Yet More on Pilgrimage in Peru

Cusco, Peru
20 January 2010

A couple of posts back I wrote about a pilgrimage to a high elevation glacier in the Andes  of Peru to gather snow. Quite by coincidence, a book I brought with me to read while visiting various sites in and near Cusco, including Manchu Picchu, contains a personal story of participation in the arduous and difficult to understand (for those of us mostly familiar with European traditions) pilgrimage.

The book is Hugh Tomson, 2006. A Sacred Landscape: The Search for Ancient Peru. Woodstock and New York: The Overlook Press. ISBN 13-978-1-59020-058-2, and the description of the pilgrimage is a chapter A Parliament of Bears: Qoyllurit´i, pp. 232-271.

Qoyllurití (your guess at pronunciation is as good as mine) is celebrated every year after Trinity Sunday in June and entails a climb, at rates far faster than high altitude medicine would recommend, to a glacier over 6,000 m high about 100 km from Cusco. Thousands participate every year in rituals that combine Roman Catholic elements, and the pilgrimage is sanctioned by the church, with ones clearly very much older. If I should teach another course on pilgrimage, I most certainly will include discussion of this one. Meanwhile I recommend the Tomson book both for the chapter and more generally for its overview of archaeological and anthropological finds in Peru.

Santiago in Peru

Cusco, Peru
18 January 2010

Once again I am writing for an undefined audience, but I have been pleased to discover that both pilgrimages and my favorite saint Santiago (St. James the major) are well represented in Peru. Santiago is the patron saint of the city and region of Cusco. A statue of Santiago dominates one of the three chapels in the city´s cathedral, though in a guise I do not favor ¨Santiago Mataindios¨ a variant of the more common Santiago Matamoros.

Yesterday on a visit to the spectacular Inca site at Ollantaytambo, we discovered that the parsh church there is named for Santiago as well. When I return to the US and have a little time for investigation of the topic, I shall have more intelligent (I hope) commentary to make on the topics of pilgrimages in Peru and the role of Santiago in Peru.

Pilgrimages in Peru

Cusco, Peru
14 January 2010

I am not certain who I am writing this for as our class has ended, but having spent a couple of weeks in Peru, I have discovered yet another set of fascinating pilgrimages, Christian and non-Christian (Semi-Christian?). One, centered on dates near my birthday as it happens, involves sending pilgrims, inadequately clothed and equipped, to elevations above 6,000 meters to get sacks of snow which are then delivered to the Plaza de Armas here in Cusco. Others involve more traditional and less arduous and dangerous treks. When I return to ole virginny I must do some research and post some pictures!

Crime on the Camino

Pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela, 15th Century Woodcut

In our final session we discussed some of the problems relating to pilgrimage in the 21st century. This morning I received the following in an email from a list server for a Camino de Santiago group:

Acacio Paz, the esteemed hospitalero from Brasil who with his wife owns and runs an albergue in the French Camino has asked that the following notice (roughly translated from Spanish, and in part) be passed on:

"WARNING TO ALL; NOT EVERY CAMINO-WALKER IS A PILGRIM.
If someone registers in an albergue as Alberto Ferreira de Silva, Portugues, 41-years old ,a cook by profession and extremely likeable, the Civil Guard should be notified as once. This individual, who carries a pilgrim's credential with several stamps on it, has "struck" several albergues and institutions in the Camino and will continue to do so if not stopped. He just stole 500 Euros from the Fundacion Vivir (Foundation "To live") that had given him shelter and invited him to dinner. Because of his winning ways, and his eagerness to help out and be of use in the albergues, he becomes acquiainted with where and how items of value may be kept, and proceeds to take them.
- there have been other, similar robberies in albergues recently....."

In the heels of this message Katja, a member of these lists-serv who recently began the pilgrimage at SJPP sent the following message yesterday:


-----Original Message-----
From: Katia Wolk
Sent: Fri, Dec 4, 2009 7:37 pm
Subject: Re: [Iago] Pase adelante amigos por favor URGENTE ¡¡¡ (Pass this on, friends, it is urgent)


As coisas são mesmo complicadas...


Em Zubiri, chegamos do jantar e enquanto fomos escovar os dentes nossos casacos foram roubados de cima de nossas camas no albergue...
Infelizmente...
Beijos
Katia

which says,translated from Portuguese:
"Things are thus complicated......
In Zubiri, we returned (to the albegue) after having dinner, and as we went to brush our teeth our jackets were stolen from the top of the bunks in the albergue
Unfortunately..... "
----

If it is any consolation, this sort of thing has been going on forever. There is a book called "Picardias en el Camino en la Edad Media" (Chicaneries in the Camino in the Middle Ages) which recounts extraordinary, sometimes funny and sometimes hair-raising,
instances of this sort of thing, and worse, in the Middle Ages.
Because of the possibility that these types of activities will multiply next year (a Holy Year), the Archdiocese, the Xunta, the authorities in the various municipalities which the various routes of the Camino traverse and the Guardia Civil will tighten and more than double the security measures throughout the Camino, as well as the means of communication.
In fact, the augmented and expanded security measures in the city of Santiago will go into effect in two weeks because of the huge crowds expected there for the opening of the Holy Door.

Hugs!

Rosina

Thought some of you might find it of interest even though our course has ended.

