PILGRIMAGES TODAY PILGRIMAGES TODAY Based on papers read at the symposium on pilgrimages today held at Åbo, Finland, on 19–21 August 2009 Edited by Tore Ahlbäck Editorial Assistant Björn Dahla Published by the Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History Åbo, Finland Distributed by Tibo-Trading Ltd Pargas, Finland Editorial secretary Maria Vasenkari Linguistic editing Sarah Bannock & Heidi Granqvist ISSN 0582-3226 ISBN 978-952-12-2398-3 Printed in Finland by Vammalan kirjapaino Sastamala 2010 Editorial Note he symposium Pilgrimages Today, which the Donner Institute for Research Tin Religious and Cultural History arranged 19–21 August 2010 in Åbo, Finland, attracted a lot of interest. We might note that earlier, a decade ago, Nordic scholars of comparative religion still comprised the target group for the Donner Symposia, which were begun in 1962. Today, however, researchers of comparative religion from all parts of the world are our target group. The turn­ ing point was the symposium in 1997, Methodology of the Study of Religion, which was ‘an IAHR Regional Symposium’. That was the first time English was the language of the conference, and it has been so at all symposia since then. Nowadays, information on a forthcoming symposium (a word we use as fully synonymous with conference) is no longer spread using traditional postal services, but through mailing lists that disseminate the message with the speed of the wind in a multitude of directions. It is always a pleasure to see the registrations for a symposium today—most continents are represented. Our definition of pilgrimage in our Call for Papers was in no sense con­ troversial: ‘Basically, a pilgrimage is a journey undertaken by individuals or a group to a place, which for the single individual or the individuals in the group is of great importance because of something they have learnt and experien ced in the culture and religion which they have grown up within. We explicitly welcome papers on pilgrimages that are akin to, but not identic­ al with, religious pilgrimages. As examples of such, we could mention pil­ grimages to Elvis Presley’s Graceland or to the grave of Jim Morrison. Here, it should be noted that one of our points of departure is also that, despite their similarities, it is important to take into account the difference between pilgrimages and tourism.’ An answer to the question of whether a trip to Graceland or to the grave of Morrison or other similar tourism perhaps in a post­modern world are, after all, pilgrimages of today—in a world where many put together their own religious salvation message about their own imagined gods—is hopefully pro­ vided by the present volume. 5 Table of Contents Nina Björkman The Biswa Ijtema 9 Ruth Blackwell Motivation for Pilgrimage. Using theory to explore motivations 24 Dora Carpenter­Latiri The Ghriba Pilgrimage in the Island of Jerba. The semantics of otherness 38 René Gothóni Unity and Universe. Understanding pilgrimage to Mount Athos 56 Céline Grünhagen ‘Our Queen of Hearts’—the Glorification of Lady Diana Spencer. A critical appraisal of the glorification of celebrities and new pilgrimage 71 Patrick Hällzon Stepping onto Sacred Ground. The mazar in Uyghur day­to­day life 87 Tina Hamrin­Dahl This­Worldly and Other­Worldly. A Holocaust pilgrimage 122 Christer Hedin Muslim Pilgrimage as Education by Experience 163 Nilay Hosta & Birsen Limon Changing Features of the Concept of Pilgrimage. The example of the Mevlana’s Museum in Konya 196 Tuomas Hovi Dracula Tourism as Pilgrimage? 211 7 Ruth Illman Embracing Complexity. The post­secular pilgrimage of Eric­Emmanuel Schmitt 228 Magali Jenny « Souviens­toi, sois prudent ». Les pèlerinages motards 244 Richard C. Martin Visiting Ground Zero. Sacred echoes in secular rites 268 Tommi Mendel Foot­Pilgrims and Backpackers. Contemporary ways of travelling 288 Erik Reenberg Sand Theology of Karman. Merit, death and release in the case of Varanasi, India 316 William S. Sax The Royal Pilgrimage of the Goddess Nanda 334 Niklas Sjöström The Awaited Miracle. Reflections on Marian apparitions in Garabandal, Spain 353 Biographical Notes 368 8 NINA BJÖRKman The Biswa Ijtema Introduction The Tablighi Jama‘at has not, until recently, been the focus of much re­ search, despite its almost 80­year history. Moreover, the Tablighi authorities themselves discourage writing about the movement, since Islam is seen as a practic al activity first and foremost, not something that can simply be written or read about (Sikand 1999: 102). For this article I have sought out material about the Tablighi Jama‘at in Bangladesh and the Biswa Ijtema in particular. Literature, however, has been hard to come by. The book Travellers in Faith by Muhammad Khalid Masud (2000) deals primarily with the ideological background of the Tablighi Jama‘at, its growth in