山岳を神霊、霊地として崇める修験道。修験道や日本の民俗宗教学の第一人者である宮家準氏の6つの論考を収載。「情報社会における日本の民俗宗教」から始まり、現代における民俗宗教のあり方と意義、修験道の歴史、修験道の修行や哲学思想など、日本の宗教学・宗教史、民俗学に興味のある海外の読者へ丁寧に解き明かし、解説する。臨場感あふれる図版を20点ほど掲載。巻末に欧文と日本語対応のインデックスを付す。

In Mountain Mandalas Allan G. Grapard provides a thought-provoking history of one aspect of the Japanese Shugendo tradition in Kyushu, by focusing on three cultic systems: Mount Hiko, Usa-Hachiman, and the Kunisaki Peninsula. Grapard draws from a rich range of theorists from the disciplines of geography, history, anthropology, sociology, and humanistic geography and situates the historical terrain of his research within a much larger context. This book includes detailed analyses of the geography of sacred sites, translations from many original texts, and discussions on rituals and social practices. Grapard studies Mount Hiko and the Kunisaki Peninsula, which was very influential in Japanese cultural and religious history throughout the ages. We are introduced to important information on archaic social structures and their religious traditions; the development of the cult to the deity Hachiman; a history of the interactions between Buddhism and local cults in Japan; a history of the Shugendo tradition of mountain religious ascetics, and much more. Mountain Mandalas sheds light on important aspects of Japan's religion and culture, and will be of interest to all scholars of Shinto and Japanese religion. Extensive translations of source material can be found on the book's webpage.

"From the Enlightenment to the present day, and using a variety of case studies from all the continents, the authors show us how our ideas of and about mountains have changed with the times and how a wide range of policies, from border delineation to forestry as well as nature protection and social programs, have been shaped according to them. A rich hybrid analysis of geography, history, culture, and politics."--Jacket.

Renowned Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman led a group of students--including co-author Tad Wise--on a spiritual adventure through the forbidding landscape of remote western Tibet. Together the authors take readers to sites few Westerners have seen: sacred graveyards, majestic monasteries, and meditation caves of ancient masters. Chronicling the inner as well as the outer journey, this book is an exciting account of a challenging journey toward enlightenment.

Deep in the heart of Tibet, Shan Tao Yun, an exiled Chinese national and a former Beijing government Inspector, is caught between the brutal Chinese army and a Western oil company. Shan has agreed to lead an expedition to return the eye of an idol, stolen almost a century ago and recently, clandestinely recovered, to a distant valley, an act that will fulfill an important Tibetan prophecy. But the pilgrimage turns into a desperate flight when the monk who is to lead them is murdered. Shan also discovers that the stone was stolen back from a brigade of the Chinese army that is now in hot pursuit. Still possessing an investigator's love of truth, Shan faces a perplexing tangle of mysteries. Why are the Chinese so desperate to retrieve the stone eye, why has an American geologist abandoned the oil company's drilling project and fled into the mountains, and why are rumors sweeping the countryside that an ancient lama is returning to liberate this country? As he digs into these questions, Shan realizes that there is more at stake than mere justice: the spiritual survival of his people is in danger as well. Complex and compelling, Bone Mountain is a spectacular achievement from a major voice in crime fiction.

The Tibetan district of Tsari with its sacred snow-covered peak of Pure Crystal Mountain has long been a place of symbolic and ritual significance for Tibetan peoples. In this book, Toni Huber provides the first thorough study of a major Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage center and cult mountain, and explores the esoteric and popular traditions of ritual there. The main focus is on the period of the 1940s and '50s, just prior to the 1959 Lhasa uprising and subsequent Tibetan diaspora into South Asia. Huber's work thus documents Tibetan life patterns and cultural traditions which have largely disappeared with the advent of Chinese colonial modernity in Tibet. In addition to the work's documentary content, Huber offers discussion and analysis of the construction and meaning of Tibetan cultural categories of space, place, and person, and the practice of ritual and organization of traditional society in relation to them.

This volume of the Collected Writings of Modern Western Scholars on Japan brings together the work of Carmen Blacker, who wrote extensively on religion, myth and folklore.

You see, Edward, editor and budding Grail Knight, youre part of the Merlin myth, and you have been for a long time, said Merlin enigmatically. The figure of Merlin, magician, enchanter, trickster, strategist of King Arthurs Camelot, wise old man of Celtic myth, has intrigued and enthralled readers for centuries, but who, really, was he? Did he ever actually exist? Boston editor Edward Burbage is given a unique opportunity to find out. Hes invited to Merlins home on Mertowney Mountain to interview him. The invitation includes free transportation, and Merlins mountain is not in this world, and for that matter, how on Earth could Burbage be talking to Merlin anyway? Merlin is supposed to be only a character from an old myth, isnt he? Over the course of five years, starting in 2034, Burbage conducts his interviews, and the revelations Merlin makes are astounding. He has been many mythic figures, taken on many guises, such as the Irish Cuchulainn, the Egyptian Anubis, the Navaho Monster Slayer, the Greek Herakles, the Polynesian Maui, and even a few holy men like Saint Columba of Iona and John the Evangelist of Patmos, author of Revelation. Hes worked as initiator, war-god, slayer of inimical spirits, prophet, seer, a guide to the soul in the after-life, geomancer, terraformer, a fisher up of islands, and especially a devoted field agent to the Great Mother, Herself operating under many guises such as Morrigan, Isis, Changing Woman, and Hera. But why has Edward Burbage been brought to Mertowney Mountain? Its not just so Merlin can tell his true story. Merlin has a plan for him, and hes preparing things all the time hes recounting his exploits. Edward Burbage has a key role to play in the next installment of the long life of Merlin. Hes about to step onto the world stage of myth disclosing a long withheld mystery, the secret of the Mer-Line, the truth and power behind Merlin himself.

With Mountain Madness, Clinton Crockett Peters chronicles his travels and personal transformation from a West Texas evangelical to mountain guide-addict to humbled humanist after a near-fatal injury in Japan’s Chichibu Mountains. From 2007 to 2010, Peters lived in Kosuge Village (population nine hundred), nestled in central Japan’s peaks, where he was the only foreigner in the rugged town. Using these three years as a frame, this essay collection profiles who he was before Japan, why he became obsessed with mountains, and his fallout from mountain obsession, including an essay on Craig Arnold, the poet who disappeared on a Japanese volcano. Ultimately, the collection asks, how can landscape create and end identities?