The thesis presents a case study of the multi-faith (Hindu and Buddhist) pilgrimage site, Muktinath/Chumig Gyatsa in Mustang District, Nepal, and presents a theory of how pilgrimage sites 'work/ and why and how they change. This is achieved through a multidisciplinary approach that uses anthropological scholarship and methods, as well as some phenomenological theory and concepts from organizational studies. It emphasizes ritual specialists as core stakeholders in the corporate phenomenon of the site, and elevates 'place', to the position of a key stakeholder; both as a subject and object of agency in the production of a variety of social, spiritual, and political meanmgs. The relationships between people and places are shown to create meanings.jind material or 'embodied' manifestations of those meanings for both place and people'Tt rs advanced by the final analysis of the site's most significant, recent changes: the increase in Hindu building and 'people- ing' of the site with ritual specialists; and the orthodox Buddhist 'reform' of the bodies and behaviours of the Buddhist nuns who are moving to Kathmandu. It is argued that these changes represent relationships of mutual constitution and interchangeability between places and people. Ultimately, this thesis argues that pilgrimage sites (and practices) are' sculptural' - that is - architectonic, spatial, and bodied, as well as historical and political. Therefore people and buildings or places can occupy the same categories and produce meanings for one another when they interact. Change within the site come from the production of many kinds of meanings during these encounters. These are not always calculated or planned in advanced, but they continuously arise out of the site and thus require continuous management by the site's ritual and governmental stakeholders.

In Europe and beyond, pilgrimage centres attract millions of visitors each year. This popularity has provoked a burgeoning academic interest in pilgrimage, and this thesis builds on this expanding literature. It emerges out of a dialogue between old and new forms of movement – a conversation that demands further research on the relationship between religious traditions and late–modern consumer culture, a dialogue made explicit through the study of pilgrimage. Although this thesis pays attention to one case study in particular, namely the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, it draws on multi–disciplinary research in order to set a broader context. It reveals four motivational themes, derived from interviews with pilgrims on the road to Compostela. These I explore in depth through qualitative analysis, while at the same time taking note of parallel quantitative work concerned with the Camino de Santiago as well as other pilgrimage sites in Europe. Ranging from the search for spirituality to recreation, motivations are found to be the result of a conflation of meanings; they are ambiguous narratives, which very often include spiritual as well as secular aspirations. My findings suggest a de–differentiation of poles of meaning such as sacred and profane, movement and place, religion and secularity, community and individual. In short, this is a methodologically diverse study which argues that, contrary to perception, traditional forms of religious rituals are not necessarily incompatible with late–modern consumer culture. Through consumer culture religious traditions are being revitalized. The renewed popularity of pilgrimage today demonstrates how some religious landscapes and spaces have remained important through political and religious movements, while others have been regenerated by literature, new media, specialist tourist markets, advertising and private enterprise. Finally, this study reveals a noticeable democratization of traditional rites, and the landscapes in which they take place. A very wide variety of groups and individuals visit them.