholic News Agency, 2018). The goal of this pilgrimage is to see the Virgin of Guadalupe, a strong symbol of Catholic and Mexican identity since her original appearance to an indigenous peasant man in 1531. Yet, for many of these women pilgrims, the pilgrimage process is just as important as the end. For them, the pilgrimage provides an experience of sacred time: a time of sisterhood and personal freedom, prayer and devotion, thanksgiving, travel, encountering different cultures within one’s country, upholding and challenging gender norms, and building relationships, among other things. During the summer of 2023, I spent a month in Mexico researching this pilgrimage and walking with the women’s pilgrimage group from Querétaro to Mexico City. We journeyed from remote mountains to urban centers, benefiting from the hospitality of many local communities along the way as well as from the presence of governmental support in the form of military, police, and medical escorts. Drawing upon my work as an ethnographer and theologian and my reflections as a fellow pilgrim, I will address the following questions in my paper: What makes the time of pilgrimage sacred for these women? How do experiences of community and personal freedom— two key themes that arose in interviews—affect their notions of sacred time? And how does this sacred time affect their experiences of time for the rest of the year?

Academic Paper21 January 2025

liminality, St. Clare of Assisi, transformation, ritual, Porta Moiano

Alexandria Egler, John Kruse

During the late hours of Palm Sunday in 1209, Clare Offreduccio embarked on a pilgrimage that would come to define her as a leader and role model for women. In an act of faith and bravery, St. Clare of Assisi abandoned her life as a noble and all of the security, power, and privilege that came with it. In so doing, she denied the marriage plans her family had for her that would advance their political, social, and economic future. By exiting her home through the door of death and then the city of Assisi through one of the fortified gates, Clare moved through physical spaces that night, no doubt experiencing fear, disorientation ambiguity, elation, and deep faith. For Clare, this was a liminal experience during which she left behind all that mattered in her life in order to embrace the joy and newness of a life devoted to Christ. As Clare passed through the Porta Moiano, she entered a moment of liminality in which she was neither her old self nor the person she was to become. She stood in a space in which she lacked control and yet a space that offered her great possibilities. Clare’s exit from the fortified protection of the walls of Assisi formed and shaped a different person, a woman who endured adversity and the opposition of cardinals and popes with patience and wisdom. By entering into Clare’s own journey through reflection and the Clare Departure Ritual, pilgrims can gain insight into how to navigate and draw the most from the liminal moments of their own lives.

Academic Paper21 January 2025

Rebuilding Possible: Pilgrimage and Learned Helplessness

Christianna Soumakis

Learned helplessness is a belief in one’s own powerlessness which may develop after repeated exposure to stressful situations ranging from domestic abuse to public education. It is associated with pessimism, passivity in the face of obstacles, and depression. Pilgrimage, conversely, is associated with agency — striking out on one’s own in search of physical, emotional, cognitive, and / or spiritual transformation. Combining psychological literature with my personal experience as a pilgrim, special education student, artist, art facilitator for people with special needs, and professor, I argue that walking pilgrimages such as the Camino de Santiago offer a comprehensive opportunity to actively reconstruct obsolete modes of self-perception and build belief in one’s own efficacy on the journey from helplessness to self-efficacy and hope. I explore how I became mired in learned helplessness as a child, how the ensuing behavior patterns imposed a ‘low ceiling’ on what I thought I could hope for in life, and how key experiences connected with pilgrimage led me to radically reconstruct what I believe is possible for myself and others. Finally, I ask how, as a teacher and art facilitator, I and others might use pilgrimage and experiences like it to ‘punch a hole in the low ceiling’ for those we support in the special needs community and beyond.

Most Popular Articles

Academic Paper

14 November 2014

The Effects of Terrorism on the Travel and Tourism Industry

David Baker

The impact of terrorism on the travel and tourism industry can be enormous. It can lead to unemployment, homelessness, deflation, and many other social and economic ills. The contribution of tourism for many countries is so great that any downturn in the industry is a cause of major concern for many governments. The repercussions are left in many other industries associated with tourism like airlines, hotels, restaurants and shops that cater to the tourists and allied services. Terrorism is an enigmatic and compelling phenomenon, and its relationship with tourism is complex and multifaceted. This paper aims to clarify this relationship and examines the relationship between selected factors and tourists’ decision-making process for destination choice. Tourists’ risk perception associated with terrorism served as a basis for the analysis.

Editorial

27 February 2018

The Importance of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage: reflecting on definitions, motives and data

Kevin Griffin, Razaq Raj

This discussion paper explores the topic of religious tourism and pilgrimage, examining it from a tourism industry perspective, reflecting on definitions, motivations and scale of the ‘product’ as reported at a global level. Mindful of the fact that international records of religious tourism are scant to say the least, this is an attempt to bring together definitions, classifications and data which come from a variety of sources. The paper draws together understandings from different religious traditions, presenting data and motivations on a variety of pilgrimage types. As the paper demonstrates, this ‘niche’ product is indeed enormous, and if industry projections are correct, is set to become an even more important element of international travel and tourism.

