Pilgrim badge

Last weekend the city Den Bosch in the Netherlands held 'The world of Jeroen Bosch', a festival turning the city centre into a medieval village: music, clothing, art, food, craftmenship, ...

Someone I cherish brought me a badge, an amulet for protecting pilgrims visiting the Maria statue in the St Jan church.

The silver tin replica contains consecrated soil from around the St Jan and dust from around the Maria altar.

It is made by Marc van de Aa.

The badge on a page of a local newspaper advertising the festival.
(photo p kouwenberg)

Sweet mother Maria in cathedral (Source Bossche encyclopedie)
Next to the Book of Miracles.

Painting by unknown De Lakenmarkt, medieval market in centre of Den Bosch. This painting was also part of the splendid Jheronimus Bosch exposition in the Noord Brabants Museum earlier in 2016

 

Drawings market Den Bosch

Photograph of Jheronimus Bosch exposition in the Noord Brabants Museum.
(photo by Omroep Brabant, Henk van Esch)
Until 11 09 2016 at the Museo del Prado in Madrid.

Click here for their site.

Some extra's

17 Women workes for 2 years to provide the 150 dresses worn during the festival.

(Source Brabants Dagblad.

Photo Marc Bolsius)

A quick impression of the festival, 1 minute

(by Jheronimus Bosch,
well, probably by a festival employee ;-)

Hathaway walked to Santiago

Pilgrimage and Place showed earlier interest in tourism to places based on books or movies.

An example is the pilgrimage to a bench from the movie A fault in the stars.

Today another example unfolded. The Dutch tv aired the episode Entry Wounds from the Lewis series. Originally 2014 on UK television, may 2016 in The Netherlands.
Lewis once was assistent of Inspector Morse.

(Source Amazon.co.uk)

In the ninth series 'Retired' Robbie Lewis (Kevin Whately) is helping his collegue James Hathaway (Laurence Fox) solving the whodunnit.

(Lewis and Hathaway. Source Wikipedia)

In this first episode of a new season Lewis retired and Hathaway was absent for a long time. Several times Lewis tries to find out what Hathaway did. Well, he passed the inspector exams and walked to Santiago de Compostela.

Besides books like The Pilgrimage (Coelho) or The Camino: A Journey of the Spirit (Shirley MacLaine) movies like 'The Way' (2010) and 'Ich bin dann mal weg' (2015, also book 2006) are famous triggers that induce new hordes of pilgrims flooding the roads to Santiago.

There even is a word for this cultural/heritage enthousiasm: Film Induced Tourism. A prime example is the induced tourism following the Lord of the Rings trilogy in New Zealand.

Movies like Inspector Morse or Lewis are in themselves Film Induced Tourism targets as many people visit Oxford exploring locations associated with the television productions.

(The Oxford of Inspector Morse, Antony Richards, 2007)

I myself visited the dales of Yorkshire once exploring the land of the veterinarian James Herriot (aka Alf Wight) following his books (like All creatures great and small) and television series.

Alf Wight and actor Christopher Timothy

Source: http://www.godsowncounty.co.uk/books-literary-work/james-herriot-of-thirsk-and-askrigg/)

As I'm 'into pilgrimage' my ears pointed hearing about Hathaway's pilgrimage to Santiago in this episode of the series. Two specific aspects gained my attention.

“Well, I wasn’t really travelling, I went for a walk.”

“To Spain?”

“Long walk?”

Hathaway, with his theology studies background and 'walking wikipedia' knowledge, states that he didn't do a pilgrimage, he walked.

OK, whether you're a pilgrim is part of your identity. You walk with your feet, you pilgrimage with your heart. Hathaway needed some time off to figure out if he wanted to be a 'copper' and how he related to this life.

Hathaway also indicates that he didn't reach Santiago, in a village just before Santiago he turned around and walked back. Hathaway perhaps walked from Oxford and perhaps also walked back. And after months of walking he decided not to enter Santiago.

Once I wrote in my blog on a pilgrimage to Santiago: it would be a victory if I didn't reach Santiago. I failed.

Guess what, several authors made up stories of what happened on James Hathaway's travels to Santiago.

See example 1 here, see example 2 here.

See also the blog

Retaining the Meta: Adventures of a Midlife PhD which discussues the contemporary monk Hathaway


Some additionals:

Watching the Detectives: Inside the Guilty Landscapes of Inspector Morse, Baantjer and Wallander

Stijn Reijnders, European Journal of Communication, 2009

Dutch research on film and tourism (in Dutch)

(More on this grant in English here.

Sue Beaton, Film Induced Tourism, 2005

Stefan Roesch, The experiences of film location tourists, 2009

(Source: Amazon.com)

Altamira: the cave, the art, the movie

Once upon a time, 30 kilometers west of Santander,

near the village of Santillana del Mar, some 35000 years ago....

Perhaps you remember from early school years mentioning of Lascaux (France) and Altamira (Spain). Famous for their paint art, some of the very first human art.

As I walked the Camino del Norte in 2013, and as I also studied history with special interest in pre-history, how could I not visit this cave on the occasion.
Well, I saw the closed gate of the original cave, but visited the replica. 

By the way, the cave of Lascaux is also closed for public and rebuild in a replica.

