Steven Heine
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195386202
- eISBN:
- 9780199918362
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195386202.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Many observers have commented on what appears to be a fundamental contradiction concerning the ways that traditional religions function in Japan. On the one hand, the presence of temples and shrines ...
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Many observers have commented on what appears to be a fundamental contradiction concerning the ways that traditional religions function in Japan. On the one hand, the presence of temples and shrines is pervasive throughout most countryside and urban areas, which means that there are countless examples of festivals and rituals on display creating a sense of vibrancy and involvement. At the same time, observers often get the impression that neither Buddhism nor Shinto is as spiritually dynamic an institution as might be expected. In reality, however, religion functions as an integral part of daily life from cradle to grave, so much so that it is probably taken for granted by Japanese themselves. Any level of apparent disinterest masks a fundamental commitment to participating regularly in diverse though diffused religious practices. “Sacred High City, Sacred Low City” uses case studies of religious sites at two representative but contrasting Tokyo neighborhoods as a basis for reflecting on this apparently contradictory quality in order to examine a variety of issues regarding how contemporary Japanese society regards the role of traditional religion. In what ways does Japan continue to carry on and adapt tradition, and to what extent has modern secular society lost touch with the traditional elements of religion? Or, does Japanese religiosity reflect another, possibly postmodern alternative beyond the dichotomy of sacred and secular, in which religious differences as well as a seeming indifference to religion are encompassed as part of the contemporary lifestyle? The aim of the book is to use the micro-level of analyzing sacred sites in particular Tokyo neighborhoods as representative case studies that constitute a vehicle for probing and reevaluating the macro-level regarding the overall meaning and significance of religiosity in contemporary Japan. Considering the two conundrums of religious structure and motivation in tandem helps answer the overriding question about sacred space: What makes religiosity “tick” in an increasingly secular environment that would seem to detract from and cause it to deteriorate?Less
Many observers have commented on what appears to be a fundamental contradiction concerning the ways that traditional religions function in Japan. On the one hand, the presence of temples and shrines is pervasive throughout most countryside and urban areas, which means that there are countless examples of festivals and rituals on display creating a sense of vibrancy and involvement. At the same time, observers often get the impression that neither Buddhism nor Shinto is as spiritually dynamic an institution as might be expected. In reality, however, religion functions as an integral part of daily life from cradle to grave, so much so that it is probably taken for granted by Japanese themselves. Any level of apparent disinterest masks a fundamental commitment to participating regularly in diverse though diffused religious practices. “Sacred High City, Sacred Low City” uses case studies of religious sites at two representative but contrasting Tokyo neighborhoods as a basis for reflecting on this apparently contradictory quality in order to examine a variety of issues regarding how contemporary Japanese society regards the role of traditional religion. In what ways does Japan continue to carry on and adapt tradition, and to what extent has modern secular society lost touch with the traditional elements of religion? Or, does Japanese religiosity reflect another, possibly postmodern alternative beyond the dichotomy of sacred and secular, in which religious differences as well as a seeming indifference to religion are encompassed as part of the contemporary lifestyle? The aim of the book is to use the micro-level of analyzing sacred sites in particular Tokyo neighborhoods as representative case studies that constitute a vehicle for probing and reevaluating the macro-level regarding the overall meaning and significance of religiosity in contemporary Japan. Considering the two conundrums of religious structure and motivation in tandem helps answer the overriding question about sacred space: What makes religiosity “tick” in an increasingly secular environment that would seem to detract from and cause it to deteriorate?
Andy Rotman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195366150
- eISBN:
- 9780199867882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195366150.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
Chapter 5 continues an analysis of prasāda, first focusing on the Toyikā story, which offers an egalitarian vision of the practice of prasāda in a time after the Buddha’s final nirvāṇa This account ...