Pilgrimage in the 21st Century

Doorway, Abbey at Roncesvalles, Navarra, Spain EOP 1998

Last session we discussed the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. I forgot my power point and notes, so it was ad libbed for which I apologize.There were a few maps and other slides I think members of the course should see, so I shall begin with a brief presentation of those materials.

The bulk of the final session on 1 December will be devoted to an examination of problems related to pilgrimage in the current century. Those problems are numerous, for the ease of transportation and the rise in per capita incomes make it possible for many people to make long treks to distant shrines. The recently completed Hajj in Saudi Arabia has provided a number of examples of problems related to the gathering of huge numbers of people in a small area during a pilgrimage. There were unanticipated problems of weather as well as problems with epidemic disease and potential terrorism. In the Hajj just ended, the problems of epidemic disease were real enough, but thankfully problems of terrorism did not occur. Perhaps that was a consequence of good planning and preparation on the part of the Saudi authorities, or perhaps it was just a matter of luck.

I. Pilgrimage in the 21st Century.

A. Massive increase in the numbers of pilgrims

B. Greater ease of making the pilgrimage

1. Transportation

2. Safety

II. Pilgrimage and Tourism

III. Problems related to pilgrimage

A. Public health

B. Infrastructure

C. Terrorism

IV. Concluding comments

Hajj 1430 (2009 in the Western calendar)

Grand Mosque, Mecca (Wikipedia commons)

This is being written in the midst of the 1430 (2009) Hajj season, and perhaps as many as two million pilgrims have descended upon Mecca to fulfill their obligations as Muslims. The current Hajj presents the Saudi government with a number of severe challenges including medical, political, and meteorological ones.

In an earlier posting fears of a H1N1 (swine flu) problem were noted, and those fears have not proven unfounded. A number of pilgrims have arrived with signs of the disease, and there have been several deaths of pilgrims in Saudi Arabia attributed to it. Yesterday UPI.com (one of the many news sources now available online) posted a brief note on the problem H1N1 flu scare keeps hajj pilgrims away suggesting that local pilgrims, ones from the kingdom and nearby countries, are avoiding the pilgrimage this year. A number of postings on various other news sources covering the event say more or less that same thing. And, as always, the Saudi authorities are vigilant when screening Hajiis from Nigeria, India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan for signs of polio, a disease still endemic in parts of those countries though it has been largely eliminated in most other parts of the world. Like H1N1, polio is an infectious disease passed easily when many people are in close contact. Those diseases could spread rapidly in the crowded conditions of Mecca during Hajj.

Added comment 29 November "Saudi Official: 5 dead from Swine Flu at Hajj."

The political threat is more diffuse and even more difficult to patrol. A news report on BBC America last evening indicated that ten thousand or more Saudi police and military forces are on hand in the pilgrimage zone to protect the area, its shrines and the pilgrims. Political threats include long standing ones--the conflict between Sunni and Shiite groups and the potential activities of al qaeda. Those threats now also include an insurgency breeding on the doorstep of Saudia Arabia in the northern frontier zone of Yemen, an insurgency that could easily cross the border in that area of rugged terrain and perhaps spread as far as the edges of Mecca.

Finally the weather has proven a problem. While Mecca is in the Saudi desert and normally gets only 130 mm (less than 5 inches) of rain annually, when the occasional rains come they are often in the form of torrential downpours. Heavy rain can flood wadis and gullies, quickly making normally bone dry roads impassable and dangerous. In the past several days western Saudi Arabia has received torrential downpours and a number of people have died as a consequence.

Added comment 29 November: Islam's Hajj: Rain and Fear of Swine Flu; Death Toll From Floods in Saudi Reaches 106.

All of those challenges are amplified by the simple task of meeting the basic needs of a huge influx of people, many of them far from home. Yesterday CNN's website feature Inside the Middle East published a good overview of problems related to the Hajj this year, with H1N1 as the most critical single issue in its view. The BBC has a good, continually updated, feed on Hajj conditions at various places on its extensive website.

Washington, DC as a Pilgrimage Destination

Capitol from Hirshorn Museum Sculpture Court, EOP Autumn 2008

This blog and the course for which it is written have looked almost exclusively at pilgrimages with a significant religious component, ignoring for the most part pilgrimages that are primarily secular. Those include pilgrimages devoted to historical events (the Civil War or WWII as examples), politics (homes of great political leaders as one case), sports (great stadia, places where records were set, etc.) or the arts (though in a recent posting I did suggest an architectural pilgrimage). In part that was a response to the notion that religious pilgrimages are slightly different in kind, and in part secular pilgrimages were ignored because there are simply too many of them, especially to discuss in an eight week course. Last week a question was raised about Washington, DC as a pilgrimage site, and as it happens there is a good book on the subject:

Meyer, Jeffrey F. 2001. Myths in stone: religious dimensions of Washington, D.C. Berkeley: University of California Press. xi + 343 pp. ISBN 0520214811

“This is an examination of Washington DC as a secular pilgrimage site. Meyer argues that the city was conceived and executed along various axes of power and influence that suggest the central and continually contested values that inform religious and civic beliefs.” (quoted from Fairfax County Public Library catalogue listing for the book)

Mr. Meyer is a professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and brings to his study of DC as a secular pilgrimage site some perspectives very close to those we have been using in this course. The book is strongly recommended, and the Fairfax County Public Library has copies (George Mason University's library does not seem to have a copy).