Pilgrims and Travellers in Search of the Holy

The Editor: René Gothóni is Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Helsinki, a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and a life member of the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. He is also President of the Finnish Society of Friends of Mount Athos. His publications include Attitudes and Interpretations in Comparative Religion (2000) and The Unknown Pilgrim (2006), and he edited How to do Comparative Religion (2005) and The Monastic Magnet. Roads to and from Mount Athos (with G. Speake, 2008).

Contents: René Gothóni: Introduction - René Gothóni: Pilgrimage: Three Theoretical Interpretations - Simon Coleman: Pilgrimage and the Blessings of Place-making: Reflections on and beyond the Anthropology of Pilgrimage - Jakob Christensson: In Search of Learning and Holiness: Scandinavians Going Abroad from the Middle Ages to the Present - Mari-Johanna Rahkala: In the Sphere of the Holy: Pilgrimage to a Contemporary Greek Convent - Alexandre I. Andreyev: St Petersburg Datsan: The Northernmost Buddhist Temple in Europe - Klaus Karttunen: Pilgrimage as Business in Traditional India - Riikka Uuksulainen: Pouring Water on Siva: The Case of Tarakeswar Pilgrims - Michael Pye: The Way is the Goal: Buddhist Circulatory Pilgrimage in Japan with Special Reference to Selected Artefacts - Wuqi Chenaktsang: Traditional Tibetan Pilgrimage and the Eight Holy Sites of Rebgong - Juha A. Janhunen: A Dead Man's Pilgrimage: The Legend of the Wutun People in Amdo - Juha Komppa: Tourism, Pilgrimage and the Fluidity of Material Culture in Labrang/Xiahe - Ihundrub Dorji: Tibetan Buddhist Nuns: Damcho Pema's Prostrating Pilgrimage to Lhasa - Mitra Härkönen: Some Remarks on Understanding the Motives of Tibetan Nuns.

"Ce recueil d'études locales enrichit notre connaissance d'un phénomène aussi divers que répandu et toujours bien vivant." (J. Scheuer, Nouvelle Revue Théologique)