  

(Photo: P Kouwenberg)

This movie by Unesco shows the Altamira site.

(2:50)

Click here to go to the Cave of Altamira in the Unesco records.

Click here for the Website of the Museo de Altamira

In 2016 a movie was published on the discovery and the man who devoted his life to the cave.

Directed by Hugh Hudson,

featuring Clément Sibony, Rupert Everett, Javivi, Antonio Banderas

Storyline on imdb:

"Marcelino Sanz de Sautuola y de la Pedrueca, in 1868, accidentally discovered Patheolitic paintings with the help of a hunter named Modesto Cubillas inside Altamira's caves, located in Cantabria, north to Spain. Trying to expose their discovery to the academic world for that they study the paintings, Sautuola crashed against the skepticism and discredit of all experts, who claimed that the caves were false and the paintings made for the own Sautuola, in a effort to get rich. Looking for the truth, Sautuola was the rest of his life fighting to prove that those paintings were real, trying to restore his innocence from the accusations of falsehood launched against him. Written by Chockys"

2016

Trailer Altamira

(1:42)

Music by Mark Knopfler

Here you can hear the title track

(2:58)

Movie review here

A commenter on imdb states that original discovery was done by the poor shepherd Modesto Cubillas. The movie however emphasizes Marcelino Saenz de Sautola. He's the owner of the land, also a powerful family (co-owning Banco Santander) and co-sponsor of this movie.

A full documentary on 

Prehistoric Europeans. People Who Invented Art

Not only cave drawings, but also a flute ;-)

(56:52)

Walk and Horreo

Sleeping in a Parador is perhaps not the place to sleep along the Camino de Santiago for a usual pilgrim.
But a traditional horreo, that's an option for the pilgrim living traditonal values, right?

Architect Nacho Gias from Madrid rebuilded four traditional horreos along the camino into luxurious 2 person cabins. (66$ a night)

By the end of 2016 two more are planned.

Catesby Holmes reports in Conde Nast Traveler

See also the Walk and Horreo site

In the picture

As I'm also a photographer, so.. interested.

This entry brings you some great views on pilgrimage and photography, places of worship, places of wanderlust, solitude, fog and snow...

First is the Hajj pilgrimage, the Hajj to Mecca in pictures on The Guardian.

See this photo documentary here on the webpages of The Guardian.

Michael George walked the Camino the Santiago. He walked the Camino Frances the same months I did. So, there are some mutual memories.

See his webgallery here.

Tim Hall visited Varanasi and Allahabad along the river Ganges.

See his webgallery here.

Hu Guoqing made a series, Passage to the heart,

on Buddhist pilgrims on their way to winter Lhasa.

See his work here.

See another serie on a pilgrimage to the Holy Mountain here.

More on the photographer here.

Pilgrimage to Amarnath, pilgrimage to paradise

I would like to introduce the pilgrimage to Amarnath. A famous Shiva shrine in Hinduism: an icy stalagmite, the frozen lingam of Shiva.
Recent years the site had over 600.000 visitors/pilgrims a year. A growing number.

This blog entry provides background info, a photo series, several videos of the Amarnath Yatra and a link to an article on some politics and a video on environmental consequences (Paradise has some issues).

Lord Amarnath by Gangadhar Tambe Wikicommons

Interested in the legend of this perhaps more than 5000 years old shrine, of the pigeons overhearing the secret of immortality Shiva told Parvati? Click here.


The Telegraph published a photo documentary on "Thousands of Hindus make a pilgrimage to Amarnath cave in the Himalayas". You can find it here.

See also the site sacred Sites on Amarnath here.

Nirav Patel made following video of touristic visiting.

(2012)

(18:51)

See also the Three minute adventures.

(perhaps turn down music a little)

2008

(3:17)

And the counterpart, great environmental stress.

2011

NDTV

(2:11)

For years now Amarnath is also a political center of a dispute between Kashmiris and the Indian government.

See article in Foreign Affairs (partly available due to subscription)

Ian reader in this article: “Hindu nationalist organizations have encouraged Hindus to participate in the Amarnath pilgrimage as a statement of Hindu pride and in order to reinforce Indian claims to the region and to demonstrate their opposition to Pakistan’s counterclaims.”

In 2016 the Amarnath Yatra is from July 2 to August 18.

Click here for the do's and don'ts if interested in going on a pilgrimage to paradise.

The Good Friday pilgrimage to Lindisfarne

The Good Friday pilgrimage to Lindisfarne (UK)

For with the flow and ebb, its style

Varies from continent to isle;

Dry shod o'er sands, twice every day,

The pilgrims to the shrine find way;

Twice every day the waves efface

Of staves and sandalled feet the trace.

(Sir Walter Scott)

The beautiful photographs of Christopher Thomond for The Guardian are the reason this item is on the blog.
See all picture here.

The easter walking pilgrimage to Holy Island is an annual event. It was founded in 1976

Interested in crossing along the tidal pilgrim's causeway, click here.

Some background info here.

And a holiday presentation from WitchesSky show you around the place.
(7:56)

And to see the muddy walk click here.

See also a beautiful photographs on pilgrimage and procession in this Good Friday collection.

 Scott Heppell, AP


Other Good Friday Pilgrimages are for example the walk to Chimayo:
See this link.