The thesis explores how elemental architecture in collaboration with the Shield can manifest a threshold condition in which a modern day hero myth can be enacted in the Canadian wilderness. Through the lens of Joseph Campbell, Tom Thomson and the archetypal structures of the Finns and Algonkians, a design proposal is derived for a Waterway Park in the Algonquin region that expands the mandate of the Ontario Parks System. In the realm of psychology, Carl Gustav Jung defines individuation as a universal quest that encourages facing and overcoming ones internal demons in order to live a more integrated existence. Located in Oxtongue River Ragged Falls Provincial Park, this proposed experimental pilgrimage retreat connects a series of primary and secondary paths to cabins, a sweat lodge and a chapel. This model illustrates a method of inhabiting a protected wilderness site that can be applied to existing and future Parks to inspire a condition of corporeal and spiritual rejuvenation in Ontario’s near North.

In the current “secular age,” more and more people find beliefs and behaviors associated with traditional religion intellectually and ethically untenable. At the same time, many “postsecular” writers, both believers and nonbelievers, continue to write with religious or religiously-inflected forms, themes, and purposes. In the United States, postsecular poets “wrestle with angels” by engaging constructively and deconstructively with matters traditionally considered the domain of religion and spirituality. While the recent work of Jürgen Habermas, Charles Taylor, John McClure and others puts the concept of the postsecular at the cutting edge of various fields of study, including religion, sociology, and literature, this dissertation presents the first study of contemporary postsecular poetry. The central question is, how should we define and describe contemporary postsecular poetry in the United States and how should we understand its religious and literary significance? To answer this question, this dissertation presents a broad survey of postsecular contemporary American poetry, offers extended analyses of the work of two preeminent postsecular poets—Li-Young Lee and Scott Cairns—and probes the implications for readers of the poetic forms found in such texts.

These photographs offer illustrations of the people, places, and resources along the two prominent pilgrimage trails in the Timber Mountain Caldera region. These photographs were taken during the 2006 Timber Mountain Caldera Landscape Study, the 2001 Shoshone Mountain Wind Farm Environmental Assessment, and 1999 NTS Rock Art study.

This is an autoethnographic account of my 1000km journey across The Camino Via de la Plata, framed within transpersonal theory. From my personal account of a peak experience on The Way, this spiritual inquiry attempts to connect myself and the reader to insights into transformation and living through embodied writing while contributing to the exploration of personal flourishing and growth in leisure studies. This process involved moving into and through Romanyshyn’s (2007) six orphic moments found in re-search processes with soul in mind. I then unfold my journey along the Camino and deepen this inquiry by engaging literature that help to explore spiritual aspects of my journey on the Camino. Leisure inquiry frames this transpersonal peak experience in a number of ways: it is an act of empowerment (Arai, 1997), focal practice (Arai & Pedlar, 2000), resistance (Shaw, 2001, 2007), and an experience of liminality (Cody, 2012) with transformation occurring at the flux of it all.

The Tibetan literary corpus offers a wide array of (auto)biographical accounts; Tibetans have been recollecting - and narrating - life stories in earnest since the "later diffusion" (Tib. phyi dar) of Buddhism in the 11^th century. The hybrid essence of life writing, suspended between fact and fiction, finds a perfect expression in the text at the core of the present dissertation, i.e. the journal (Tib. nyin deb) of a 20th century Khams pa trader, Kha stag 'Dzam yag. The text records the events, travels, and impressions experienced by the author between 1944 and 1956; structured like a diary, this autodiegetic text, originally written in a scroll-paper format, was later edited and finally published in India in 1997. Two different heuristic devices, i.e. narratology and socio-economic analysis, are used in the present dissertation to analyse the structure and content of the nyin deb, as well as the author's idiosyncrasies emerging from the process of narrativisation. Whereas the narratological approach allows the identification of the interplay of memory, self, and culture in the socio-historical context of mid-20th century Tibet, the socio-economic analysis reflects on the nyin deb as a form of social history rather than personal narrative. The identification of "true", historical facts confirms the author's claims to factuality, thus providing unique information and insight regarding the political and economic role of Khams pa traders in 1940s-1950s Tibet, as well as the development of new pilgrimage rituals and the emergence of forms of "spiritual tourism" in modern India.

