Kathryn Hurlock: Hope of healing keeps pilgrimages alive
In a conversation with Kathryn Hurlock, author of 'Holy Places: How Pilgrimage Changed The World,’ Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta discusses holy places and their significance beyond religion.
ADVERTISEMENT
“To other countries, I go as a tourist but to India, I come as a pilgrim,” said Martin Luther King famously. Naturally, a book titled ‘Holy Places: How Pilgrimage Changed The World’ is likely to have many takers in India. India has more holy places than you can count!
And, ‘For every Mecca or Lourdes that draws pilgrims in their millions from around the globe, there are thousands of obscure sites, dedicated to people you will never hear about, but which are reliably visited by a clutch of pilgrims each year.’
That’s a line from Kathryn Hurlock’s book where she talks about nineteen Holy Places in all. We got talking and after expressing suitable chagrin towards the hacking of the British Library in 2023, Turlock and I started discussing ‘sources;' that favorite word of every author.
"Yes, there are the hagiographies and Latin texts. But various things can trigger further research - such as traveler accounts, advertisements by travel companies that promote pilgrimages; even stories of miraculous healing on the internet or spoken of at self-help seminars, etc," said Turlock.
Yes, the hope of healing keeps pilgrimages alive. "Even among those who are essentially non religious," Hurlock adds.
As we both noted the absence of a Russian pilgrimage in her list of nineteen, there was equal delight in noting that the quaint Iona of Scotland had made it to the book. "There were many I couldn't add because of paucity of information or detailed historical records. For eg; the Christian sites in Ethiopia, the Great mosque in Mali's Bamako, the caves and graves in Africa..." Turlock says with a hint of disappointment. "However, at times, I've also relied on oral history when it comes to sites like Bear Butte in Dakota and Ratana Pa in New Zealand."
Hurlock is a religious historian. She is the author of Wales and the Crusades, (2011) Britain, Ireland and the Crusades, (2013) and Medieval Welsh Pilgrimage (2018), among others. What next, I ask.
"It would have to be about the interplay between wars and pilgrimage sites. Even in this book, I have observed how political patronage or ruler's favour makes pilgrimage sites important over time. What I would like to explore further is how the military establishment of nations; not necessarily built around religion, have used pilgrimage and faith as an umbrella to unite under."
Two sites from India have made it to the list- The Ganges and The Golden Temple. “The Ganges represents a longing; it offers multiple destinations and diversity both. The Golden Temple developed into a pilgrimage, even though it might not have been devised as one. Both stood out for me.”
The book is now available in multiple countries and reminds us once again that history is the voice of the victors, not the vanquished.
Reeta Ramamurthy Gupta is a columnist and bestselling biographer. She is credited with the internationally acclaimed Red Dot Experiment, a decadal six-nation study on how ‘culture impacts communication.’ Asia's first reading coach, you can find her on Instagram @OfficialReetaGupta.
