Forms of Pilgrimage at the Shrine of Khāled Nabi, Northeastern Iran

Pilgrimage (religious tourism) is one of the fastest growing forms of tourism. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research about this form of tourism in the literature. This dearth of tourism studies is even more glaring in the field of Ziyārat or pilgrimage in...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ebadi, Mehdi (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Dublin Institute of Technology [2015]
In: The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
Year: 2015, Volume: 3, Issue: 1, Pages: 66-78
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Khāled Nabi / Ziyāra / Spiritual tourism / Educational tourism
IxTheo Classification:AG Religious life; material religion
BJ Islam
KAB Church history 30-500; early Christianity
KBL Near East and North Africa
KCD Hagiography; saints
Further subjects:B imamzadeh
B Ziyārat
B Iran
B forms of pilgrimage
B Khāled Nabi
B Turkmen Sahra
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
Volltext (kostenfrei)
Description
Summary:Pilgrimage (religious tourism) is one of the fastest growing forms of tourism. Nevertheless, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research about this form of tourism in the literature. This dearth of tourism studies is even more glaring in the field of Ziyārat or pilgrimage in Islam which in spite of its importance and wide extended practice have been mostly ignored in tourism and geographic literature. The present study features one such area that is (almost) unknown within the community of tourism and geography researchers. In Iran, religious pilgrimage has a long tradition. Numerous sacred places with varieties of rituals and traditions, which practice among the pilgrims all around the country, indicate on its antiquity (before Islamic periods). Among the most practiced forms of religious pilgrimage are the visits to several thousands of shrines, which are known in Iran as Ziyāratgah (lit. place of visit) or Imāmzādeh. One of these Ziyāratgah is the pre-Islamic shrine of Khāled Nabi (also known as Halat Nabi), which belong to a legendary Christian holy man of the 6th A.D. The shrine lies in the northeastern Iranian province of Golestan, in a region called Turkmen-Sahra. Despite its relative remote setting, every year more than 90,000 travellers do visit this shrine. This article seeks to consider varieties of pilgrimage forms at the shrine. The results of the study shows that the travelers of Khāled Nabi shrine are not homogenous and comprise of different types of visitors. In addition to secular motivations, based on the visitors' inventives, three zones/forms of pilgrimage, namely, ‘‘religious pilgrims'', ‘‘cultural pilgrims'', ‘‘nostalgic pilgrims''have been recognized.
ISSN:2009-7379
Contains:Enthalten in: The international journal of religious tourism and pilgrimage
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.21427/D72M7P