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Chapter 5 continues an analysis of prasāda, first focusing on the Toyikā story, which offers an egalitarian vision of the practice of prasāda in a time after the Buddha’s final nirvāṇa This account offers additional insight into the specifics of ritual action and the construction of shrines, and the importance of proximity and place for the mechanics of prasāda. This configuration of prasāda stresses a logic of presence, and the geography of practice that emerges may offer a subaltern perspective on early Buddhist pilgrimage.Less
Chapter 5 continues an analysis of prasāda, first focusing on the Toyikā story, which offers an egalitarian vision of the practice of prasāda in a time after the Buddha’s final nirvāṇa This account offers additional insight into the specifics of ritual action and the construction of shrines, and the importance of proximity and place for the mechanics of prasāda. This configuration of prasāda stresses a logic of presence, and the geography of practice that emerges may offer a subaltern perspective on early Buddhist pilgrimage.
Kama Maclean
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195338942
- eISBN:
- 9780199867110
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195338942.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
This chapter draws attention to the fort of Allahabad, built by Akbar at the sangam next to the mela grounds, and charts the tensions that characterized the coexistence of these highly charged arenas ...
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This chapter draws attention to the fort of Allahabad, built by Akbar at the sangam next to the mela grounds, and charts the tensions that characterized the coexistence of these highly charged arenas of devotional expression and military security. Drawing on oral histories and Hindu traditions relating to the sangam site and the fort, the chapter describes how locals have understood and incorporated the presence of the fort, and the British, into their devotional landscape. It also delineates the changes in pilgrimage activity in the 18th century, as the East India Company inserted itself into key pilgrimage cities in north India, attempting to manage pilgrimage as a matter of diplomacy and limiting pilgrim access to a key shrine in the fort, while profiting handsomely from pilgrim taxes. This intervention was resented and resisted by pilgrimage priests in Allahabad, Prayagwals, who traditionally played an important role in the management of piety at the sangam in Allahabad. This reached its height when the Prayagwals lent their support to the rebellion in 1857, in which the fort of Allahabad, as the base of British military organization and refuge, was a key site.Less
This chapter draws attention to the fort of Allahabad, built by Akbar at the sangam next to the mela grounds, and charts the tensions that characterized the coexistence of these highly charged arenas of devotional expression and military security. Drawing on oral histories and Hindu traditions relating to the sangam site and the fort, the chapter describes how locals have understood and incorporated the presence of the fort, and the British, into their devotional landscape. It also delineates the changes in pilgrimage activity in the 18th century, as the East India Company inserted itself into key pilgrimage cities in north India, attempting to manage pilgrimage as a matter of diplomacy and limiting pilgrim access to a key shrine in the fort, while profiting handsomely from pilgrim taxes. This intervention was resented and resisted by pilgrimage priests in Allahabad, Prayagwals, who traditionally played an important role in the management of piety at the sangam in Allahabad. This reached its height when the Prayagwals lent their support to the rebellion in 1857, in which the fort of Allahabad, as the base of British military organization and refuge, was a key site.
Karin Vélez
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691174006
- eISBN:
- 9780691184494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174006.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter reexamines Loreto's historical “brand” by looking at some of the first authors of Loreto's origin story. It opens with the architects of Loreto's shrine seal, Cardinal Antonio Maria ...
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This chapter reexamines Loreto's historical “brand” by looking at some of the first authors of Loreto's origin story. It opens with the architects of Loreto's shrine seal, Cardinal Antonio Maria Gallo and Cardinal Rutilio Benzoni. Moving down the ranks and back in time, there are two earlier sixteenth-century chroniclers who laid the groundwork for the high clergy's selective mythohistory: a shrine governor, Pietro di Giorgio Tolomei, and a local secretary, Girolamo Angelitta. Like Virgin and house, and seal and medal, these men are first introduced in pairs and then grouped in larger company because, sometimes unbeknownst to each other, they worked in tandem to reconstruct Loreto's past. Their overlaps and contradictions illuminate the often inadvertently collaborative project of building official shrine history.Less
This chapter reexamines Loreto's historical “brand” by looking at some of the first authors of Loreto's origin story. It opens with the architects of Loreto's shrine seal, Cardinal Antonio Maria Gallo and Cardinal Rutilio Benzoni. Moving down the ranks and back in time, there are two earlier sixteenth-century chroniclers who laid the groundwork for the high clergy's selective mythohistory: a shrine governor, Pietro di Giorgio Tolomei, and a local secretary, Girolamo Angelitta. Like Virgin and house, and seal and medal, these men are first introduced in pairs and then grouped in larger company because, sometimes unbeknownst to each other, they worked in tandem to reconstruct Loreto's past. Their overlaps and contradictions illuminate the often inadvertently collaborative project of building official shrine history.