Ma thèse est consacrée aux Brahmanes du complexe de temples de Kamakhya; et plus particulièrement sur les dynamiques socio-politiques et sur les enjeux économiques internes de la communauté de Brahmanes. J'analyse la logique qui organise et hiérarchise la vaste gamme d'activités que seul les Brahmanes peuvent entreprendre; les aspects économiques de ces activités ; et la façon dont les Brahmanes conçoivent et légitiment leurs activités et leur statut. Les Brahmanes sont impliqués dans deux séries d'activités: celles liées au culte publique et celles liées au culte privé (dans leurs rapports avec leurs pèlerins, les Brahmanes ayant droit délèguent certaines activités auxBrahmanes de l'extérieur). Considérer les deux sphères d'activités des Brahmanes m'a permis d'analyser l'importance respective des deux sphères d'activités au niveau des conceptions et au niveau des pratiques entreprises par les Brahmanes ayant droit. Les chapitres de cette thèse démontreront qu'un écart important existe entre ces deux niveaux. Le culte public est la seule activité qui (en théorie] devrait être exécutée chaque jour, ainsi que pendant les fêtes. En même temps, à présent, le complexe de temples reçoit chaque jour des milliers de pèlerins ; cela a un impact profond sur l'organisation interne et l'action de la communauté des Brahmanes. Une des taches de ma thèse sera alors de repérer les dynamiques spécifiques au complexe de temples de Kamakhya que le flux de pèlerins contribue à mettre en place, comme par exemple l'enrichissement de certains Brahmanes et l'émergence de différences économiques importantes au sein de la communauté, avec les inimités auxquelles on peut s'attendre dans une telle situation. La dernière partie de la thèse explore le rôle des Brahmans ayant droit dans l'administration du complexe de temples. A travers J'analyse d'une dispute actuellement en cours, j'explore Ia façon dont les différents acteurs voient la relation entre la distribution des taches rituelles et la hiérarchie qui en résulte et le pouvoir politique. / This thesis studies the Brahmans of the Kamakhya temple complex; and in particular the social, economic and political issues agitating the priestly community. My interest concerns all Brahmans active at the temple complex. l analyze the logic that organizes and hierarchizes the wide range of activities restricted to Brahmans; the financial aspect of these activities; and the way Brahmans conceptualize and legitimize their activities and standing. The Brahmans are basically involved in two sets of activities: those connected to the public worship and those connected to their relations with pilgrims and the private worship (in dealing with pilgrims, the rights—holder Brahmans delegate certain activities to the Brahmans from outside the Nilachal). Considering both the spheres of activity allowed me to analyze the relative significance of the two spheres at the level of concepts and at that of the practices undertaken by the Brahmans. The chapters of this thesis will show that a significant gap can be detected between the two levels. The public worship is the only activity which (in theory) should be undertaken every day and is understood to be the essential activity of the temple complex. On the 0ther hand, at present the temple complex receives thousands of pilgrims every day; as will be shown, that has a profound impact on the internal organization and agency of the Brahman community. One 0f the main tasks of this thesis will be to find 0ut the specific ways in which the flow of pilgrims contributes to shaping new models of relationships between the Brahmans of the Kamakhya temple complex, to orientating the Brahmans' choices and actions, and to creating significant economic differences among the Brahmans. The last part of the thesis explores the role of the Brahmans in the administration of the temple complex. Through the analyse of a seventeen—year—old dispute l explore the way different actors answer the question whether the political sphere should be informed by ritual ranking among Brahmans and between Brahmans and non—Brahmans or not.

