Cognition of Hardship Experience in Himalayan Pilgrimage

7/28/2019 Cognition of Hardship Experience in Himalayan Pilgrimage

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Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156852711X593287

Numen 58 (2011) 632673 brill.nl/nu

e Cognition of Hardship Experiencein Himalayan Pilgrimage

Andreas NordinSocial Anthropology, School of Global Studies, University of GothenburgKonstepidemins vg 2, P. O. Box 700, SE 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden

[email protected]

Abstractis article discusses experiences of hardship during Hindu pilgrimages in theNepalese and Tibetan Himalayas. Pilgrims have to reach their goal by undertaking a

journey. e pilgrimage exposes pilgrims to a variety of experiences. e journeysreligious experiences are of significance for the ritual arrangements of the pilgrimage.Cognitive theories and the selectionist approach of cultural epidemiology are adoptedto offer explanations for the formation of religious beliefs and values associated withtravelling experience, hardship and danger during pilgrimage. Specifically, it is arguedthat the experience of salient emotional events such as hardship are likely to drawupon evolved social exchange intuitions that impose a selective pressure in the culturalformation and recurrence of beliefs regarding religious merits in pilgrimage. It is fur-ther argued that social exchange intuitions are a likely source of beliefs in boons andmerits, since pilgrimage is already conceptualised as an interaction with supernaturalagents. ese accounts modify and elaborate former suggestions regarding hardshipand sacrificial notions in pilgrimage studies. us the presented arguments may berelevant to understanding some of the features of pilgrimage that also seem to recurcross-culturally.

KeywordsHindu pilgrimage, hardship, cognition, moral intuition, exchange, Nepal, Tibet

Background

Ideas about the importance of austerities, sacrifices and hardship, reli-

gious discipline and merits are common in diff

erent religious tradi-tions, such as those in South Asia. ese ideas are also common in


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religious pilgrimage in various cultures. Indeed some scholars arguethat sacrificial elements and hardships are constitutive parts of pilgrim-

age (e.g., Preston 1992:3146). Whether or not this is so, hardshipbeliefs are so common in pilgrimage that they beg explanation. In thisarticle I shall refer to similar themes about austerities, sacrificial ele-ments, and hardship in the local case of Hindu pilgrimage in Nepaleseand Tibetan Himalaya.e background to this case is a doctoral projectand fieldwork that was conducted in 2003 at the high-altitude site ofMuktinath and the urban site of Pasupatinath in Nepal, and finally thehigh-altitude site of Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar in western Tibet.

Human cognitive and emotional processes are significant in themanifestation and development of cultural phenomena such as reli-gion. I propose to analyse the experience of hardship on pilgrimage atthe level of cognition and culture. An apt starting point is the adoptionof theories and methods developed within naturalised social scienceresearch programs and specifically within cognitive anthropology andthe so-called cognitive science of religion. (For the meta-theoreticalmotivations for this, see for example Boyer 2001:150, Lawson andMcCauley 1990:1243, McCauley and Lawson 1996:171190; Sper-ber 1996:954; Srensen 2005:465494.) Although they share similarconcerns, ideals, and scientific standards, scholars who study the cogni-tive aspects of religion are divided on particular issues. ese includeissues such as whether religious phenomena are evolved adaptationsor by-products, the phenomenal (non-)coherence of religion as anentity, the exact role of cognitive processing and contextual factors, andthe way in which culture is modelled (overview: Boyer and Bergstrom2008:111130; Pyysiinen and Hauser 2010:104109; Srensen

2005:465494). One well-established approach is the so-called stan-dard model (Boyer 2005:329) this is also the approach chosen inthis article.

What, then, can these perspectives tell us about pilgrimage? Oneanswer might be that they can offer novel explanations and improveddescriptions ofcrucial elementsof pilgrimage that have been neglected(in pilgrimage studies). Accordingly, we have a method to describe andexplain given phenomenal recurrences and common patterns in pil-

grimage (e.g., in or between cultures). However, the ambition here isnot so much to explain pilgrimagesper se, as complex varied cultural


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constructs, but to focus on recurrences and commonalities that arefeatures and building blocks of the phenomena. For example, in pil-

grimage supernaturalism, good death beliefs, transfer of substance,and ideas of supernatural immediacy prevail (Nordin 2009a:195223; 2009b:402436). Consequently, I am not primarily concernedwith a universal theory of pilgrimage (whatever that might mean) butwith how to explain recurrences and commonalities that prevail in mostpilgrimages (and which thereby suggest that there are universal featuresof pilgrimage).

Hardship beliefs prevail in pilgrimage (e.g., Preston 1992:3146),

and it is therefore reasonable to ask why. Here I shall draw upon modelsthat assume that humans have developed means for identifying justice,fairness, and cheating. I propose that experience of salient emotionalevents, such as hardship, are likely to draw upon social exchange intu-itions(more below) that underpin the occurrence and cultural trans-mission of religious notions of redistribution, rewards, and merits.Cognition about hardship is similar to misfortune beliefs, in the sensethat they operate on similar salient cues of urgency and uncertainty thatrender supernatural agent concepts and intuition about social exchangeparticularly relevant. I argue that the same process works on the experi-ence of hardship during pilgrimage. is is particularly so if pilgrimsbelieve they are in a situation of exchange and communication withother agents. is article supports the hypothesis by showing (a) howpilgrims associate hardship with merit redistribution and deserts, and(b) how pilgrimage is permeated by assumptions about supernaturalagents and interaction with them. Furthermore, by adopting selection-ist models common in cognitive anthropology and in the cognitive sci-

ence of religion, we have tools to explain whyand how hardship beliefsare underpinned by social exchange intuitions and how they are con-nected to supernaturalism.

To give an overview of my discussion, I first offer a brief descriptionof the major approaches to pilgrimage and how these treat hardshipbeliefs. Second, the issue of supernaturalism in religion and pilgrim-age is analysed. It is emphasized that the significance of supernaturalagents is neglected in pilgrimage studies. is fact is obvious when

contemporary cognitive theory on supernaturalism is adopted. Conse-quently, this section discusses the cognitive property ofcounterintuition


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in religious beliefs and the idea of a selectionist approach such ascultural epidemiology. is stance is also the point of departure for this

article when analysing my ethnographic material from Nepal and Tibet.Here it will be shown that supernaturalism operates as a constitutivecomponent of the cultural category of pilgrimage. Afterward, I framethe question of how and why hardship experience is an important partof pilgrimage. Here I detour into some of the major proposals in cogni-tive science of religion regarding religious experience and rituals, andthen introduce the theory of social exchange intuitions. is leads tothe stance that supernaturalism and social exchange intuitions are deci-

sive in underpinning the occurrence and transmission of religiousnotions, rewards, and merits in pilgrimage. e final and longest sec-tion of this article offers an ethnographic description of the intercon-nected themes in pilgrims cultural models of hardship, experience,danger, sacrifice, austerities, merits, and asceticism.

Majoreories of Pilgrimage

Various theories have been used to explain pilgrimage (Morinis1984:233; 1992:79). Popular among them are those of communitasand contestation (Coleman 2002:355368). Generally anthropologi-cal approaches to pilgrimage are symbolist theories.1 Lawson andMcCauley argue that most symbolists agree that symbolic systems arenot explanations of the world, but representations of either psychologi-cal or social systems which employ an indirect rather than a literalmeans of expression (1990:3738). Consequently, pilgrimage is con-sidered to be a symbolic representation of social functions (e.g., Wolf1958:3439), social dynamics (e.g., Yamba 1990:1925, 179191; vander Veer 1988:5865), or psychological functions and needs (e.g.,Osterreith 1997:2538; Sumption 1975:302; Turnbull 1992:257262;cf. Daniel 1984:233286). In the same vein, Morinis held that pilgrim-age (at least in Hindu tradition) expresses and manifests cosmologicalworldviews and religious doctrines (1984:276299) or local logics(e.g., Sax 1991). Anthropologists have also viewed pilgrimage as a mix-

1) With the exception of Bharati (1991:1929).


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ture of social and psychological functions, which, in combination withthe semiotic expression of cosmological ideas, creates the conditions for

communitas (Turner and Turner 1978:13, 3539). In the heyday ofsymbolic anthropology, communitas was an appealing notion forunderstanding pilgrimage, and few anthropologists were able to movebeyond it (Yamba 1990:89). However, in a number of cultural con-texts anthropologists were unable to find evidence of communitas(Eickelman 1976:173175; Messerschmidt and Sharma 1981:571572; Morinis 1984:255260; Pfaffenberger 1979:253270; Sallnow1981:163182).is prompted interest in the importance of power and

strategic political concerns in human conduct.

e idea of communitaswas rejected, and it was concluded that pilgrimage was a contested phe-nomenon and that the only thing common to different pilgrimages wascontestation: pilgrimage is above all an arena for competing religiousdiscourses, . . . for conflict between orthodoxies, sects and confessionalgroups (Eade and Sallnow 1991:2).