David Quint
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691161914
- eISBN:
- 9781400850488
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691161914.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter shows how book 1 of Paradise Lost metaphorically depicts the role of the devil in raising the rebel angels out of their “bottomless perdition,” an act of poetic creation analogous to the ...
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This chapter shows how book 1 of Paradise Lost metaphorically depicts the role of the devil in raising the rebel angels out of their “bottomless perdition,” an act of poetic creation analogous to the divine creation of the universe described in the invocation—“how the heavens and earth/Rose out of chaos.” The chief devils described in the catalog that occupies the center of book 1 and organizes its poetic figures and symbolic geography—Carthage, Sodom, Egypt, Babel-Babylon, Rome—are precisely those who will come to inhabit the pagan shrines that human idolatry will build next to or even inside the Jerusalem temple, profaning God's house. This catalog—whose traditional epic function is to size up military force—instead suggests the force of spiritual falsehood, and it corresponds to the defeated devils' own reluctance to pursue another direct war against God; they would rather resort to satanic fraud.Less
This chapter shows how book 1 of Paradise Lost metaphorically depicts the role of the devil in raising the rebel angels out of their “bottomless perdition,” an act of poetic creation analogous to the divine creation of the universe described in the invocation—“how the heavens and earth/Rose out of chaos.” The chief devils described in the catalog that occupies the center of book 1 and organizes its poetic figures and symbolic geography—Carthage, Sodom, Egypt, Babel-Babylon, Rome—are precisely those who will come to inhabit the pagan shrines that human idolatry will build next to or even inside the Jerusalem temple, profaning God's house. This catalog—whose traditional epic function is to size up military force—instead suggests the force of spiritual falsehood, and it corresponds to the defeated devils' own reluctance to pursue another direct war against God; they would rather resort to satanic fraud.
Isabel Moreira
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199736041
- eISBN:
- 9780199894628
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199736041.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Early Christian Studies
This chapter examines how the cult of martyrs and saints promoted ideal responses to corporeal affliction. It examines the purging miracles recorded at the shrine of St. Martin of Tours, where ...
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This chapter examines how the cult of martyrs and saints promoted ideal responses to corporeal affliction. It examines the purging miracles recorded at the shrine of St. Martin of Tours, where health-giving violence experienced by the body in vomiting and intestinal purging was viewed as a template for divine power to purge the soul of sin. The chapter focuses on the purgatorial theology of Gregory of Tours, which identified the potion made of dust and water obtained at the tomb of St. Martin as a “celestial purgative.” It examines Gregory’s personal fears about his fate on judgement day.Less
This chapter examines how the cult of martyrs and saints promoted ideal responses to corporeal affliction. It examines the purging miracles recorded at the shrine of St. Martin of Tours, where health-giving violence experienced by the body in vomiting and intestinal purging was viewed as a template for divine power to purge the soul of sin. The chapter focuses on the purgatorial theology of Gregory of Tours, which identified the potion made of dust and water obtained at the tomb of St. Martin as a “celestial purgative.” It examines Gregory’s personal fears about his fate on judgement day.
F. S. Naiden
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195183412
- eISBN:
- 9780199789399
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195183412.003.0004
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Ancient Religions
This chapter deals with the regulation of supplication in Classical Athens. For the most part regulations formalize supplication, but sometimes regulations alter supplication in order to make it ...