L’île du Putuoshan (archipel de Zhoushan, Zhejiang) accueille chaque année des dizaines de milliers de voyageurs venus de toute l’Asie pour rendre un culte au bodhisattva de la compassion Guanyin, dans l’espoir de bénéficier de ses faveurs, d’obtenir des réponses miraculeuses et d’assister à une manifestation divine. Haut-lieu bouddhique depuis le Xe siècle, le Putuoshan est au cœur de projets de développement initiés à la fin de la Révolution Culturelle qui visent à transformer les paysages et les pratiques de pèlerinage. Ces mutations ont reconfiguré le champ religieux local lequel intègre désormais une pluralité d’acteurs, avec chacun leurs objectifs et leurs stratégies ; ainsi les communautés monastiques cherchent à accroître l’influence du site, une ambition partagée par les autorités politiques qui encouragent également les initiatives touristiques des entreprises privées et des administrations en charge de la culture, tout en opérant, comme il est de mise partout en Chine, un contrôle sur les activités des temples. Microcosme insulaire, le Putuoshan est un espace où se croisent nombre de personnes qui projettent sur l’île de Guanyin leurs propres visions du lieu. Elles les façonnent à partir des récits mythologiques et des discours relayés par les media bouddhiques et la littérature touristique, qui font du site, un lieu à la fois dans et hors du monde. Avec leur savoir-faire et leur savoir-être bouddhistes, ils inventent leur pèlerinage et leur relation à Guanyin dont la présence leur est tantôt suggérée, donnée à voir, mise en scène à travers différents dispositifs. Se rendre sur l’île (de) Guanyin, c’est ainsi « faire l’expérience » de Guanyin, un bodhisattva aux multiples facettes, capable de prendre toutes sortes de formes et de faire des miracles. À partir d’enquêtes de terrain et de l’analyse des matériaux édités localement, cette thèse propose d’analyser dans une perspective anthropologique, la combinaison des différents aspects religieux, économiques, politiques et sociaux qui fondent le site et son pèlerinage. / Putuoshan Island (Zhoushan archipelago, Zhejiang) welcomes every year thousands of travelers coming from all over Asia to worship Guanyin, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, and to express their wishes to be blessed, to receive miraculous responses and to see divine manifestations. Well known as a major Buddhist site since the tenth century, Putuoshan is by now the focus of many development projects, initiated at the end of the Cultural Revolution, that aim to transform the landscapes and to change the pilgrimage’s practices. These changes have reconfigured the local religious field that includes a plurality of actors each of them having their own goals and strategies. The monastic communities seek to increase the influence of the site; a goal that is shared by the political authorities, that encourage also the touristic initiatives taken by private companies, and by administrations in charge of cultural affairs. Of course, by the while, they mean to control the temples’ activities, as they do everywhere in China. Many different people project their own visions of the place onto Putuoshan, this insular microcosm, the island of Guanyin. They shape them by listening to the mythological narratives and discourses relayed by Buddhist media, as well as by reading the tourist literature that make the site become a place both in and out of the world. With their knowledge of Buddhist practices, they invent their own pilgrimage and their own relationship to Guanyin, whose presence is sometimes suggested, sometimes showed to them, or even staged through various theatrical sets. So that going to the island of Guanyin is properly to ”experience” Guanyin, this multifaceted bodhisattva able to take any existing form and performing miracles and marvels. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork research and on the analysis of local publications, this thesis means to analyze from an anthropological perspective, the various religious, economic, political and social aspects, that shape the site and its pilgrimage.