According to Eade and Sallnow there is nothing intra-culturally dis-tinctive let alone cross-culturally constant in pilgrimage; the meaningof pilgrimage is instead relative and particular to the group, context andstrategy of contestation: For if one can no longer take for granted themeaning of a pilgrimage . . . one can no longer take for granted a uni-form definition of the phenomenon of pilgrimage either (Eade andSallnow 1991:3). is idea has been partly supported by others whohold that beyond the idea of communitas and contestation there is nouniversally valid theory that can pin down the activity of pilgrimage(Coleman 2002:362). However, these positions may overlook flaws inthe theories of both communitas and contestation. Contestation theory

tends to exaggerate the theoretical as well as empirical importance ofmeaning and discourse. Meanings in pilgrimage vary in and betweencultural contexts, but there are also commonalities in ritual actions andbeliefs. ere are other things than meanings that matter, and mean-ings are indeed quite unimportant for some explanatory purposes(McCauley and Lawson 2002:10).2 Actually, most cases of pilgrimage

2) In order to explain rather than simply to describe cultural and religious phenomena,it is important to consider other factors than meanings; some indeed claim thatmeaning does not matter at all for certain explanatory purposes. It is true that pilgrimsmay offer numerous interpretations (cf. McCauley and Lawson 2002:9) but there are


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are poor examples of contestation,3 since other concerns are more com-mon and crucial for the pilgrims.

More relevant to my present concern is that the approaches men-tioned above seem unable to offer adequate explanations of the recur-rent phenomenon of hardship beliefs or of the importance ofsupernatural agents.is does not necessarily mean that there are newercontestation-like or communitas-like tendencies in some pilgrimagesbut that such tendencies may be of limited significance.e limitationsof earlier approaches may be that they tried to explain all aspects ofpilgrimage by focusing on onlyoneaspect and offering this a magic

bullet explanation (cf., Boyer 2001:298, 2005:34). But religion andpilgrimage are historical and synthetic categories that cover a broadrange of phenomena that ought to be refracted into their constitutiveparts. ese parts and their relations should be addressed separately soas to better fit for scientific investigation (Atran 2002:814; Boyer2001:50 and 298, 2005:34; Srensen 2005:467468). Consequently,I am not concerned with the nature of pilgrimageper sebut with certainbeliefs and behaviours such as hardship beliefs and ritualised journeysin the Himalayas.

Pilgrimage, Supernatural Agent Concepts, and CulturalTransmission

My approach starts from the condition that pilgrimages are generallyjourneys based on ritual interaction with culturally postulated super-natural (counterintuitive) agents (e.g., Nordin 2009a:195223). MyHindu Nepalese case is, arguably, a local example of cross-culturalrecurrent themes of supernaturalism in pilgrimage. Pilgrims used bothpolytheistic and monotheistic descriptions of supernatural agents. Oneof the most common ways in which pilgrims mentioned divine entitiesduring the journey was in unspecified reference to God or the lord

some consistent patterns in these that beg explanation, and this cannot be achievedsimply by reference to descriptions of local meaning formation.3) Which does not mean there are no conflicts at places such as Ayodhya, Jerusalem,or Karbala.


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Bhagawan. Specific descriptions included references to Shiva (Shankar,Bolenath, Pasupati) or Vishnu (Narayan) etc.

e fact that supernatural agent concepts are worthy of analyticalattention is given no importance in the theories of mainstream anthro-pology and pilgrimage studies (cf., Coleman 2002:355368; Eade andSallnow 1991:129; Morinis 1992:128; Reader 1993:125). isomission may reflect contested meta-theoretical understandings aboutthe nature of religion and the dominance of Durkheimian or Geertz-ian theories of religion in anthropology.e use of analytical terms such as superhuman or supernatural

agents (e.g., ancestors, Gods, ghost, sprits, souls, demons, saints andeven religious experts) should be seen as a recognition of the fact thatsupernatural agent concepts hold an important position in religiousbeliefs and ritual action. However, the use of these concepts may also becriticized for reflecting an Abrahamic view of religion, according towhich God is transcendent and elevated. Maybe Hinduism makes noabsolute distinction between human and the divine agents (cf. Fuller1992:3, 61). Although such criticism should be taken seriously, sincethese ideas vary in different cultures, people nevertheless do havenotions of superhuman/supernatural agents. Also, folk concepts ofsupernatural agent(s) in the Abrahamic traditions are not always tran-scendent or elevated, and many supernatural agent concepts in Hindutraditions, particularly in the context of pilgrimage, envisage Vishnu orShiva as dwelling in heaven (Vaikunta/Svarga) or Mt. Kailash. Hindus,like other believers, may take a less theologically correct stance (e.g.,Barrett 1999:32539; Slone 2004:78, 1011) and hold that there is aclear distinction between humans and divinities.

More generally, critics maintain that presumptions about superhu-man or supernatural agents are not a critically important feature ofreligion (cf., McCauley and Lawson 2002:8). However, this suggests anoverly inclusive view of religion.e puzzles here seem to be the asser-tions that since onlymeaning matters, allmeanings matter (McCauleyand Lawson 2002:9).

Yet, the crucial point here should be not to enter into sterile aca-demic debates over the nature or definition of religious phenomena.

It is quite possible to abandon labels such as superhuman or super-natural.e point is instead to adopt a theoretically informed approach


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that, among other things, takes into account culturally varied agentconcepts with counterintuitive properties and their relation to (ritual)

performance and conceptual schemes connected to such performance(cf. McCauley and Lawson 2002:9). Of course these agent conceptsmay be seen in relation to many other aspects of what are labelled reli-gious phenomena.e idea of counterintuition has been developed by anthropologists

and scholars in the cognitive science of religion. e term refers to thetweaky character of religious concepts involving breaches or viola-tions of intuitive expectations about ontological categories (e.g., Barrett

2000:2934; Boyer 1994:103124, 2001:5186; Pyysiinen 2001:1623, 2009:2230). To understand the theory of counterintuition weneed to note that humans categorize and cognize domains in the envi-ronment differently. is fact is often connected to a general stance incognitive science and the philosophy of mind that the human mind isnot a blank slate or all-purpose engine cognition is insteadthought to operate through evolved functional specialization, separatemodules or domain-specific systems that process information and cuesdifferently. Consequently, people have tacit expectations of or theoriesregarding what kinds of things there are in the world. Such intuitiveontologiesare spontaneously employed in category formation and oureveryday interaction with the world (Boyer 1994:103124, 2001:5775 and 93135). Hence, humans seem to have similar intuitiveexpectations and make similar distinctions between animate and inani-mate objects, between persons, animals, plants, artefacts and natural orphysical objects, etc. However, supernatural agent concepts are coun-terintuitive, and this means that they violate and breach some basic

domains of intuitive ontological assumptions such as those of biology,physicality and the theory of mind (Boyer 1994:103124, 2001:5775). But supernatural agents are, at the same time, tacitly construed asordinary intentional agents with a psychology that is essentially similarto that of humans. Supernatural agent concepts are relevant to thehuman mind because of their salience and rich inferential capacity(Boyer 2001:169202). is is evident in the fact that supernaturalagents are believed (a) to have access to strategic knowledge about peo-

ples lives and welfare, (b) to be moral arbitrators in human concerns,and (c) to have the capacity to interfere with and influence human affairs


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and be considered relevant and likely explanations for salient events(Barrett 2004:3160; Boyer 2001:169202). It is these cognitive pre-

conditions that make counterintuitive notions such as animate moun-tains, invisible or omnipotent people, and statues that can cry or flyattention-grabbing, memorable and favourable over cognitively non-optimal concepts in cultural transmission. Furthermore, it is not bybeing massively4 but by being minimally counterintuitive that theserepresentations are cognitively optimal in cultural transmission andselection (Barrett 2004:2130; Boyer and Ramble 2001:535564). Inthis way it is the optimal counterintuitive ideas that make up religious

traditions, and this explains the recurrence of certain types of conceptsas resulting from selection based on cognitive factors.As implied here, previous discussion relies on the general idea of

cultural selection (e.g., Boyd and Richerdson 2005:103, 133144,420435; Sperber 1996:100102) and particularly the approach ofcultural epidemiology (Sperber 1996:5697). However, there is ongo-ing debate among the selectionists regarding causal mechanisms andmechanisms of cultural transmission and ontology (e.g., Gervais andHenrich 2010:383387; Henrich and Boyd 2002:87112; Sperberand Claidire 2008:283292). According to cultural epidemiology,religious concepts and cultural information are generally conceivedof as an epidemiological outcome and distribution that is selected bybeing filtered through cognitive systems, communication, and ecologi-cal factors (e.g., Atran 2002:219224; Atran and Medin 2008:209223; Boyer 2001:4547; Linard and Boyer 2006:814827; Sperber1996:5697; Sperber and Claidire 2008:283292; Sperber andHirschfeld 2006:149164). is means that acquisition, memory stor-

age, and inferential construction exert significant cognitive pressure onthe transmission of cultural information. As will be shown below, socialexchange intuitions, working in tandem with supernatural agent con-cepts, are a likely source of religious hardship and merit beliefs.

4) at is, multiplying violations of ontological assumptions in a counterintuitive con-cept does not make it more suitable for distribution in cultural transmission and selec-tion (Barrett 2004:2425).