India and the transnational aspect of the movement. Unfortunately it does not contain information about the movement’s development in the rest of South Asia. Yoginder Sikand, how­ ever, has written an article of great relevance for mine: ‘The Tablighi Jama‘at in Bangladesh’ (1999), which briefly also discusses the Biswa Ijtema. In addition to this and other academic writings on the Tablighi Jama‘at and Bangladesh I have relied mainly on articles in local newspapers to try to get a clearer per­ ception of the Biswa Ijtema. Tablighi Jama‘at was founded by Mawlana Ilyas in Mewat as a reaction against the decline of Muslim political power in India and the increasing British influence on the subcontinent. While different authors place the foundation of the movement in the late 1920s, probably based on reports of Mawlana Ilyas beginning his tabligh1 work after his return from Hajj in 1926, the authors of the book Travellers in Faith consider the true launching date for the movement to be much later. According to them the official date was in 1934, after a meeting held in Mewat. (Masud 2000: 9.) The Biswa Ijtema is the annual congregation of the Tablighi Jama‘at, held in the district of Tongi, just outside Dhaka in Bangladesh. The term Biswa Ijtema 1 Tabligh is often equated with da‘wa, meaning to communicate the call (Masud 2000: xxi). 9 NINA BJÖRKMAN (or Viswa/Bishwa Ijtema) translates as ‘world congregation’. Biswa is Sanskrit for ‘world’. Ijtema is Arabic and means ‘public gathering’. (Jaffor Ullah.) Tablighi Jama‘at in Bangladesh The establishment of British rule in Bengal in the late eighteenth century brought with it the emergence of a number of Islamic reform movements. The Tablighi Jama‘at shares the aims of these movements to cleanse ‘popular’ Bengali Islam from its syncretistic heritage, and instead uphold a strict ad­ herence to the shari‘a. According to Yoginder Sikand’s article, ‘The Tablighi Jama‘at in Bangladesh’, the available literature sheds very little light on how the Tablighi Jama‘at was first launched in Bengal. Most Bengali Tablighi texts available are translations of texts originally written in Urdu and are of little historical value. The only source that mentions the early developments of the Tablighi Jama‘at in Bengal, a biography of a renowned Tablighi leader, re­ veals that while Tablighis had reached Bengal prior to the partition of India in 1947, it was only after the independence of Pakistan that Tablighi work actu­ ally spread over the region. Several disciples of the founder, Mawlana Ilyas, apparently moved to both wings of Pakistan, where they began to do Tablighi work among the local Muslim population and Muslim refugees from India. A markaz (headquarter) for the coordination of the Tablighi work was initially set up in Raiwind, a township just outside Lahore in Pakistan. (Sikand 1999: 102–4.) Prior to 1947 Tablighi activity seems to have been concentrated largely in Calcutta. Initially most of the leading Tablighi activists in East Pakistan were refugees from West Bengal, Calcutta in particular. The most senior among them was Haji Mohsin Ahmad, also called Dada Bhai, who would come to play a leading role in the spread of the Tablighi Jama‘at in East Pakistan. Mohsin Ahmad spent a lot of time and effort doing tabligh work among Muslim gov­ ernment employees and the Muslim students of Dhaka University. Thanks to his efforts Dhaka’s Engineering College gradually emerged as a major centre of Tablighi activity in East Pakistan. Members of the newly­emerging Bengali Muslim middle­class struggled to make a place for themselves in the face of what they perceived as Hindu upper­caste opposition and bonded together in the jama‘ats and Ijtemas provided by the Tablighi Jama‘at. Striving for upward mobility and faced with resistance, the Muslim middle­class found a natural expression in religious terms—greater participation in Islamic activity and stress on the Islamic identity. (Sikand 1999: 105–6.) 10 The Biswa Ijtema Another important focus of attention for the pioneers of Tablighi work in East Pakistan was students and teachers at the local madrasas. The ulama had great influence as local spokesmen and religious authorities, and it was seen as an important part of the Tablighi agenda at this early stage to bring them into the movement. Having roots in the Deobandi tradition seems to have helped the Tablighi Jama‘at establish a strong base in a number of Deobandi madrasas in East Pakistan at the time. The affiliation of leading ulama with the Tablighi Jama‘at must have had a substantial impact on their followers as well, considering how religious experts were often not only respected, but held in awe in Bengali society. (Sikand 1999: 107–8.) After the independence of Bangladesh in 1972, the Tablighi Jama‘at wit­ nessed an even more remarkable expansion in the region.