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This chapter deals with the regulation of supplication in Classical Athens. For the most part regulations formalize supplication, but sometimes regulations alter supplication in order to make it conform to the political system. This process of accommodation also occurs outside Athens at federal shrines and at shrines in the territory of the Spartan Alliance. The relation between supplication and intercommunal norms also changes in the Classical Period, as revealed by Thucydides' treatment of the supplication made by the Plataeans to the Spartans in Book 3 of his history.Less
This chapter deals with the regulation of supplication in Classical Athens. For the most part regulations formalize supplication, but sometimes regulations alter supplication in order to make it conform to the political system. This process of accommodation also occurs outside Athens at federal shrines and at shrines in the territory of the Spartan Alliance. The relation between supplication and intercommunal norms also changes in the Classical Period, as revealed by Thucydides' treatment of the supplication made by the Plataeans to the Spartans in Book 3 of his history.
Kathryn M. Rudy
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197265048
- eISBN:
- 9780191754159
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265048.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
Few medieval pilgrims' guides were written in English; even fewer were illuminated. This chapter examines Oxford, Queen's College, MS 357, a manuscript made in England in the late fifteenth century, ...
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Few medieval pilgrims' guides were written in English; even fewer were illuminated. This chapter examines Oxford, Queen's College, MS 357, a manuscript made in England in the late fifteenth century, which possesses both qualities. The manuscript contains a variety of texts written in Latin and English including pilgrims' guides, prayers to be said at holy sites in Palestine, travellers' tales, and descriptions of miracles that have taken place at shrines. It is also exuberantly illuminated. The miniatures begin with an Annunciation and end with Christ in Judgment. These two images form the parentheses around the others in the manuscript, which depict sites in the Holy Land. The miniatures and decoration unite the disparate texts, turning them into a scale model of salvation history and providing a prompt to virtual pilgrimage.Less
Few medieval pilgrims' guides were written in English; even fewer were illuminated. This chapter examines Oxford, Queen's College, MS 357, a manuscript made in England in the late fifteenth century, which possesses both qualities. The manuscript contains a variety of texts written in Latin and English including pilgrims' guides, prayers to be said at holy sites in Palestine, travellers' tales, and descriptions of miracles that have taken place at shrines. It is also exuberantly illuminated. The miniatures begin with an Annunciation and end with Christ in Judgment. These two images form the parentheses around the others in the manuscript, which depict sites in the Holy Land. The miniatures and decoration unite the disparate texts, turning them into a scale model of salvation history and providing a prompt to virtual pilgrimage.
Lisa M. Bitel
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195336528
- eISBN:
- 9780199868599
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195336528.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Church History, Early Christian Studies
This chapter tracks the cults of Genovefa and Brigit up to the present day in order to account for the endurance of their cults and show what the histories of these two saints can tell us about ...
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This chapter tracks the cults of Genovefa and Brigit up to the present day in order to account for the endurance of their cults and show what the histories of these two saints can tell us about historical connections between landscape, gender, and religious change. Conversion did not occur merely as a result of missionary preaching, but because many women and men chose to go to new kinds of religious places, use new kinds of symbolic goods, and reinterpret their daily habits in religious context. Denied episcopal office because of their sex, Genovefa and Brigit helped bring Christianity to northern Europe at the dawn of the Middle Ages by promoting such changes in lived religion and, in particular, by sponsoring religious architecture and new uses of familiar sacral places in their home territories.Less
This chapter tracks the cults of Genovefa and Brigit up to the present day in order to account for the endurance of their cults and show what the histories of these two saints can tell us about historical connections between landscape, gender, and religious change. Conversion did not occur merely as a result of missionary preaching, but because many women and men chose to go to new kinds of religious places, use new kinds of symbolic goods, and reinterpret their daily habits in religious context. Denied episcopal office because of their sex, Genovefa and Brigit helped bring Christianity to northern Europe at the dawn of the Middle Ages by promoting such changes in lived religion and, in particular, by sponsoring religious architecture and new uses of familiar sacral places in their home territories.