En 1187, après près d’un siècle de domination sur Jérusalem, les Latins perdent la Ville sainte face aux armées de Saladin. L’événement produit un choc immédiat et d’une ampleur considérable en Occident, donnant lieu à des actions militaires, liturgiques, mais aussi à des élaborations littéraires et picturales spécifiques, poursuivies jusqu’aux dernières tentatives de reconquêtes de la Terre sainte au XIVe siècle. En partant de ces réactions face à la chute, ce travail se propose d’observer d’abord le rapport de la chrétienté latine à la perte de Jérusalem : l’impact qu’eut celle-ci en Occident, les discours et les images qui en sont nés, la mémoire qu’elle a généré et ses évolutions permettent de cerner, à côté du persistant désir de recouvrer les Lieux saints, les marques d’un regret de plus en plus affirmé à leur égard. Il s’agit aussi de voir en quoi cette nouvelle relation à la Ville sainte a pu modifier la perception de celle-ci. La revendication de la cité donne ainsi l’occasion aux Latins de repenser et de réaffirmer les liens qui unissent Jérusalem au christianisme et à la chrétienté, pour mieux en justifier la récupération et en réaffirmer l’importance dans le plan de salut chrétien. Dans le même temps, la nostalgie dont la cité fait l’objet tend à la ramener à une dimension plus mythique et plus symbolique encore, qui apparaît aussi comme un moyen pour les Latins de continuer de se réapproprier Jérusalem à travers son image, pour mieux en conjurer la perte. / In 1187, after nearly a century of Christian rule over Jerusalem, the Latins lost the Holy City to the army of Saladin. The fall triggered an instant, overwhelming reaction of shock in the West and led to military and liturgical action, as well as to the production of specific literary and pictorial depictions, which continued until the last attempts at recapturing the Holy Land in the 14th century. Through these representations, this thesis examines Latin Christianity’s response to the loss of Jerusalem: its impact in the West, the resulting discourses and images, and the evolving memory it created combine to indicate an increasingly vivid sense of regret. This new relationship with the Holy City also altered the way it was perceived. Indeed, laying claim to the city was a way for the Latins to reconsider and reaffirm Christianity’s ties to Jerusalem, and therefore justify attempts to recover it and assert its importance in Christian salvation. At the same time, the nostalgia the city inspires lends it a legendary, symbolic dimension; the latter offers the Latins a way to reclaim Jerusalem through its image, in order to ward off their loss.

xii, 101 p. / The Reek Sunday Pilgrimage at Croagh Patrick in County Mayo, Ireland is a syncretic event that incorporates official Catholic religious narratives of Saint Patrick, folk narratives of the site's Celtic pagan significance, local histories of the Great Irish Famine of the 19th century and personal narratives with a physical engagement with the landscape to create a spiritual experience. The pilgrimage serves as a performative event that allows participants to formulate and perform alternative spiritualities and identities, blurring the distinctions between pilgrim and tourist, sacred and profane. An emerging tradition at Croagh Patrick illustrates this by emphasizing the historical and national significance of the famine villages along the ancient pilgrimage path, the <italic>Tochar Phadraig,</italic> embracing these sites, and pilgrimage to them, as sacred. / Committee in charge: Lisa Gilman, Chairperson; Dianne Dugaw, Member; Phil Scher, Member

Thesis named: ?Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism as human need in health and illness? The phenomenon of pilgrimage and related religious tourism have been more and more discussed recently, although the history of pilgrimage origins in distant past. The main goal of the thesis was to describe two religious cultures, namely Christianity and Islam, to describe the history of pilgrimage and pilgrimage destinations of these two cultures and to compare them. The partial goals were to map attitudes of these cultures to health and illness, to identify the elements common for the pilgrims and to find out how religious and pilgrimage tourism influences these people in their relation to health and illness. The aim of the work was to identify and understand a person of different religion better, to grasp a human as an individual and to approach him/her this way. Qualitative research, for which four research questions had been set, was performed. The research itself had the form of an individual non standardized interview with a research sample consisting of four Christians and four Muslims. Case studies were elaborated upon the interviews. The case studies form the research base for categorization areas. The results based on the interviews were processed by means of frame analysis (of the categorized groups). The results show that Christianity and Islam have certain cultural differences. Pilgrimage and pilgrimage destinations differ substantially in Christianity and Islam. While Christians visit these places for spiritual and physical relaxation and to please for health, for Muslims the pilgrimage is a part of the ?five pillars of Islam?. This finding is the biggest difference of both the religious cultures in relation to pilgrimage and religious tourism. The topic of this thesis is not very typical for the nursing care field of study; however I would like to provide students and colleagues with valuable information based on the thesis. The thesis could be used as informational material for nurses and as study material for nursing care students.