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Supernaturalism and the Hindu Category and Practice ofTirtha Yatra

In Hindu tradition pilgrimage is called tirtha yatra(e.g., Eck 1981:323344). However, it may be difficult to discern a coherent folk or theo-logical notion of pilgrimage, since tirtha yatra is assigned differentmeanings depending on the sect, region, and tradition (Bhardwaj 1973:1).Nevertheless, it may be said that a tirtha is usually held to enable acrossing over between different realms of reality. Hence a tirthais achannel to a supernatural agent or domain; it may be at a river or lakeor some other place associated with water, or it may consist of a sacred

mountain, statue or natural object, cave or temple, or even a psy-chophysical point, chakra, in the body (Morinis 1984:286287). Inthis study among pilgrims at Muktinath, Pasupatinath and Mt. Kailashand Manasarovar tirtha yatra, darshanyatraor darshan were the termsused to capture the practice of pilgrimage. Pilgrims usually held that

yatrawas the journey, yatrior tirtha yatri the travelling pilgrim, andtirtha yatrathe whole pilgrimage. However, a pilgrimage might also bereferred to as darshan yatraor simplydarshan, where darshan referred to

blessings received through the eyes of the supernatural agents at thepilgrimage site.e cultural category and scheme of pilgrimage was permeated by

concepts of supernatural agents and notions of causality that have aconstitutive role and pragmatic function. Further, pilgrims categorizeda site as tirthaby identifying a place of supernatural presence; by reli-gious functions and effects; by prototype exemplars and by relativedistances.e constitutive role of supernatural agent concepts and supernatu-

ral causes is instantiated in various ways. ese agents are the founda-tion of belief in sacred value (pavitra) connected to pilgrimage. Pilgrimsidentify a place of pilgrimage through reference to supernatural agents.Beliefs in ritual efficacy, the benefits and merits of hardship and effort,fulfilment of vows, the atonement of sin, and the assurance of a gooddeath at a pilgrimage site, all assume the direct or mediated presence ofacting supernatural agents. Typically, the importance of supernaturalagent concepts and causality is revealed in Hindu and Nepalese pil-

grimages in the widespread beliefs in miracles, ajap. As Turner andTurner remark about Catholic culture, places of pilgrimage are sites


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believed to be places where miracles once happened, still happen, andmay happen again (1978:6). Miracle beliefs are a kind of counterin-

tuitive belief, and this helps us understand howand whythese conceptsare cognized the way they are and then selected and spread. A phenom-enon or event that violates panhuman intuitive ontological expectationis miraculous (Pyysiinen 2004:838; Shanafelt 2004:330331), andthis is cognitively optimal for cultural transmission and selection due toits relevance and attention-catching qualities. Miracles imply counter-intuitive causes although the effects may not always be counterintuitive(Pyysiinen 2004:8283). It therefore seems reasonable to distinguish

between two types of miracles from the perspective of how counterin-tuitive representations are implicated in pilgrims ideas of miracles.emost widespread are banal miracles, when the source or cause of themiracle is counterintuitive. By contrast, spectacular miracles are thosethat occur when events and phenomena are explicitly represented coun-terintuitively, in myths, retold legends and second-hand rumours.

Miracles seem to be causally linked to the pilgrimage and take placebefore, during, or after the journey. Spectacular miracles occur in storiesand legends about the origin of the pilgrim site. At Muktinath for exam-ple, Vishnu is held to have died and taken the form of the saligram-fossil or an ancient statue ofVishnu Narayan is said to have flown acrossthe mountains and fixed itself to the rock at Muktinath. Various kindsof banal miracles intensify during pilgrimage. Seemingly ordinary ornatural events are believed to have been caused by supernatural agency.In my field experience, pilgrims witnessed lilaor random, spontaneousdivine play and acting in trees, mountains, caves, glaciers, temples,water and plants. Similarly, strange geological formations were wor-

shipped as footprints or traces of divine actors. ese miracle-beliefsusually coexisted with beliefs that statues and temples had emergedspontaneously as manifestations of a divine actor. A paradigmaticexample is the popular Shaivite pilgrim cult ofJyotir lingain India andNepal. Random events may also be seen as miracles during pilgrimage.To witness the pilgrimage site, meeting a particular pilgrim or guru, orhaving a special dream was considered to be an auspicious event causedby supernatural agents. Finally miraculous phenomena occurred in

relation to auspicious portents,phaldaya/tirtha phaland vows, bhakal.e idea ofphaldaya/tirtha phal implied that the future would bringsome unspecified but fruitful good fortune in reward for a completed


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pilgrimage.e vows, on the other hand, consisted of pilgrims secretlypromising a supernatural agent that they would carry out a pilgrimage

if their wishes were fulfilled. For example, pilgrims made the journeybecause their medical treatment had been successful or they had beencured of childlessness. ese journeys were conditioned by a vow. Or amother might vow to perform a pilgrimage if a long lost child returnedfrom India, and when he returned she would then carry out her vow.

Pilgrims identified a site as atirthawhen there was supernatural pres-ence. Atirthawas Bhagawans(Gods or the lords) place (dham), andsupernatural agent(s) were believed to reside at the tirtha. (Mt. Kailash

was the home of Shiva.) Supernatural presence was also affi

rmed bymiraculous traces at the tirthaor special manifestations, avatar.us, atirthawas a place at which a supernatural agent had emerged in mate-rial form. Due to the belief in supernatural presence, a place of pilgrim-age was considered appropriate for practising virtuous religious conduct(hindu dharma) and ritual action (darshan, snan andpuja).e practiceof rituals at the place of pilgrimage was said to be more efficient orpowerful than doing so at home. A place of pilgrimage was thoughtto be sacred and pure (pavitra) and to be able to purify the pilgrimssouls, atma.Accordingly, pilgrims valued atirthafor its alleged soterio-logical power, hence atirthawas a place for mukti or a way to mukti.Pilgrims would also identify a tirtha by comparing it with otherrenowned pilgrimage sites, which are usually close to water and havetemples, religious experts, huge congregations, and wide media cover-age. Many pilgrims held that a tirthashould be far away from homeand should involve a long journey. is meant that Pasupatinath wasnot atirthafor people living in Kathmandu, but it was for Indians or

people from more remote parts of Nepal. Many people were of theopinion that the target site for their journey was the most sacred placeof all (cf. Bhardwaj 1973:97115).

Framing the Problem: Religious Experience, Culture,and Cognition

e pilgrims must reach their goal in a single journey.

e journeyis thus instrumental to the ritual arrangements of the pilgrimage.A pilgrimage exposes pilgrims to different kinds of experience and


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pilgrims evaluations of their memories of the journey have been noted(Aziz 1987:247261). More narrowly, Preston sees hardship and dan-

ger as primary factors in the concept of spiritual magnetism in pil-grimage (1992:3360). Magnetism is the power of attraction of apilgrimage site. Accordingly, danger and hardship are attractors con-nected to religious ideas about sacrifice. e fact that notions of hard-ship and sacrifice are attractive does not explain but simply offers asummary description. Using attractors as a point of departure foranalysis may help highlight relationships for further causal explanation(Sperber 1996:106118). But according to Preston, hardship and dan-

ger are required for sacrifice and penance and as attraction and motiva-tions in pilgrimage.Ideas and experience of hardship, danger, and sacrifice are cross-cul-

turally recurrent features in pilgrimage. How and why do they emerge?In this paper cognitive and selectionist theories are used to offer someexplanations of ideas and values attributed to hardship and danger inpilgrimage. My approach is selectionist overall, based on cultural epide-miology (as introduced above), in that the objective is to explain whycertain systems of thought and behaviour tend to be selected in culturaltransmission.

In the cognitive study of religion and culture there are differentexplanations of ritual experience and emotions. According to McCau-ley and Lawson the production of exceptional religious experience isthe sensory pageantry in rituals where emotional states from euphoriato terror, enjoyment to pain are created (e.g., 2002:89178). ere arecompeting suggestions concerning the cause of the sensory pageantryin rituals. e frequency of religious performance, involvement of

supernatural agent, evoked emotions in ritual scripts or socially andexistentially urgent ritual contexts have all been held to cause sensorypageantry.

In anthropologist Harvey Whitehouses hypothesis, it is the fre-quency of performed rituals that determines the level of sensory pag-eantry and emotional experience (e.g., 1995:6587, 183184, 191221,2000:4446, 115, 142143, 2002:293315). Whitehouse also holdsthere are two overlapping types of religiosity: the doctrinal and the

imagistic.

e imagistic mode implies rarely performed rituals thatrely on strong emotions in order to be remembered and transmitted


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culturally. Here, the imagistic mode exploits non-verbal imagery andautobiographical memory for salient and perceptually encoded ritual

events. e doctrinal mode implies high frequency of ritual perfor-mance, verbal language, and logical coherence that preserve informa-tion in semantic memory storage.

