著者

前島 訓子

出版者

Japan Association for Urban Sociology

雑誌

日本都市社会学会年報 (ISSN:13414585)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2013, no.31, pp.111-128, 2013 (Released:2015-01-25)

参考文献数

24

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The main goal of this essay is to explore the construction of sacred place in the multi-religious context based on a field study at Bodhagaya, India. Bodhagaya is generally regarded as the most significant sacred place for Buddhist believers mainly because it is the place the Buddha reached his enlightenment. This widely known site recognized for its Buddhist significance attracts a large number of pilgrims, tourists from different parts of the world to the religious-historical site currently called Mahabodhi Maha Vihar. But this popular conception of the site is established on a rather serious sociological neglect of the fact that the sacred place of Bodhagaya is a place located in a social environment composed of multiple religions. This essay will examine the actual construction of the sacred place in Bodhagaya from a sociological concern whether the sacred place of Bodhagaya is constructed solely from Buddhist conception of the site or it is the result of superimposed interaction, interpenetration or conflict between plural religious interests.

著者

前島 訓子

出版者

日本都市社会学会

雑誌

日本都市社会学会年報 (ISSN:13414585)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2010, no.28, pp.167-181, 2010 (Released:2011-12-20)

参考文献数

13

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What is the sacred place? What constitutes the sacred place as a place or space? This essay aims to approach these questions by examining the nature of sacred place as a place focusing on its placeness.    Contemporary literature on sacred place tends to deal with sacred places, as if they have no connectivity to everyday life surrounding it, paying attention to its religious aspect. With all due respect for the theoretical value of this approach, however, isn't it rather the case that sacred place is something that is constructed through and by the relationship between agents who have a variety of interests including religious one in the sacred place? Isn't it legitimate to ask whether the very fact that a given place remains to be sacred place needs some social conditions that are not necessarily religious in nature?    Based on the field study at BodhaGaya India, I would argue that the construction of sacred place as a place cannot be explained away just by its religious element and a sociologically rich and comprehensive understanding of a given sacred place requires an inquiry into its past record----especially the record that is reserved as memories and narratives of the people that have historical relationship with the sacred place----which tend to be ignored when too much stress is given to generally accepted self evident official narrative on the sacred place.