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.

Chronicling the inner as well as the outer journey, an influential author offers his personal view of his spiritual adventure amid the breathtaking vistas of the Himalayas.

"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.

Hailed as a "wondrous book" by Gretel Ehrlich, and winner of the Kekoo Naoroji Book Award for Himalayan Literature—a journey of healing that becomes a pilgrimage for the soul. Stephen Alter was raised by American missionary parents in the hill station of Mussoorie, in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he and his wife, Ameeta, now live. Their idyllic existence was brutally interrupted when four armed intruders invaded their house and viciously attacked them, leaving them for dead. The violent assault and the trauma of almost dying left him questioning assumptions he had lived by since childhood. For the first time, he encountered the face of evil and the terror of the unknown. He felt like a foreigner in the land of his birth. This book is his account of a series of treks he took in the high Himalayas following his convalescence—to Bandar Punch (the monkey’s tail), Nanda Devi, the second highest mountain in India, and Mt. Kailash in Tibet. He set himself this goal to prove that he had healed mentally as well as physically and to re-knit his connection to his homeland. Undertaken out of sorrow, the treks become a moving soul journey, a way to rediscover mountains in his inner landscape. Weaving together observations of the natural world, Himalayan history, folklore and mythology, as well as encounters with other pilgrims along the way, Stephen Alter has given us a moving meditation on the solace of high places, and on the hidden meanings and enduring mystery of mountains.

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.

"You see, Edward, editor and budding Grail Knight, you're 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 Arthur's 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. He's invited to Merlin's home on Mertowney Mountain to interview him. The invitation includes free transportation, and Merlin's 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, isn't 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. He's 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? It's not just so Merlin can tell his true story. Merlin has a plan for him, and he's preparing things all the time he's recounting his exploits. Edward Burbage has a key role to play in the next installment of the long life of Merlin. He's 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.