Clearly emotions and sensory pageantry do make rituals memorable.But the accuracy of Whitehouses model is still under debate (McCau-ley and Lawson 2002:89178, and for different topics in the debate see

Whitehouse and McCauley 2005), and it may not explain why someinfrequently performed rituals generate low emotional excitement or

why some rituals are rarely performed (McCauley and Lawson2002:124178). For McCauley and Lawson the level of sensory pag-eantry depends on how the ritual performers represent culturally pos-tulated supernatural agents (2002:137). In high sensory pageantryrituals, supernatural agents are believed to actin order to bring aboutimportant states of affairs in social life. In low sensory pageantry ritualsthe performer acts upon supernatural agents. Generally, it is here sug-gested that it is the presence of supernatural agents that produces sen-sory pageantry and strong emotions by bringing about permanentchanges in social and personal identities, such as in initiation rituals orlife-cycle rituals such as at birth, status change and death. However, itis hardly the supernatural agent(s) that causes the sensory pageantryand brings about permanent effects by acting in rituals. Rather, theserituals have emotional power because they are socially and personallyimportant events that happen only once in a lifetime for those involved(Boyer 2001:260262; Pyysiinen 2001:93; 2004:140).

Finally, a parallel account of ritual sensory pageantry points to the

evoked emotions from compulsion, rigidity, redundancy, and goaldemotion in ritualised behaviour (Linard and Boyer 2006:58). Heresensory pageantry derives from neurocognitive hazard-precaution sys-tems activated by cues about potential danger. According to this model,rituals exploit and extend an evolutionary proper domain of a cogni-tive system into a broader and actual domain of cultural behaviour(Sperber and Hirshfeld 2006:157160; Sperber 1996:138143). Linardand Boyer describe intriguing aspects of the foundation of ritualized

behaviour and its cultural transmission.

e value of this will be brieflynoted below in relation to the cognitive underpinning of dangers and


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risks accompanying rituals. Pilgrimage experience seems to confirmWhitehouses claim that rarely performed imagistic religiosity produces

spontaneous exegetic reflection (SER) regarding the cause and mean-ing of rituals (e.g., 2002:305306). Yet, pilgrimage is already categor-ised as an interaction involving supernatural agents. e fact thatcategories and schemes of pilgrimage are based on and permeated byculturally available supernatural agent concepts is shown in the previ-ous discussion. Such a categorized understanding surely culturallyprimes pilgrims beliefs about their experience.

It has also been suggested that the important thing is whether a ritual

performer experiences an intimate relation with the supernaturalagent(s) in rituals (Pyysiinen 2001:9394). According to McCauleyand Lawson we should expect rather low sensory pageantry in pilgrim-age since the pilgrims are the principal ritual actors (2002:150151).But pilgrims seem to have split intuitions regarding the ritual perfor-mance since they are both acting and acted upon by supernatural agentsduring pilgrimage (Nordin 2009a:200). In pilgrimage journeys ritual-ized behaviour flourishes and intensifies closer to the pilgrimage site.e whole journey is often ritualized from the moment of departure tothe moment of return. Yet this fact does not apply to every pilgrim.Some pilgrims prefer to ritually demarcate the pilgrimage from the flowof other action while others do not care and simply set off on their

journey. Given these qualifications we cannot be sure that ritualizingthe whole journey is an essential variable for determining sensory pag-eantry in pilgrimage; although when pilgrims do ritualize their whole

journey, this probably enhances the sensory pageantry.Sensory pageantry may be an effect of ritual actions, proximity to

supernatural agent(s), or experiences of hardship and danger that arisein completing the journey. Just as the category of pilgrimage aloneseems to provide cultural priming5 for pilgrimage experience, it alsoseems to reinforce rationalisation involving supernatural agents. Sinceit is a ritual behaviour we should also expect attribution of supernaturalagency, since this provides casual explanations for ritual efficacy in the

5) Accordingly, psychological findings show that exposure to stimulus at time A influ-

ences responses to a related stimulus at time B (Friederici, Steinhauer and Frisch1999:438453).


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absence of causal connections (McCauley and Lawson 2002:137;Linard and Boyer 2006:8).

Yet, in this paper I wish to stress that experience of hardship anddanger includes supernatural agents in another way during pilgrimage.is is obvious when we see how human sociality and beliefs abouturgency and misfortune work.e propensity for engaging in social exchange is unique to and uni-

versal in humans. Humans are ultrasocial (Richerdson and Boyd1998:7195) because of the many complex ways they interact, cooper-ate, and rely on reciprocal sharing (e.g., Axelrod 1984:16; Fiske 1991:

1349; Henrich and Henrich 2006:227236).

ese social conditionsmust be underpinned by specialized cognitive systems social exchangeintuitions that give a complex computational capacity (a) to detectsocial cues for cheating and deceit, (b) to assess the costs and benefits ofvarious courses of action, and (c) to give emotional responses to breachesof expectations of social exchange and contract (Cosmides 1989:195197; Cosmides and Tooby 1992:163228). Justice is also a socialexchange intuition that is reflected in the urge to punish cheaters,wrongdoers, or perpetrators and to understand victimhood (Robinsonet al. 2007:16461654). Such systems are moral intuitionsto the extentthat they occur automatically, quickly, and effortlessly, and the out-come but not the process is available to consciousness (Haidt 2001:818).ese supplement other social detection systems such as the recognitionof kin, group members, and trustworthy people (Boyer 2001:198).

When people explain misfortune, coincidence is seldom an attractiveoption. More often, reasons and motivations are associated with caus-ative agents, such as in the case of witchcraft accusations. Supernatural

agent causation is parasitic on the human proclivity to explain eventsfrom the perspective of ordinary agent causality and the intentionsof humans (Barrett 2004:3144; Boyer 2001:169202; Cohen 2007:156196; Slone 2004:5167). In particular, intuition about socialexchange, fairness and moral merits from non-religious contexts areattributed to supernatural agents in times of misfortune (Boyer2001:201). It is not only that gods and other supernatural agents pro-vide explanations for misfortune. is fact should be seen as a special

instance of the general human tendency in situations of urgency anduncertainty to increase the detection of agency (Barrett 2004:3940).


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e stress of urgency contributes to the relevance of supernatural beliefs,since supernatural agents are already included in social exchange and

they are interacted with. Supernatural agents are represented as moralarbiters and holders of strategic information relevant to peoples interac-tion (Boyer 2001:201). Hence representations of gods and spirits areconsidered a likely source of or reason for misfortune.e general pointhere is not that religious primings exclusively promote fairness and jus-tice. Rather, people reflect on their moral intuitions and elaborate reli-gious rationales and norms to justify and explain their moral intuitions.

Arguably, ideas about immediate supernatural justice in pilgrimage are

a local instance of justifying intuitions with religious rationales.I suggest that cognition about hardship is similar to misfortunebeliefs, in that they operate according to salient cues of urgency similarto those that render supernatural agent concepts and intuition aboutsocial exchange particularly relevant. I further argue that the same pro-cess works on the experience of hardship during pilgrimage. In pilgrim-ages mishaps, dangers, and hardships give rise to assumptions thataffliction was deserved or brings benefits. is way of thinking is all thestronger when hardships are related to pilgrims active efforts. PilgrimsI met underwent dangers and hardships, and these made interpreta-tions of religious benefit and merit seem reasonable since the journeywas already categorized as a ritual interaction with the gods.ere is one further aspect of pilgrims experiences of hardship.

Dangers and hardships are associated with displays ofself-sacrificebeforeomniscient divine actors. Sacrificial commitments seem to supportcontemporary suggestions that religion is a form of costly signalling(e.g., Bulbulia 2004:1936; Irons 2001:292309; Sosis 2003:91127).

According to the costly signalling hypothesis, religion is an adaptationthat impacts on fitness in the evolutionary sense (Bulbulia 2004:10,1936). Furthermore, religion is held to be a natural adaptation,because entities such as all-seeing gods or spirits are believed to act assurveilling agents that trigger feelings of reward for social cooperationand punishment for defection and transgression (e.g., Johnson andBering 2006:219133). Obviously religious behaviour and symbolismdo provide signals and public displays of costs (time-consuming effort,

donation, sacrifice and hardship, etc.), and costly rituals seem to keepreligious groups more cohesive. Yet it remains to be proven whether the


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category of religion (and there is not really any such coherent category)is costly signalling and an adaptation in the evolutionary sense (e.g.,

Boyer and Bergstrom 2008:117). And although religiosity may affectmoral reasoning and strengthen prosocial behavior, these mechanismsare not unique to religion, since moral intuitions operate independentlyof religion (Pyysiinen and Hauser 2010:104109). ese points maybe taken as arguments for so called by-product approaches to reli-gious phenomena rather than the adaptation approaches just referredto (cf. Boyer and Bergstrom 2008:111130, Pyysiinen and Hauser2010:104109).

