A Look At Sacred Sites Religion Essay

The cosmopolitan attitude in pre-industrialised society towards the Earth was respectful. The different tribal societies spread across the universe believed that the land we tread upon is a gift from our ascendants created through love and attention. One of the oldest testimonials to the Earth is found in the ancient Vedas. The poetries are to lauding Earth as sacred and inviolable. They talk about the human dependance on nature and the regard for the same that follow of course. ‘I am the boy of Earth ; Earth is my Mother ‘ I

Sacred sites are found everyplace in the universe and in every civilization. When an country is declared sacred it is believed to be the residence of some godly force residing in some landform of that country like rocks, mountains, trees, rivers or caves. Among the objects revered rocks were the most crude. In fact ‘stone-worship ‘ day of the months back to the early Palaeolithic epoch and continues today in India as Shivalinga, The mark of organ of coevals.

This belief of God or the spirit of God in stone exists among the folks of Australia, to whom the trace of a big stone or bowlder on the empty infinite of the desert would hold seemed particularly amazing. Located in the Centre of Australia, the monolithic stone formations of Uluru ( Ayers Rock ) and Kata Tjuta ( the Olgas ) are the most outstanding and good known sacred sites of the Aboriginal people. Rising 346 metres high, with a perimeter of 9.4 kilometers and covering an country of 3.33 square kilometers, Uluru is the individual largest stone outcropping all of Australia. No other topographic point in Australia is so rich in mythology, song-lines and narratives, or as associated with events associated with the Alcheringa or beginning of things or the Dreamtime. At the terminal of the Dreamtime, these characteristics hardened into rock, and the organic structures of the ascendants turned into hills, bowlders, caves, lakes, and other typical landforms of which Uluru is the most sacred. However when the first tourers arrived in the Uluru country around 1936, the local people apprehended danger. The struggle was between their sentiment and tourer resource. The petition by the people, for whom the stone had great spiritual value, to forbid mounting it went in vain. The locals to their hurt and dissatisfaction witnessed foreigners steping on the sacred land upseting the rest of their ascendants.

Certain topographic points are sacred from a historical position. Jerusalem, the capital of Israel and its largest metropolis has a history that dates back to 4th millenary BCE. As one of the ancient metropoliss of the universe it is sacred to the Jews, Christians and the Muslims. This is its uniqueness every bit good as the cause for an digesting struggle between Israel and Palestine. Jerusalem is the holiest metropolis for the Jews, houses some important Christian sites and is claimed as a sacred topographic point by the Muslims. The Temple Mount, The West Wall, The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Al Aqsa Mosque is important as the meeting of three different religions. Interestingly all these are of Abrahamic beginning yet the Israelites and Palestinians have been engaged in drawn-out struggle for exclusive tenancy of Jerusalem. The Jews express deep concern over the profanation of the Mount of Olives and prohibition to come in Western Wall ; the Palestinians likewise experience insecure after several howitzer onslaughts on Al Aqsa Mosque. Although the metropolis has been declared a heritage site yet today this sacred site is the nucleus issue in Israel Palestinian struggle.

The saving of sacred sites in their original signifier raises of import inquiries refering traditional autochthonal civilizations and modern society. The crisis intensifies when authorization seeks to utilize sacred land for scientific probe or set up research Centres at that place. Mauna Kea towering13, 803A pess ( 4,207A m ) above mean sea degree is sacred to the occupants of Hawaii for whom it is the umbilicus of creative activity. The acme of Mauna Kea is a sacred topographic point ( wahipana ) and has been the Centre of a combustion contention over utilizing it for astronomical surveies. The mountain is typical with its clean clear sky, which infinite scientists argue makes it the best topographic point on the planet to analyze the sky. Consequently, there has been important activity by NASA to utilize this platform for puting up observatories. This has sent out a negative message to the island-dwellers because it will sully the sacred land, and push to extinction alone home ground for a figure of animals including the Wekiu, which is found merely on Mauna Kea. Environmentalists say about 62 estates of wekiu home grounds have been lost to building of uranology installations so far. Astronomers have ambitious programs to construct more telescopes on the 13,796-foot mountain, but Native Hawaiians have protested that building of extra telescopes would do considerable environmental harm and farther desecrate a site of great cultural importance.

The dense wood of the Osun Sacred Grove, on the outskirts of the metropolis of Oshogbo, is one of the last leftovers of primary high wood in southern Nigeria. Regarded as the residence of the goddess of birthrate Osun, one of the pantheons of Yoruba Gods, the landscape of the grove and its meandering river is dotted with sanctuaries and shrines, sculptures and art plants in honor of Osun and other divinities. The sacred grove, which is now seen as a symbol of individuality for all Yoruba people, is likely the last in Yoruba civilization. It testifies to the one time widespread pattern of set uping sacred Grovess outside all colonies. The Osun Grove is a touchable look of Yoruba divinatory and cosmogonic systems ; its one-year festival is a life thriving and germinating response to Yoruba beliefs in the bond between people, their swayer and the Osun goddess. In acknowledgment of its planetary significance and its cultural value, the Sacred Grove was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2005. Experts on Nigeria ‘s traditional faith say that this 600 old ages old sacred grove is under serious menace from rapid urbanisation, over-exploitation and over-exposure for commercial benefits. In fact hapless administration and limited direction capacity poses one of the cardinal menaces to sacred sites all over the universe.

The autochthonal people from different parts of the Earth are bit by bit going vocal about invasion into their sacred sites and devastation of holy relics. It is of import that non merely palaces in modern-day usage but those that bear of import symbol of the distant yesteryear like the land of Bamiyan a Buddhist province positioned along the trade routes that for centuries linked China and Central Asia with India and the West. It housed the largest standing statue of Buddha erected around 4th or fifth century BCE. Ironically this largest illustration of stone-carving of Buddha, sermonizer of ‘ahimsa ‘ was ordered by the Afghan Taliban authorities to be demolished In March 2001.

There is doubtless a menace to the sacred sites ; instead there must be a manner to face them without aching spiritual sentiments. Acknowledging the natural and cultural values of these topographic points, improved cognition and apprehension of their significance, esteeming the rights of the local people, and ask foring them to open duologue could decide some of the issues

Rita Roy Chowdhury

Further Reading

Carmichael, David L. Sacred Sites Sacred Places. New York: Routledge, 1994.

Hastings, James. Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics. Edinburgh: T & A ; T Clark, 1981.

Whitney, William. Atharva Veda SamhitA? . Delhi: Nag Publishers, 1987.