Muktinath : an analysis of a multi-faith pilgrimage site in Nepal

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