Religious off

erings and sacrifice seem to be connected to beliefs in anon-recoupable cost when choosing behaviour and items to offer(Atran 2002:116117). And this may very well be what is seen in reli-gious and mythological imagery concerning human sacrifice, martyr-dom, and religious suicide terrorism. An evident readiness to sacrifice iscommunicative, signalling that a price will be paid. In social interactionactors reliability is judged as asignalthat may establish trust (Bacha-rach and Gambetta 2001:148184) and enable coalitions and alliances.Signalled readiness is often sufficientand is understood to be an actualsacrifice; demonstrated readiness is equivalent to a realized sacrificialwill (Atran 2002:145). Hence it is an important strategy to displaysocial commitment, although there are probably no explicit rationaldeliberations involved. Frank notes that an efficient way of signalling asacrificial will and social loyalty is to give powerfully emotional signals(1988:90). Emotional expressions are difficult to simulate and aretherefore more persuasive, thus creating greater credibility. Convincingothers by emotional signalling starts from the premise that it works best

when the convincer is emotionally convinced. Painful ordeals in certainsocial contexts are also understandable if one considers the cognitivedisposition for acting in coalitions (Boyer 2001:245246). Members ofcoalitions signal their loyalty and willingness to cooperate throughphysical pain and trial.

Let me now return to the relevance of this discussion for the pilgrimsat Muktinath, Pasupatinath and Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar. Pil-grims experiences and the journeys sensory pageantry produced two

related kinds of belief. Experiences of hardship and danger may beexpected to activate intuitions about social exchange, fairness, and


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moral merits (cf. the general discussion on hardship and social exchangeintuitions). ese seem to be sacrificial elements of pilgrimage and,

arguably, they reinforce the feeling of benefit. e fact that pilgrimsbelieve that there are religious benefits and merits to be gained fromenduring hardship would seem to depend on the fact that the pilgrim-age site is already categorized as a place at which supernatural agent(s)are present. Supernatural agents may thus offer cultural priming forassumptions that hardship provides divine benefits. A related beliefseems to emerge from pilgrims emotional display, hardship experi-ence, and sacrificial tendencies. Such submissive attitudes and signal-

ling seem to enhance the belief that pilgrims are committed to a socialcommunion and bond with supernatural agents. In this sense, dangersand hardships explain pilgrims experiences of a special alliance withsupernatural actors.

According to Prestons concept of spiritual magnetism, hardship isan intended sacrificial part of pilgrimage (1992:3146). is sugges-tion may be an ethnographic and theological artefact, although theissue raises the question of whether hardship is sought during pilgrim-age or whether it is an unintended consequence of the journey. Somepilgrims do seek austerities and hardship intentionally for religiousmerits. But many unintentionally experience hardship on the journey,though these pilgrims also believe in the religious merits of hardship.e remainder of this text is devoted to ethnographic description of

experiences and ideas of distance, new places, mode of travel, travelhardships, and dangers. My focus is upon the hardships of the journeyand the religious explanations and benefits pilgrims identified in these.

Ethnographic Section

As previously noted, the fieldwork for this study was conducted in 2003at the high-altitude site of Muktinath and the urban site of Pasupati-nath in Nepal, and finally the high-altitude site of Mt. Kailash andManasarovar in western Tibet. Muktinath is primarily a goal for Hindupilgrims from Vaishnavite sects and pilgrims from Tibetan Buddhist

traditions. Pasupatinath is a pilgrimage site for Shaivite pilgrims. Kailashand Manasarovar are sites for various Hindu traditions in whichShaivites dominate. ese sites are also visited by pilgrims from Jain,


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Tibetan Buddhist and Bon-po traditions. e fieldwork lasted forapproximately one year, including preparatory visits. Overall 500 pil-

grims were interviewed, yet the beliefs and attitudes referred to in thispaper reflect the most common opinions among a coded sample of 360pilgrims. Among these a slight majority were Nepalese pilgrims, andthe rest consisted of Indian pilgrims from the northern and southernstates. A majority of the informants were men. e statistical figuresfrom the coded sample show that 285 pilgrims (77%) appreciated (i.e.gave a positive evaluation to) hardship during pilgrimage while 63(17%) did not. A total of 241 pilgrims (65%) claimed that hardship

had religious value for showing respect to supernatural agents andbringing rewards, merits, blessings, wish-fulfilment, and fruitful goodfortune. Further, 239 (64%) of the pilgrims pursued hardships duringtheir journey. Although 126 pilgrims (34%) gave no answer or werereluctant to mention what hardships they had endured; fasting andstarving were most popular among 172 (46%) of the pilgrims, while49 (13%) mentioned walking, 37 (10%) mentioned inconveniences enroute and being away from home, 14 (3%) mentioned bathing and9 (2%) spoke of donating money. Out of 45 pilgrims 16 (35%) believeddanger brought religious merits, while 21 (46%) doubted this and 8pilgrims (17%) did not know and referred to the knowledge of God(Bhagawan).

Interviews were conducted during the journeys and at rest houses(dharmashala) for pilgrims. e interviews were semi-structured andcarried out according to questionnaires based on topics elaborated tosuit the field conditions and Hindu belief system. Topics dealt withincluded how pilgrimage was construed and categorised, why the jour-

ney was undertaken, its relation to religious values and other ritualpractices, supernatural agents and pilgrimage, importance of the jour-ney and hardship, importance of religious gifts and substances, gooddeath beliefs, healing motives, how the pilgrim was motivated by oth-ers, etc.e reflections on hardship in this paper draw upon these con-versations. e analytical category of hardship that is adopted here israther broad and covers various experiences: risk/danger, religious dis-ciplines, and austerities. It is therefore not limited to religious catego-

ries such as tapas(see below).Most interviews took between one and one and half hours and wereconducted in Nepali or Hindi.e selection of pilgrims was not totally


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random; the subjects were approached at dharmashalasand asked ifthey were pilgrims (yatri) and, if so, if they would like to tell something

about the journey and to participate in a study. Participant observationin daily routines was restricted because of the constant flux of people onthe pilgrimage, although I was able to carry out standard participantobservation by accompanying several long journeys to Mt. Kailash andManasarovar.

e Aparaswami Case

e story of the pilgrim Aparaswami gives an example of the conditionsof pilgrimage in the Nepalese Himalayas.e wooden floor is icy cold and dusty in Muktinaths guesthouse, or

dharmashala.e 45-year old Aparaswami is sitting there. He comesfrom an ascetic sannyasiorder and has travelled from Andhra Pradeshin South India. Aparaswami tells of the plan to cross the Himalayanpass at upper Mustang to get to Manasarovar and Mt. Kailash in Tibet.Once he has reached these places Aparaswami will continue to Amar-

nath Cave in the state of Jammu and Kashmir. He is applying for a visain Nepal so that he can enter Tibet. One has togo, Aparaswami insists,and he tells me that his pilgrimage began from his ashram, where he wasencouraged some fifteen years earlier by the monasterys guru to followthe ascetic path. A helicopter carrying wealthy Tamil pilgrims roars pastthe building, and Aparaswami gesticulates to indicate that thatmethodof travel is to be condemned if one reads the Hindu dharma. It is theeffort of travel that is important because Bhagawan sees and countsevery hardship one exposes oneself to, he explains. I did not see Aparas-wami again after the interview at Muktinath. But even during the inter-view it was clear how little information the sannyasin had about theconditions on the way up to Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar without suf-ficient food and clothes. Aparaswami never touched on the subject ofthe distance between the villages, the harsh climate and difficulty ingetting food. Nor did he mention how difficult it would be for him inhis exhausted state to continue his trek over the desolate Tibetan pla-teau from Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar to Jammu and Kashmir, and

Amarnath. Consequently the sannyasin would have confronted severalobstacles and hardships en route to Mt. Kailash. e obvious problems


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had to do with distance and the remoteness of the site and shortage offood and water, unless the pilgrim joined a cargo transport, pilgrim

group, or military convoy. Consequently, Aparaswami recognized thatmerits could be derived from hardship, but there was also a risk that itwould force him to give up and return. As other unprepared pilgrimsfrom the Nepalese lowland remarked, they had to retreat from the Mt.Kailash area due to food shortage combined with distances too long towalk. e route to Manasarovar and Mt. Kailas has a pilgrimage infra-structure with lodges located along vehicle transportation routes ratherthan along footpaths. Even joining other groups would have been dif-

ficult because of Chinese restrictions on free travel in the Mt. Kailashregion.e sannyasin also lacked information about the harsh weatherconditions, flooded rivers and potential high-altitude risks in crossingthe Himalayan range to the Tibetan plateau.

e Value of Remote and New Places

Trips to pilgrimage sites mean using various kinds of transport as well

as trekking to unknown destinations. Pilgrimage sites are often seen asbeing far away from the pilgrims homes. Many pilgrims felt that theact of covering long distances was a positive feature of the journey. etrip to the pilgrimage site brings the traveller to new, unfamiliar, orseldom visited places. e value of this was expressed in the idea that ifthe journey did not give experience, then it was meaningless to see thenew place. is may be understood from the context of social use oftelling others about the journey and evoking religiously evaluated feel-ings, or ritualizing the experience as supernatural imprint often calledatma darshan. When pilgrims discussed the religious value of theseplaces they gave a number of opinions: Bhagawan pulls and calls you,we ought to visit all the places that have a lot ofshakti(divine energy),it gives newdarshan (ritual eye-contact), we get more darshan from

Muktinath Narayan, different sites have different avatars, so oneshould go to each, we get to see new aspects of god, atman (thesoul) becomes morepavitra(pure), or we come to heaven. New andunfamiliar environments were also valued because they gave experi-

ences that strengthened self-confidence.e principles of variation andchange of environment were emphasized as part of the importance of


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coming to new and unfamiliar places. e social value of this was thatnew places created memories that ones family and friends would like to

hear about when one came home. Some pilgrims explicitly argued thata journey that did not yield memories was pointless.