Todd Lewis and Subarna Tuladhar
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- February 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195341829
- eISBN:
- 9780199866816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195341829.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Hinduism
Siddhārtha is depicted as if he had been raised by his foster mother Gautamī in the palace just like an urban Newar of the twentieth century. For example, pyucha bracelets adorn the child when he is ...
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Siddhārtha is depicted as if he had been raised by his foster mother Gautamī in the palace just like an urban Newar of the twentieth century. For example, pyucha bracelets adorn the child when he is two months old; his rice feeding ceremony is performed at six months; a garland of rice cake (yomari) is put around his neck at two years. Here again, the poet was careful not to depict Siddhārtha as supernormal. The ancient biographical text, the Lalitavistara, describes that when young Siddhārtha was taken to Shākya's sacred shrine room, stone images of gods and goddesses fell prostrate on the floor to show reverence. But Chittadhar simply has it that in the presence of the prince the stone images of gods and goddess paled and looked diminished. As King Shuddhodana looks on, the child is taught Newar nursery rhymes, juvenile Newari expressions, folk songs, and literature.Less
Siddhārtha is depicted as if he had been raised by his foster mother Gautamī in the palace just like an urban Newar of the twentieth century. For example, pyucha bracelets adorn the child when he is two months old; his rice feeding ceremony is performed at six months; a garland of rice cake (yomari) is put around his neck at two years. Here again, the poet was careful not to depict Siddhārtha as supernormal. The ancient biographical text, the Lalitavistara, describes that when young Siddhārtha was taken to Shākya's sacred shrine room, stone images of gods and goddesses fell prostrate on the floor to show reverence. But Chittadhar simply has it that in the presence of the prince the stone images of gods and goddess paled and looked diminished. As King Shuddhodana looks on, the child is taught Newar nursery rhymes, juvenile Newari expressions, folk songs, and literature.
Robert A. Scott
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520262751
- eISBN:
- 9780520946200
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520262751.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, World Religions
Iconic images of medieval pilgrims, such as Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims making their laborious way to Canterbury, conjure a distant time when faith was the only refuge of the ill and infirm, and ...
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Iconic images of medieval pilgrims, such as Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims making their laborious way to Canterbury, conjure a distant time when faith was the only refuge of the ill and infirm, and thousands traveled great distances to pray for healing. Why, then, in an age of advanced biotechnology and medicine, do millions still go on pilgrimages? Why do journeys to important religious shrines—such as Lourdes, Compostela, Fátima, and Medjugorje—constitute a major industry? This book explores these provocative questions and finds that pilgrimage continues to offer answers for many. Its benefits can range from a demonstrable improvement in health to complete recovery. Using research in biomedical and behavioral science, the book examines accounts of miracle cures at medieval, early modern, and contemporary shrines. It enquires into the power of relics, apparitions, and the transformative nature of sacred journeying and shines new light on the roles belief, hope, and emotion can play in healing.Less
Iconic images of medieval pilgrims, such as Geoffrey Chaucer's pilgrims making their laborious way to Canterbury, conjure a distant time when faith was the only refuge of the ill and infirm, and thousands traveled great distances to pray for healing. Why, then, in an age of advanced biotechnology and medicine, do millions still go on pilgrimages? Why do journeys to important religious shrines—such as Lourdes, Compostela, Fátima, and Medjugorje—constitute a major industry? This book explores these provocative questions and finds that pilgrimage continues to offer answers for many. Its benefits can range from a demonstrable improvement in health to complete recovery. Using research in biomedical and behavioral science, the book examines accounts of miracle cures at medieval, early modern, and contemporary shrines. It enquires into the power of relics, apparitions, and the transformative nature of sacred journeying and shines new light on the roles belief, hope, and emotion can play in healing.
Charles Gore
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748633166
- eISBN:
- 9780748652983
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748633166.001.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, African Studies
This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, ...
