Sacred Sites and Sacred Stories Across Cultures

This book offers global perspectives from Mediterranean, Asian, Australian, and American cultures on sacred sites and their related stories in regional history. Contemporary society witnesses many travelers visiting sacred sites (temples, mountains, castles, churches, houses) throughout the world. These visits often involve discovery of new historical facts through the origin stories of the associated tribe, region, or nation. The transmission of oral tradition and myth carries on the significant meaning of those religious sites. This volume unveils multi-angle perspectives of symbolic and mystical places. The contributors describe the religio-political experiences of each regional case, and analyze the religiosity of local people as a lens through which readers can re-examine the concept of iconography, syncretism, and materialism. In addition, contributors interpret the growth of new religions as the alternative perspectives of anti-traditional religions. This new approach offerssignificant insight into comprehending the practical agony and sorrow of regional people in the context of contemporary history.

Autorentext

David W. Kim is Associate Professor of Asian History at Kookmin University, Seoul, and a Visiting Fellow at the School of History, Australian National University, Canberra.

Inhalt

1. IntroductionPart One: Visual Arts and Architecture2. Traces of Places: Sacred Sites in Miniature on Minoan Gold Rings.3. Reimagining Sacrosanct Sites in the Graphic Art of Kno Fumiyo.4. Archaeology of a Coral Sea Ceremonial Pathway Duncan Wright, Alo Tapim, and James Zaro.5. Art and Cultural Heritage of Mahabharata and Ramayana: A View through the Terracotta Temples of Bishnupur, West Bengal.Part Two: Pilgrimage and Tourism (Asia and New Age)6. Jiba: The Sacred Place of Tenrikyo?.7. Blurred Boundaries between Secular Memory and Sacred Space in Religious Tourism: Example of Two New Religions, the Mormon and Unification Faiths.8. The Spiritual in the Mundane: The Poetry of the Shikoku O-Henro Pilgrimage.Part Three: Competition and Contestation9.Competition and Contestation at a Hindu-Muslim Shrine: The Case of the Sant Laldas in Mewat, North India.10. Maitreya's Boundless Gaze: The Religious Implications of Maitreya Megas-Statues.Part Four: Theory and Method11. Contemporary Creations and Re-cognitions of Sacred Sites.12. Is Sacred Site Discovered? Or Created?: A Case Study of Daesoon Jinrihoe.13. Transformation of Admiral to the Sainthood and Sacred Stories of Chinese Sanctum Sanctorum from Malabar Coast.