Travelling and Gettingere

Many pilgrims felt thatyatrawas a valuable form of travelling since itgave positive experiences and desirable religious feelings ofmanshanti,atmashanti, and santusti, or calm and satisfaction. ese experiences

could be the reason for undertaking the journey. Pilgrims also explainedthe value of their journey according to religious notions, the Hindudharmaor scriptures they said they had read, though they were usuallyunsure which scripture it was they were referring to. Some pilgrimswere unsure what custom prescribed, but they felt that Bhagawan woulddefinitely know. Assessments of the value of the journey in terms ofdharmastressed the duty of undertaking pilgrimage. e question ofwhether there was a particular value for the journey caused pilgrims

some consternation, since they had never thought in this way before.Some pilgrims said that travelling was important quite simply becauseit was not possible to reach ones goal any other way, so the process ofgetting there was not that interesting.e ideal way to travel on a pilgrimage yatrawas to walk. Ascetic

pilgrims condemned every other method of travel. But pilgrims do notalways follow the ideal. In reality, many were taken by bus to Pasupati-nath and most Nepalese pilgrims took a bus or other vehicle to Benibefore walking the last leg up to Muktinath. Wealthier Nepalese andIndians flew up to the closest town, a days walk below Muktinath andthen they would trek up or go on horseback to the pilgrimage site.Some of the wealthier pilgrims also flew to Muktinath by helicopter,but they nevertheless had to walk up the last steep stretch to the temple.Pilgrims at Kailash and Manasarovar were taken up by jeep or theywalked or rode horses or yaks around the mountain. Indian pilgrimswho were transported via Nepal to Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar hadalso earlier been transported by aircraft or bus from Indian states or

from Sri Lanka, Malaysia, England, or Canada.


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Speedier transport methods were considered good because they savedtime and made it possible to visit more sites, which meant the pilgrim

could followdharmamore closely. Technology and transport techniqueswere in this way helpful in making the journey more efficient. How-ever, walking slowly made it possible to pay greater attention to detailsalong the way to the site, and this gave more merit than simply increas-ing the number of sites visited. Walking was also considered to givevisions of unity in the diversity of cultural and ethnic distinctivenessthat pilgrims encountered along the way.is unity was often describedas the pilgrim seeing new places and cultures that were created by

Bhagawan.

e pilgrims found this experience useful, since it exposedthem to blessed meetings with wandering ascetics and gurus. Walkingwas associated with religious merit and well-being. Notions of balance,peace and happiness through walking were described in terms of reli-gious feelings (manshanti, atmashanti, and atmasantusti). Walking wasconsidered to be ideal because it involved effort and hardship. Walkingbarefoot was therefore one of the most exalted gestures of religiousrespect. Walking barefoot was considered to give merit and healing.e emphasis upon walking also meant that some pilgrims felt thatone should avoid riding since all the religious merit would then fall tothe horse.

Hardships of the Journey

Pilgrims felt that the value of walking came from the fact that Bhagawanwas omniscient. He sees and knows everything that the pilgrims do.Pilgrims could therefore claim straight out that they walked in order toimpress Bhagawan with their efforts. Dukhakastaare problems andhardships related to effort.e value of the journey was associated withreligious evaluation of hardship (dukha kasta) and this was usuallyexpressed as: Ayatraimplies dukha kastaand Bhagawan sees and caresabout this. For some pilgrims the journey was pointless if there wereno hardships involved. One Indian pilgrim from Maharastra said atPasupatinath, You cant get darshan without hardship.

It is pertinent to distinguish between pre-existing and self-inflicted

hardships on pilgrimages (Preston 1992: 35). Accordingly, some efforts


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and hardships had more to do with circumstances than with the pil-grims. Sometimes pilgrims felt they had chosen to exert themselves.

But the conditions of the journey were usually a given, even though thepilgrims might claim that they had chosen them. Pilgrims describedtheir doings during the journey as though they had been planned. eyreferred to queues, delays, exhausting treks, dangers on the road, andsurviving without food. What is striking here is that pilgrims gave theimpression that almost any pre-existing or objective obstacle, no matterhow trivial, could be seen as a hardship. As will be shown below, hard-ship was also experienced in the form of risks associated with the high

altitude, cold, landslides, flooding, or attacks. As I have shown else-where, the altitude is associated with annual good death tolls at Mt.Kailash and Manasarovar pilgrimages (Nordin 2009b:402436).

Experiences of fasting, walking or being transported during a pil-grimage were the most commonly reported hardships. Transportationmight mean travelling on overcrowded and hot buses with no air con-ditioning, or long, tiring jeep journeys on bumpy and dusty roads. Trans-portation could also mean unpleasant rest stops at unfamiliar placeswhere the pilgrims were subject to defiling interaction with strangers.

Fasting and walking were also the most commonly undertaken hard-ships. Techniques such as prostrating, crawling or rolling were morerarely described as ideal, though I never saw a pilgrim actually rollingon the ground. Some pilgrims claimed that they had crawled or rolledfor stretches of their pilgrimage. e value of these acts was explainedthrough reference to having seen others doing it, and the speaker there-fore thought it was something important. Hindu pilgrims at Mt.Kailash were, however, shocked by the Tibetan pilgrims they saw crawl-

ing and measuring their own body lengths on the verges and valleysaround the mountain.It has been shown how pilgrims made a virtue of necessity and

described their hardships as voluntarily undertaken. Some pilgrimsadded procedures that would increase their hardship. Voluntary hard-ships were evident in procedures such asparikraman round Mt. Kailash,in which pilgrims creep by measuring their body length around thewhole mountain, or by walking barefoot to Muktinath, or by undertak-

ing strenuous sprints. Pilgrimage sites such as Muktinath and Manasa-rovar also required a holy bath, or snan, which informants viewed as a


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kind of ordeal. Recurrent scenes at Muktinath were of pilgrims runningin the dim, cold light of dawn across ice and snow-covered stones

to bathe. After a minute or so the pilgrims were frozen. With shakingbodies and blue lips they tried to warm themselves with the thin cottonclothes they had brought from the lowlands. Of course in these exam-ples exhilaration often was expressed by pilgrims.

Donations and Economic Austerity

Pilgrims also underwent economic hardship on account of all the

expenses associated with the trip. It was difficult enough to afford thetrip at all for many of the pilgrims. e 45-year old Brahmin farmerKrishna Upadaya from the mountainous region of Jumla told me howhe and his brothers had trekked for ten days to reach Muktinath. eyhardly had enough money to buy food on their journey, but they car-ried a bag of dried rice that they shared. Poor farmers from North Indiawho undertook the pilgrimage to Pasupatinath spent relatively largeamounts of money on their journey, and they felt this was a hardship.

e pilgrims carried with them hard-earned capital that they thenspent. Similar conditions have been described for Rajastani pilgrims(Gold 1988:262298). Giving was a sacrifice and it was not an easybusiness for pilgrims. For poor pilgrims, the very thought of throwinghard-earned pennies and notes to beggars and priests was distasteful(Gold 1988:262298). e economic stranglehold that the circum-stances put upon pilgrims thus contributed to the hardships of the

journey. Parry notes that those features that ought to deter pilgrims,such as greedy and aggressive priests and ritual experts at pilgrimagesites such as Banaras, are instead motivations for undertaking the pil-grimage to such places (1994:121).

e Value of Hardship

e hardships of travelling were given a religious value. ey weregraded differently, but a common principle was that the more one putoneself through ordeals the better, since greater merit would accrue.Daniels posits that these ideas were necessary for Tibetan pilgrims for


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whom the worst pilgrimage was the easiest and most comfortable, sincepilgrimage without hardship was considered to be simply tourism

(1994:104). For Hindu pilgrims the hardships of travel could fulfilsoteriological goals such as muktiand moksa; they brought merit (punya)and they atoned for sins (pap). Travel hardships gave the journey fruit-ful consequences (phal and phaldaya). Pilgrims also felt that travelhardship gave knowledge about and a sensation of a higher self or theuniversal self (paramatman) through religious vision or atmadarshan.Bhagawan was thought to be more impressed by pilgrims efforts under-taken during their journey than by those undertaken at home.

is way of talking explicitly underlines the point that pilgrimsthought that a divine agent was observing and rewarding their activi-ties. is was also another example of how pilgrims reasoned that theactual journey, its site, its ritual activities and blessed substances wereholier, purer, and more valuable that their domestic religious activities.at is, the attention to, presence, and importance of the supernaturalwere, paradoxically, intensified during pilgrimage. Consequently, pil-grims suggested that the rewards received from the divine agents thatobserved the pilgrims efforts were greater than those received for reli-gious effort made outside of pilgrimage.