Academic Paper

29 October 2016

The Role of Religious Tourism in Creating Destination Image: The Case of Konya Museum

Murat KOCYİGİT

The image of a destination comprises perceptions acquired by individuals, oriented to the specifications of a destination. Touristic destinations are, in order to be able to attract more tourists in the competition environment, in charge of developing marketing efforts, making the best of positioning their products and services together with their economic, cultural and social dimensions in the intelligence of tourists. In this direction, the aim of this study is to determine the destination image perceived by tourists who travel with the purpose of religious tourism when they visit to Konya Museum (Mawlana Jalaladdin Rumi). The data for the study were obtained by surveying visitors to Konya Mawlana Museum. In the study, the relationships between the demographic data of the visitors and the destination images that they perceived were studied. The findings suggest that most respondents now use social media to seek information about the Museum. Via these channels they are assured of high levels of satisfaction based on their expectations. In addition, respondents receive and expect a spiritual dimension to their satisfaction.

Academic Paper

17 March 2022

Socio-cultural and Economic Impacts of Religious Festivals on Sustainable Local Community Livelihoods in Kerala: The Case of Palakkad

Dr. Bindu V T Nair, Aiswarya N

Festivals depict the heritage, culture, and traditions of a particular region. They create a state of exhilaration and enthusiasm. Kerala is a state in southwest India with its own distinct culture and traditions. The state is also known for its religious pluralism. This study attempts to understand the perceived impact of religious festivals on the local community livelihoods in Palakkad, a district in central Kerala. Twelve temples in which religious festivals are held annually, with attendance in the range of thousands, were selected. The selected temples are famous for hosting specific religious festivals which attract a large number of visitors, from within and beyond the region. Using a sample of 420 community members living around these temples, this study examined how the socio-cultural and economic impacts of these religious festivals are perceived by the community. The findings show that there is a statistically significant relationship between the perceived socio-cultural and economic impacts of festivals on local communities. The celebration of local values and distinctiveness were evident in these religious festivals. The local community considers these festivals as part of their community identity and as offering impetus for annual family and community reunions.

Academic Paper

4 May 2018

Pilgrimage-Tourism: Common Themes in Different Religions

Noga Collins-Kreiner

The paper discusses common themes in different religions regarding pilgrimage-tourism and has four main goals. First, it shows that the boundaries between pilgrimage and tourism have become blurred. Second, it characterises the different changes that have taken place in pilgrimage research in recent years. Third, it re-examines three different pilgrimage case-studies in an effort to draw conclusions pertaining to the ‘pilgrimagetourism nexus’; and fourth, it highlights discrepancies between the ‘old’ paradigm, predicated on the assumption that religious elements lie at the core of pilgrimage, and the results of more recent research on secular models of travel, highlighting alternative and complementary approaches to explain the shifting boundaries between tourists and pilgrims. The three case-studies discussed offer evidence that both the study and the phenomena of pilgrimage in the twenty-first century are changing. This comes along with the increasing blurring of pilgrimage, tourism, and secular tourism, and the fading differences between the desires of people to search for new meaning. These developments can be observed by doing away with distinctions that were accepted in the past, and a growing inability to distinguish between the different perceptions and research areas, which are becoming increasingly integrated.

Academic Paper

8 February 2016

Conceptualizing Mosque Tourism: A central feature of Islamic and Religious Tourism.

Kristel Kessler

The increasing size of the worldwide Muslim population and the modernization of Arab countries on the international scene reinforce the rising trend of Islamic Tourism. Indeed, Islamic Tourism has gained much interest in recent years and is considered to be a very promising niche in the near future. This fairly new concept can simply be defined as intra-Muslim and intra-Arab tourism and considering Muslim countries are an emerging tourism market, this is a product with significant economic potential. It is also viewed as tourism that respects Islamic religious principles and is consequently referred to as “Halal Tourism”. In addition, it includes tourists travelling for religious purposes such as those performing the Islamic pilgrimage of Hajj. Consequently, defining Islamic Tourism is a complex matter, that can be broad or narrow, as it can de defined by its type of tourist, its place of travel, its purpose of travel and way of travel. Furthermore, it is important not to omit the cultural aspects of Islamic tourism that this paper will primarily focus on; the paper considers Islamic cultural tourism sites and attractions as another element of this trend, referring to Islamic tourism in its choice of tourist activities. Indeed, Islamic and Arabic culture, heritage and history are displayed and interpreted in order to allow the visitor to discover and understand Muslims, their beliefs and way of life while facilitating their leisurely entertainment and satisfying their tourist curiosity. In this context, this papers offers to define the concept of Mosque Tourism, a term which is inexistent in the current academic literature as well as to propose a justification of its importance as a tourist activity and a central element of Islamic tourism that should be focused on to promote a sustainable growth of this new tourist trend. Indeed, the purpose of this paper is to describe and define Islamic Tourism by reviewing the tourism literature in order to give a meaning to the term Mosque Tourism, which is one of the most important activities undertaken by Muslim tourists as a religious practice as well as a tourist activity while travelling.