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This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession, and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions that underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.Less
This book explores the roles of contemporary urban shrines and their visual traditions in Benin City. It focuses on the charismatic priests and priestesses who are possessed by a pantheon of deities, the communities of devotees, and the artists who make artifacts for their shrines. The visual arts are part of a wider configuration of practices that include song, dance, possession, and healing. These practices provide the means for exploring the relationships of the visual to both the verbal and performance arts that feature at these shrines. The analysis in this book raises fundamental questions about how the art of Benin, and non-Western art histories more generally, are understood. The book throws critical light on the taken-for-granted assumptions that underpin current interpretations and presents an original and revisionist account of Benin art history.
Bernard Cooke and Gary Macy
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- July 2005
- ISBN:
- 9780195154115
- eISBN:
- 9780199835591
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195154118.003.00010
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
Christians practice many other rituals and have many more symbols than those described as central in most books of ritual. Some of these popular rituals are introduced, including Quinceañera, the use ...
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Christians practice many other rituals and have many more symbols than those described as central in most books of ritual. Some of these popular rituals are introduced, including Quinceañera, the use of icons and statues, the Bible, sacred spaces (e.g., churches and shrines), pilgrimage, sacred clothes, and private prayer.Less
Christians practice many other rituals and have many more symbols than those described as central in most books of ritual. Some of these popular rituals are introduced, including Quinceañera, the use of icons and statues, the Bible, sacred spaces (e.g., churches and shrines), pilgrimage, sacred clothes, and private prayer.
Paul Younger
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195140446
- eISBN:
- 9780199834907
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195140443.003.0015
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
A second wave in the Hindu diaspora occurred in the second half of the twentieth century when individual professionals and others settled in Europe and North America and began to build very elaborate ...
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A second wave in the Hindu diaspora occurred in the second half of the twentieth century when individual professionals and others settled in Europe and North America and began to build very elaborate temples. One of the most elaborate of these temples is the Ganesh Temple of Toronto, which was built on a model laid out by the Sankaracarya of Kancipuram with separate shrines for different Vaisnava and Saiva deities within one building. The temple management has tried to emulate exactly the Indian celebration of the Vision of Grace festival for Sivan Natarajan in the month of Markali. The celebration is an elegant bath or abhiseka and includes an otuvar singer adopting the persona of the saint Manikkavacakar so that he can sing the hymns to Sivan Natarajan. While in India the tuvar singers are boys who learn from childhood and virtually all come from one caste, in Sri Lanka, where most of the Canadian worshipers are from, women are often the best‐trained singers. In the end, the Toronto festival was a compromise with an elderly male tuvar perfoming the ritual and a Sri Lankan lady doing most of the singing.Less
A second wave in the Hindu diaspora occurred in the second half of the twentieth century when individual professionals and others settled in Europe and North America and began to build very elaborate temples. One of the most elaborate of these temples is the Ganesh Temple of Toronto, which was built on a model laid out by the Sankaracarya of Kancipuram with separate shrines for different Vaisnava and Saiva deities within one building. The temple management has tried to emulate exactly the Indian celebration of the Vision of Grace festival for Sivan Natarajan in the month of Markali. The celebration is an elegant bath or abhiseka and includes an otuvar singer adopting the persona of the saint Manikkavacakar so that he can sing the hymns to Sivan Natarajan. While in India the tuvar singers are boys who learn from childhood and virtually all come from one caste, in Sri Lanka, where most of the Canadian worshipers are from, women are often the best‐trained singers. In the end, the Toronto festival was a compromise with an elderly male tuvar perfoming the ritual and a Sri Lankan lady doing most of the singing.
Corinne Ondine Pache
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- January 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195339369
- eISBN:
- 9780199867134
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195339369.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval, Ancient Religions
From Hesiod’s first-person account of his encounters with the Muses on Mount Helicon to Theocritus’s nymphs, love between goddesses and mortal men provides the ancient Greeks with a way of ...
