This book aims to examine the role and status of sacred cities in the context of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and associated cultural and sacred landscapes with an emphasis on awakening the deeper cultural sense in harmonising the world and enhancing religious and spiritual tourismall in the frame of Future of the Earth. The book adds a new dimension of cultural understanding to the broad domain of emerging human geoscience, which is considered as a platform for contributing to the role of holy-heritage cities towards sustainable development. Chapters include contributions from Austria, Canada, China, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Sri Lanka, the UK, and the USA.
Interfacing heritage cities and pilgrimages is a global concern in the contemporary world, which covers many points of view of the common impacts of socio-economic-cultural and jurisprudence planning, wellbeing and related domains. Concerned with the complex interactions between development and environment, the aim is to seek paths and implications for framing sustainability in all social activities through the status and role of holy-heritage cities.
As many essays in this book examine, striking a proper balance between the tourist and pilgrim uses of sacred sites remains a major concern, particularly in urban contexts. (Prof. Francesco Bandarin, (ex) Director, UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Paris).
This book is a masterpiece that illuminates the multitude of relationships between sacred space, urban environments, religious heritage, and pilgrimages. (Prof. Dallen J. Timothy, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA).
The book, genuinely an important collection of papers, has focussed on the interrelationship, interaction, and transformations in sacred heritage and pilgrimages in cities. (Prof. Rima Hooja, President, ICOMOS India, SPA- New Delhi, India).
This book, the first of its kind, paves a solid path for understanding the interfaces between sacred heritage and pilgrimages in cities, which will help to strengthen cultural sustainability. (Emer. Prof. Taigen Hashimoto, Indology, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan).
Part 1: Sacred heritage: The platform.- Sacred heritage, landscapes, and
pilgrimage in cities: Some reflections.- Ravi S. Singh: Reminiscences and his
contributions on sacred heritage and pilgrimage.- Encounters among time,
place, and heritage: Experiential reflections.- From marginalisation to
national popularity and decline: Fluctuating patterns in the Shikoku
pilgrimage, strategies for revival and fears for the future.- Descent of
Ganga and an ascent of humankind: Spatial orientations toward sacred river
heritage.- The national temple of Confucius in Beijing: A Structuralist
analysis of sacred space.- The social and spatial layers of Borobudur temple
compounds/ Java, Indonesia.- Hidden Christians and sacred landscape in the
South of Japan. A world cultural heritage.- Part 2: Sacred sites:
Transformation & scenario.- Sacred space and cultural landscapes of
Anuradhapura.- Transformation of the sacred town of Nabadwip: A study of
religious superimposition and adaptability.- The sacred and heritage
landscapes of Bali, Indonesia: Prospects for SDGs.- Jain pilgrimages places:
The sacred heritage and universal message.- Ayodhy (India): Sacredscapes and
the inclusive heritage development.- Sacred heritage and pilgrimage cities in
Lithuania.- Salt Lake City, Utah (USA): Making and maintaining a holy city.-
Part 3: Sacred places, pilgrimages, and cities.- The entangled-liminal sacred
space of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba as an Al-Andalus religious
landscape.- Sacred buildings as an essential part of the heritage system in
Regensburg.- Manifestation of sacredness in the pilgrimage sites of
Uttarakhand.- Prayagraj and the Kumbh Mela: The transformation and prospects
for cultural tourism.- Architectural visuality in Konkani temple settlement
in Mattancherry, India.- Sacred heritage and the spiritual landscape of
Vrindavan, India: A study of urban transformation.- Ksh, the city of
Vishvantha and Jńnavp: Succession, sustenance, and resurrection to
sustainability.
Prof. Rana P.B. Singh, former Professor of Cultural Landscapes & Heritage Studies at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India), is President (Asia): RWYC, Reconnecting With Your Culture. For around 50 years, he has been researching in the fields of Cultural Landscapes, Sacredscapes and pilgrimage studies, heritage sites & culture, and did field studies in Japan, Sweden, Italy, Korea, and China; and has delivered special lectures and seminars in different parts of the world. His publications include 345 papers and 45 books & anthologies.
Prof. Olimpia Niglio, Professor of Architectural Restoration & Cultural Heritage, the University of Pavia (Italy), and a permanent Visiting ProfessorCivil and Environmental Engineering, Hosei University, Tokyo. She is President (Global): RWYC, Reconnecting With Your Culture. She is the author of over 450 publications in the field of history and architecture restoration, and cultural heritage. Since 1998, delivered over 400 Lectures and Conferences in different countries. Since 2022, she is a collaborator of H.E.R. Mgr. Paolo Giulietti, Archbishop of Lucca.
