Kemerê Duzgi: The Protector of Dersim (pilgrimage, social transformation, and revitalization of the Raa Haqi religion)

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article focuses on a well-known pilgrimage site of Kurdish Alevis, a heavily suppressed ethno-religious minority in the Dersim region (Turkey). Forced modernization politics in the 20th century destroyed their rural way of life and social structure. Nevertheless, Kurdish Alevis maintain their faith in Dersim as ancestral sacred land, referring primarily to non-human entities, most of which are natural, such as mountains, rivers, lakes, and trees. They uphold their beliefs while engaging with contemporary religious-political discourses. Depending on worshipping animate and inanimate natural objects, the cosmology of the Raa Haqı is evaluated from a different angle. Duzgı, an isolated mountain, is one of Dersim’s most significant jiares (sacred places) and is a powerful religious symbol of Kurdish Alevi identity. Annually, tens of thousands of Kurdish Alevis come from around the world to Duzgı for pilgrimage. This article, based upon data collected during long-term ethnographical fieldwork on the mountain, will provide a framework for understanding Kurdish Alevis’ political context, beliefs, and practices, as well as an overview of anthropological approaches that inform debates on new animism and will focus on pilgrimage practices and show how Duzgı contributes to the consolidation of a fragile community’s collective consciousness and contemporary ethno-politics.