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From Hesiod’s first-person account of his encounters with the Muses on Mount Helicon to Theocritus’s nymphs, love between goddesses and mortal men provides the ancient Greeks with a way of articulating both the genealogical and cultic connection to their gods and to their past. This book examines the theme of nympholepsy—the experience of being “seized” by a nymph or a goddess—in ancient Greek cult and poetry from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. In poetry, this topos, which is ubiquitous in many of the most well-known ancient Greek sources, focuses on the figure of the goddess or nymph who falls in love with a mortal man and subsequently bears a mortal child. Erotic love leads to motherhood and a genetic connection between mortals and immortals. The theme also finds its way in ritual as stories of encounters between divinities and mortal men give rise to sanctuaries centering on nymphs and nympholepts. Beyond the individual dimension of the nympholeptic experience, these narratives are also integrated within the community through both poetry and shrines. Nympholeptic narratives thus articulate key elements of the bond between mortals and immortals and the connection between myth and ritual in ancient Greece. Both the cave sanctuaries founded by ancient nympholepts and the poets’ narratives of love between goddesses and their mortal lovers function as “a moment’s ornament” by preserving the memory of an encounter with the otherworldly at the intersection between myth and cult.Less
From Hesiod’s first-person account of his encounters with the Muses on Mount Helicon to Theocritus’s nymphs, love between goddesses and mortal men provides the ancient Greeks with a way of articulating both the genealogical and cultic connection to their gods and to their past. This book examines the theme of nympholepsy—the experience of being “seized” by a nymph or a goddess—in ancient Greek cult and poetry from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. In poetry, this topos, which is ubiquitous in many of the most well-known ancient Greek sources, focuses on the figure of the goddess or nymph who falls in love with a mortal man and subsequently bears a mortal child. Erotic love leads to motherhood and a genetic connection between mortals and immortals. The theme also finds its way in ritual as stories of encounters between divinities and mortal men give rise to sanctuaries centering on nymphs and nympholepts. Beyond the individual dimension of the nympholeptic experience, these narratives are also integrated within the community through both poetry and shrines. Nympholeptic narratives thus articulate key elements of the bond between mortals and immortals and the connection between myth and ritual in ancient Greece. Both the cave sanctuaries founded by ancient nympholepts and the poets’ narratives of love between goddesses and their mortal lovers function as “a moment’s ornament” by preserving the memory of an encounter with the otherworldly at the intersection between myth and cult.
Josef W. Meri
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199250783
- eISBN:
- 9780191697968
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199250783.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Islam, Judaism
This chapter discusses the variety of shrines and other monuments to which devotees made ziyāra and the reasons for their proliferation during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Shrines emerged as ...
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This chapter discusses the variety of shrines and other monuments to which devotees made ziyāra and the reasons for their proliferation during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Shrines emerged as important places for the fulfillment of supplication. As shrines came to be associated with mosques, the boundary between them as centres for the fulfillment of supplication became blurred. Secondary structures, such as the madrasa and the mosque, figured prominently in ziyāra culture. The discussion also considers Shi'i patronage of shrines and the reasons for the proliferation of shrine compounds from the twelfth century.Less
This chapter discusses the variety of shrines and other monuments to which devotees made ziyāra and the reasons for their proliferation during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Shrines emerged as important places for the fulfillment of supplication. As shrines came to be associated with mosques, the boundary between them as centres for the fulfillment of supplication became blurred. Secondary structures, such as the madrasa and the mosque, figured prominently in ziyāra culture. The discussion also considers Shi'i patronage of shrines and the reasons for the proliferation of shrine compounds from the twelfth century.
Karin Vélez
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691174006
- eISBN:
- 9780691184494
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174006.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, History of Christianity
This chapter first considers Bishop Casal's failed attempt to take a stone from the Holy House and its repercussions. It then surveys multiple iterations of the Holy House of Loreto that were built ...