One pilgrim at Muktinath said that this was similar to a childs rela-tionship to its mother: Bhagawan cares and feels more if you strainyourself during your pilgrimage just as a parent cares more when a childcries.is kind of expression suggests a belief that a divine agent caredfor the pilgrim, but this was framed in connection to hardship andpotential reward.e benefits of hardship were also identified through reference to the

traditions ofHindu dharmaor the holy scriptures, shastra, although itwas rare for pilgrims to be able to cite specific sources. e value ofhardship was also described by means of a circular engagement. Pil-grims reasoned that if no hardship was experienced, then there could beno respect for or belief in Bhagawan, and if this respect and belief waslacking, then there was no point in undertakingdarshan. e point ofhardships was to undergo them, and for this reason it was essential tocarry out a pilgrimage. Similarly, hardships were valued because they

reinforced a pilgrims aff

ection for Bhagawan, and this enabled one tobe more committed. As one pilgrim noted, Dukha kastais important


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in order to remember Bhagawan. e value of effort had also to dowith the fact that the pilgrim became more conscious ofBhagawan, or

that hardships gave an experience of blissful peace (santusti). Hardshipswere also considered important for the fulfilment of wishes (manka-mana), or unspecified favours in the future (phaldaya, tirtha phal).

Other pilgrims contrasted the benefits of travel hardship with thepilgrims disposition. e performed signals of commitment should bemodest, probably to avoid suspicion of spiritual hypocrisy. It wasthought to be inappropriate to show off hardships, or as one femalepilgrim at Muktinath said, If one feels or makes a show of the stresses

of the pilgrimage this is a sign of arrogance and that makes the hardshipineffective. Daniels notes similar ideas among Tibetan pilgrims, whobelieved that hardships should be natural and unassumed (1994:107).Hardship was a favour according to which the right person received hisor her allotted portion of lifes agonies according to karmic timing, andthis gave atonement for sins.ere was another aspect to reports about hardship, and this was that

one was not supposed to talk about them, since this might put otherpeople offfrom undertaking the journey and benefiting from the divinefavours it brought. Some were also sceptical about the benefits, and saidthat one could just as well work hard and not bother with doing thepilgrimage. ey felt it was just as useful to give gifts to the religiousestablishments at the pilgrimage sites. Some also felt that the meritgained by helping ones fellow humans was more valuable than thehardships of pilgrimage. Some pilgrims were also critical of those whomade an issue of their hardships. It was considered bad style to drawattention to the difficulties one had encountered on the journey.

e Mathematics of Religious Merits

Desired outcomes were often said to motivate pilgrims to undertakethe journey. e content of these desires was merits and boons. Somepilgrims confessed to having expectations, while others only describedpotential outcomes which everyone acknowledged. In this way the listof consequences and expectations was drawn from the pool of potentialmiraculous benefits associated with pilgrimage.


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Hardships were often quantified mathematically in relation to con-sequences or expectations: Without hardships one cannot have ones

wishes fulfilled (mankamana).e fact that hardships brought the ful-filment of wishes was explained thus: It makes Bhagawan satisfied andhappy when pilgrims make an effort, and that is why he grants theirwishes. Some pilgrims calculated the hardships of travel such that themerit acquired from hardship was directly proportional to the degree ofeffort entailed. A pensioned government official and astrologer whowas travelling to Muktinath from Kathmandu, for instance, said that atirtha yatrawas a thousand times more effective than the daily rituals

one performed at home.

e astrologist said that each step of the jour-ney to Muktinath was equivalent to an aswamedhaor a sacrificed horse.is pilgrim added that the hardships of travel brought merit thatwould offset accumulated sin. is view was exploited in religiousadvertising brochures and ritual manuals that recommended that pil-grims visit particular sites because they brought so many thousandmerit points and that salvation would be facilitated (e.g., Bhardwaj1973:2627; Gold 1988:287; Jha 1995:6881). Of course scholars onHindu pilgrimage have long recognized the value of pilgrimage in the

Mahabharata, Puranasand other ancient sacred Sanskrit texts (Bharati1963:135167; Bhardwaj 1973:5879; Coleman and Elsner 1995:137155; Saraswati 1983:231). Yet it should be noted that scholars of pil-grimage observe that certain sacred texts, religious experts, and saints inHinduism as well as in other traditions often reject the ritual value ofpilgrimage (e.g., Bharati 1963:135167; Coleman and Elsner1995:206209), something that is contradicted by lived practice andby pilgrims beliefs (cf., Bharati 1963:135167; Bhardwaj 1973:23)

and their strong inclination to theological incorrectness (Barrett1999:325339; Slone 2004:711).

Dangers andeir Merits

e dangers associated with pilgrimage may be external, having to dowith the environments the pilgrims encounter. Dangers may also besubjective or based upon religious ideas.ey may also be distinguishedfrom previous mishaps and accidents (e.g., various misfortunes athome) that some pilgrimages are intended to address.


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Many kinds of hardship that pilgrims encountered at Muktinath,Pasupatinath, and Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar were a result of travel-

ling in dangerous environments. For hundreds of years, the roads andpaths to Muktinath and Mt. Kailash and Manasarovar have offeredchallenges. Still today, the trek to Muktinath can be risky and danger-ous when active landslides have to be traversed. Falling rocks or narrowand slippery sections of pathway have to be crossed, and deep or floodedriver beds have to be waded through. Conditions are nevertheless some-what safer than they were a few decades ago and the treks to Muktinathundertaken during the last century were extremely dangerous: e old

trails must have terrified pilgrims unused to mountain trekking, andmore than a few surely died attempting to reach the upper valley of theKali Gandaki, beyond the gorge, during rains. It is only in the past fewdecades that the track has been made relatively safe (Messerschmidt1992:10). Huber has noted similar dangers on pilgrimages around themountain Tsari in eastern Tibet; these included gunfire and attacksfrom local bandits, exposed climbs, lack of food, injuries, and illness(1999:128149). e pilgrim processions around Mt. Tsari were logis-tically complicated, since thousands of pilgrims trekked for severalmonths on the narrow, inaccessible, exposed, and deteriorating trackswhere they were at risk of being attacked or robbed by tribal peoplearound the mountains ravines. Daniels describes similarly dangeroustrips for Tibetan pilgrims in Nepal, where they suffered starvation,flooding, cold, rape, and attempted rapes (1994:105).

Most of the stories of hardship described conditions the pilgrimsencountered during the journey. e trips were undertaken wherepaths, roads, transport, and accommodation were exposed to natural

dangers. e pilgrims were exposed to risk of social dangers such asthreats, attacks, rapes, robbery, traffic accidents, or other forms of localconflict. Trips to the pilgrimage sites of Muktinath or Mt. Kailash andManasarovar also involved difficulties that could not be overcome withsafety precautions. ese consisted of risks associated with altitude andacclimatization, dangerous and exposed tracks, landslides, and variouskinds of risky conditions.

Pilgrims narratives included stories of how other pilgrims had died

in accidents or faced hardships. Sometimes these stories were unclearabout when the events had taken place and who had been affected. It ispossible to distinguish between stories or discourses of fatal accidents


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and the real incidence of these events. Stories of deaths and dangersmay also reflect some pilgrims tendency to inflate their investment of

life and health in their interaction with supernatural actors. Hazardsthat the pilgrims encounter during their journey increase the experi-ence of risk and this seems to enhance notions of sacrifice and merit. Itis not clear that objective dangers and hardships are always calculatedbefore a pilgrim sets out on their journey, but certain types of self-imposed hardships do seem to be calculated (cf. running barefoot forseveral days to the site of Babadham in Bihar shouting Baalbhaam).Overall, there also seems to be a readiness to consider any conditions

along the journey as potentially bringing reward and as a merit-yieldinghardship and danger, and strenuous effort is particularly appealing inthese circumstances.

By comparison with how pilgrims viewed hardship, somewhatmore pilgrims were sceptical about the merits of danger. Many pilgrimswere unsure of the benefits of danger and reasoned that onlyBhagawanknew the answer. us, uncertainty regarding the benefits of dangermakes a drastic difference compared to the way in which pilgrims valuehardships.

Several Nepalese pilgrims told me that sections of the tracks up toMuktinath were so risky because of landslides and rain that one couldfall down the cliffs or be hit by falling rocks. Pilgrims considered flyingdown so as to avoid the dangerous tracks. People wished to avoid thesedangers and risks, and they did not feel they gave merit. Pilgrims from

Jammu and Kashmir who passed the same areas said that they hadhurried over the active landslides by hopping onto sliding rocks andlumps of earth that were falling at various speeds down towards the

rivers cascades.Other pilgrims who had trekked the same way to Muktinath andbeen exposed to the same risks said that the dangers and hardships gavemerit. is idea was sometimes expressed in the idea that the greaterdanger the more merit. A pilgrim who had gotten himself from theinaccessible Jumla up to Muktinath also assumed that exposure to dan-gerous sections of the trek, where rocks were falling and tracks haddisappeared, gave merit. e Upadaya brothers walked to Muktinath

from Jumla via the remote mountain region of Dolpo. On the waythey passed such steep and dangerous landslide areas by the Daulagiri


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mountainside that they were terrified of taking the ten-day trek backhome. But they felt that certain religious benefits would come of the

dangers and that the efforts of the journey would bring boons in thefuture (phaldaya). Some, however, said that exposure to danger wasmeritorious, in that the pilgrims underwent a trial and they redresseddangers that were a sign ofBhagawansdissatisfaction.e fact that theyconfronted dangers was considered to be a sign from Bhagawan, show-ing that by putting oneself in danger one was repaying him. Dangercould therefore be seen as a trial engineered byBhagawan to see if thetraveller were prepared to suffer as a form of repayment. Meritorious

danger could also consist of human factors. A 50-year-old female farmerfrom Dang in Nepal, for instance, told me about how dangerous thebus trip to Pasupatinath was, because of the repeated stops at militarycheck-points and because of the guerrillas who lay in hiding and couldattack. Her bus had been caught in crossfire with automatic weaponsfor fifteen minutes, and she had prayed to Bhagawan.Afterwards sheconsidered the event to have been meritorious. Danger and assessedrisk were sometimes also felt to be a meritorious aspect of the journeybecause Bhagawan saw that the pilgrim had struggled through danger-ous places and he rewarded their efforts.