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This chapter first considers Bishop Casal's failed attempt to take a stone from the Holy House and its repercussions. It then surveys multiple iterations of the Holy House of Loreto that were built from blueprints distributed at the Loreto shrine in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It closes by honing in on the replicas of the Jesuits, especially a diverse string of Holy Houses left by one Jesuit, Juan Maria Salvatierra, across Mexico. Individually and as a group, holy house builders in Europe and on the American frontiers wavered between creating accurate, rooted copies that were thoughtfully integrated into their new surroundings, and making imperfect, drifting copies that were unmodified and intrusive to their new settings. This variety suggests that what mattered most in spreading the Loreto devotion was felt intent (mood) rather than following instructions (mind).Less
This chapter first considers Bishop Casal's failed attempt to take a stone from the Holy House and its repercussions. It then surveys multiple iterations of the Holy House of Loreto that were built from blueprints distributed at the Loreto shrine in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. It closes by honing in on the replicas of the Jesuits, especially a diverse string of Holy Houses left by one Jesuit, Juan Maria Salvatierra, across Mexico. Individually and as a group, holy house builders in Europe and on the American frontiers wavered between creating accurate, rooted copies that were thoughtfully integrated into their new surroundings, and making imperfect, drifting copies that were unmodified and intrusive to their new settings. This variety suggests that what mattered most in spreading the Loreto devotion was felt intent (mood) rather than following instructions (mind).
Stephen C. Berkwitz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195301397
- eISBN:
- 9780199785100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301397.003.0010
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, focusing on Duṭugämuṇu's plan to build a large monastic residence for the Sangha and the Relic Shrine of Golden Garlands (Pāli: ...
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This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, focusing on Duṭugämuṇu's plan to build a large monastic residence for the Sangha and the Relic Shrine of Golden Garlands (Pāli: Mahāthupa) in Anurādhapura. The text extols these acts of merit and reinforces the virtue of such deeds by noting how arahants and deities lent their assistance to the king.Less
This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, focusing on Duṭugämuṇu's plan to build a large monastic residence for the Sangha and the Relic Shrine of Golden Garlands (Pāli: Mahāthupa) in Anurādhapura. The text extols these acts of merit and reinforces the virtue of such deeds by noting how arahants and deities lent their assistance to the king.
Stephen C. Berkwitz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195301397
- eISBN:
- 9780199785100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301397.003.0012
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, describing the deposit of the relics in the Relic Shrine of Golden Garlands. The fantastic miracles displayed by the relics and ...
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This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, describing the deposit of the relics in the Relic Shrine of Golden Garlands. The fantastic miracles displayed by the relics and the large numbers of beings who venerated at the shrine and arrived at the higher attainments leading up to nirvana are also mentioned.Less
This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, describing the deposit of the relics in the Relic Shrine of Golden Garlands. The fantastic miracles displayed by the relics and the large numbers of beings who venerated at the shrine and arrived at the higher attainments leading up to nirvana are also mentioned.
Stephen C. Berkwitz
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- January 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195301397
- eISBN:
- 9780199785100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195301397.003.0013
- Subject:
- Religion, Buddhism
This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, focusing on the death of King Duṭugämuṇu. Duṭugämuṇu falls ill before the shrine is finished. One of his former warriors, who ...
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This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, focusing on the death of King Duṭugämuṇu. Duṭugämuṇu falls ill before the shrine is finished. One of his former warriors, who became a monk, returns to Duṭugämuṇu's deathbed and consoles him while a record of the king's meritorious acts is recited aloud. The king gives rise to feelings of serene joy in his deeds and charges his younger brother with the duty of finishing the shrine. When the king dies while gazing upon the relic shrine, he is instantaneously reborn as a deity who venerates the relics once more and admonishes the crowd of people to do merit so that they may attain a heavenly rebirth too.Less
This chapter presents an English translation of the Sinhala Thūpavaṃsa, focusing on the death of King Duṭugämuṇu. Duṭugämuṇu falls ill before the shrine is finished. One of his former warriors, who became a monk, returns to Duṭugämuṇu's deathbed and consoles him while a record of the king's meritorious acts is recited aloud. The king gives rise to feelings of serene joy in his deeds and charges his younger brother with the duty of finishing the shrine. When the king dies while gazing upon the relic shrine, he is instantaneously reborn as a deity who venerates the relics once more and admonishes the crowd of people to do merit so that they may attain a heavenly rebirth too.