Paradoxically, some said that even though danger brought merit, onedid not think about this because Bhagawan would see to it that the riskswould not be realized.6 Bhagawan was believed to protect everyoneagainst danger in which case it could neither threaten nor bringmerit. Protection from dangers was also expressed in the form of spells,prayers and talismans.

Dangers and risks were also recognized according to religious consid-

erations. In his discussion of ritual risk Howe argues that ritual arrange-ments are associated with various religious dangers (2000:6379). Onedanger is to fail to carry out the ritual correctly, and another consists ofthe supernatural actors and powers that ritual processes are assumed touncover.is is familiar since ritual action is provoked by the experienceof potential danger. is is in line with the theory that ritual behavioursuch as compulsion, rigidity, redundancy, and goal demotion is culturally

6)

Unfortunately, the issue of whether such foolproof reservations meant that thereactually was no real danger involved was not mentioned.


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selected because of activation of neurocognitive hazard-precaution sys-tems about potential danger (Linard and Boyer 2006:814827).

Other religious dangers were also associated with the pilgrimage.ese were based upon suppositions about contagion, defilement, andsin connected to immanent justice beliefs (cf. Nemoroff and Rozin2000:133) connected to divine or karmic punishment. e journeywas supposed to alleviate the risk of a future period in hell (Daniels1994:240244). Risk thus consisted of the fact that one might inadver-tently sin in an ethicized culture (Obeyesekere 1980:137164). Defile-ment from unknown sources is one such evil. ere is a close relation

between ritual preoccupation and the everyday social concern withimpure and contaminating substance in Hindu caste cultures. emajority of the pilgrims in this study were high-caste pilgrims who wereworried about exposure to caste-related defilement and impurity. iscaused concern and avoidance behaviour among high castes regardingcontact with Tibetans, low castes, and strangers while on pilgrimage (cf.Messerschmidt 1992:4458).

Traditional societies have been considered to be dominated by thedangers of the physical world, while modern societies are formulatedaround man-made risk (Giddens 1990:106111). However, this com-parison does not take into consideration the fact that people in manysocieties live with potential threats and uncertainty about supernaturalretribution from ancestors, demons, eternal damnation, reincarnation,or hell.e academic question of risk has to do with how human valuesare exposed to uncertainty and how this is evaluated, identified, andculturally or individually managed (Boholm and Ferreria 2002:2952;Douglas and Wildavsky 1982:115; Weber and Hsee 1999:611617).

e question of risk assumes that important values are at stake. isquestion is, however, unstable in pilgrimage since pilgrims rationalizedangers as social exchange according to which hardship brings divinereward; most of the pilgrims in my study do assume that hardship islikely to bring divine reward. But the idea of reward also solves theproblem of the original danger at least in certain respects. Risk isthus undermined because of the assumption that it will bring religiouscompensation, and no values are threatened or lost.


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Simulation, Heroism, and Asceticism

Many pilgrims celebrated hardships and danger. According to Aziz, pil-grimages are a cultural idiom for ideals about religious heroism(1987:255). Heroic ideals arise from the hardships and danger that thepilgrim is supposed to face during the journey, although the cause isunclear. Aziz notes that pilgrims try to imitate culture heroes such assaints and prophets. Heroism in pilgrimage also creates a bond withsupernatural actors through imitation and simulation of legendary fig-ures such as saints, martyrs, prophets, and gods.is has been found allover the world, for instance at the Irish Lough Derg where Christian

pilgrims imitate the crucifixion (Turner and Turner 1978:115), or sim-ulations of the Calvary in Jerusalem (Aziz 1987:257).ese tendenciesmay be based in the cognition of manipulative magical action such asthe blending of similar objects and actions (Srensen 2007:96114).Pilgrims offer no rationale for these strategies.

During pilgrimage ascetic practice intensifies. Informants often toldme how they lived a Spartan life during their journey, exemplified inascetic actions such as fasting, or vrata. Many pilgrims viewed them-

selves as ascetics and they carried out acts that belong to the asceticrepertoire, such as fasting, walking barefoot, and meditating. On somepilgrimages people carried ascetic items or wore ascetic clothing. e will-ingness to refer to oneself using ascetic terms such as sadhu or sannyasivaried (cf. Hausner 2007 on sadhus as pilgrims). Some pilgrims felt thatthe journey gave them a sense of being an ascetic while other said thetrip provoked a desire to become one. A Nepalese pilgrim from themountain region of Jumla said that the trek to Muktinath gave him afeeling of being a sadhu since he had left his home and everyday lifebehind. Pilgrims felt that they were sadhusthrough moral analogy withbeing pilgrims. Asadhu was morally superior, but pilgrims felt that onedid not commit bad deeds on a pilgrimage, or, as one pilgrim claimed,I am asadhu now because I am more concentrated and only think ofgood things all the time. e inability to live up to moral ideals wasalso proffered as the reason why some pilgrims felt that they could nevermanage to fulfil ascetic ideals. One pilgrim explained, To be a sadhuyou have to keep your promises and I dont do that. Some pilgrims

also said that to be a sadhu or sannyasiyou must leave all your socialcommitments it is not enough to simply go on a pilgrimage.


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Asceticism in Hindu tradition is sometimes connected to the con-cept of tapasor tapasya(which translates roughly as heat accumula-

tion) by undertaking ascetic practices and austerities. However, thepilgrims in this study did not conceive of pilgrimage as a whole astapasya, and they did not see the hardships and austerities of pilgrimageas tapasya. Instead, tapasyawas considered a theological issue thatconcerned ascetics and religious experts and something that pilgrimsdid not know so much about. is confirms the impression that pil-grimage was not thought of as an ascetic discipline based on the idea oftapasya. However ascetic pilgrims sometimes said that places of pilgrim-

age were appropriate and auspicious for tapasya, although peacefulenvironments in forests or ashramswere preferred. Pilgrims could quotelegends in which saints and ascetics had conducted tapasaround thearea of the pilgrimage site.

Ethnographic discussions have dealt with the association betweenpilgrims and asceticism. Aziz argues that pilgrimage isa Spartan disci-pline and that pilgrims are archetypal ascetics (1987:259260). ButGold suggests that soteriological values, such as mukti, are less impor-tant for pilgrims although they are granted by lay people and they char-acterize asceticism (1988:269298). Gold argues that asceticism andpilgrimage are different in kind. Many Rajasthani pilgrims were scepti-cal about soteriological pretentions and complained that they hadnever witnessed muktiat pilgrimage sites (Gold 1988:5). Consequently,Gold notes that most Rajasthani pilgrims expressed real scepticismconcerning the soteriological pretensions of distant pilgrimage(1988:63). In this analysis muktiis of primary value in asceticism butnot for pilgrims. Pilgrimage and pure asceticism are different. Gold

therefore reasons that muktiwas not as significant a motivation for pil-grims as it was for ascetics.is conclusion seems somewhat hasty, sincesoteriological ideas are important among most devoted Hindus andother beliers. Many pilgrims at Muktinath and Pasupatinath carriedout ascetic acts and upheld soteriological values about mukti anddharmawithout troubling themselves with the fact that they did notascribe to themselves an ascetic identity. Golds analysis is problematicbecause the boundaries between cultural categories such as ascetics and

pilgrims are often diff

use in reality. Both categories undertake pilgrim-age and both believe in mukti. Pilgrims may also sometimes identifythemselves as ascetics while they are travelling.


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Asceticism may be seen as a particular, individualized embodimentin ritual tradition (Heesterman in Michaels 2004:325). As an embodi-

ment, asceticism is a prototypical self-sacrifice (Michaels 2004:322). Inasceticism, discipline is often in focus such that the bodyis managed asa medium. e use of the body as ritual medium creates an experienceof moral and ascetic self control. Fasting, a strict diet, abstinence, andcelibacy may contribute to ascetic self-discipline. ere is a rigidity inthis that resembles the tendencies in ritualization and ritual script(Boyer 2001:229263; Linard and Boyer 2006:814827). is simi-larity may suggest that the proclivity to ascetic discipline can be under-

stood according to evolved precautionary systems that underpin thecultural selection and transmission of ascetic tendencies.7

e experience of hidden danger through the

Cognition of Hardship Experience in Himalayan Pilgrimage

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