Sites Of Worship Research Articles

Saidaiji Monks and Esoteric Kami Worship at Ise and Miwa

By the eighth century, Mount Miwa, the most important site of worship connected to the early Yamato ruling houses in prehistoric times, had gradually become de-sacralized and forgotten by imperial family in favor of Ise. In the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was rediscovered and reinvented by Buddhist lineages who aimed to restore the proper monastic order in a time of mappō and to protect the state and the divine land of Japan in the wake of the Mongol invasions. The outcome of this was the phenomenon of Miwa(ryū) Shintō, a type of kami worship that has later been categorized as one of the traditions of esoteric or the Shinto of Two Realms (Ryōbu Shintō). It is thought to have developed in the vicinity of Mount Miwa during the early medieval period, and is often mentioned in connection with the Saidaiji lineage which participated in the revival of monastic precepts in thirteenth century Japan. It has also been assumed that Eizon (1201-1290), an esoteric master and a central figure to the precept revival movement, played a defining role in the ritualism of the emerging esoteric kami worship at Miwa. The question remains, however, as whether these phenomena were really connected and why Miwa attracted the attention of the Saidaiji lineage.

Damning the Flow

Damning the Flow

Radiometric dating of the Siloam Tunnel, Jerusalem.

The historical credibility of texts from the Bible is often debated when compared with Iron Age archaeological finds (refs. 1, 2 and references therein). Modern scientific methods may, in principle, be used to independently date structures that seem to be mentioned in the biblical text, to evaluate its historical authenticity. In reality, however, this approach is extremely difficult because of poor archaeological preservation, uncertainty in identification, scarcity of datable materials, and restricted scientific access into well-identified worship sites. Because of these problems, no well-identified Biblical structure has been radiometrically dated until now. Here we report radiocarbon and U-Th dating of the Siloam Tunnel, proving its Iron Age II date; we conclude that the Biblical text presents an accurate historic record of the Siloam Tunnel's construction. Being one of the longest ancient water tunnels lacking intermediate shafts, dating the Siloam Tunnel is a key to determining where and when this technological breakthrough took place. Siloam Tunnel dating also refutes a claim that the tunnel was constructed in the second century bc.

Redining the Gods: Politics and Survival in the Creation of Modern Kami

Interpretations of the gods change with each succeeding political transformation as ritualists redefine the objects of their worship in order to survive. In early seventeenth-century Japan, priests at sites of sacred power enshrined their deities as combinatory gods supportive of the Tokugawa regime. In the face of the threats and opportunities of late 1867 to 1874, ritualists asserted and supported the exclusive legitimacy of the emperor by redefining the combinatory gods as imperial kami and stripping them of other associations. After the Meiji regime became securely established, however, many added back earlier associations to the gods to appeal to worshippers and ensure the continued survival of their institutions. Thus, priests of the Shinto shrines of Meiji-officiating at the hitherto combinatory worship sites of the Tokugawa era-reintroduced selected elements of that combinatory tradition under the auspices of the purportedly pure, exclusive Shinto of the imperial regime.

Religion, planning and the city

This article examines the debates that have arisen in relation to the establishment of sites of worship by Britain's minority religious groups. Frequently, the buildings of non-Christian religious communities have been portrayed as `alien' and incommensurate with surrounding urban landscapes, and there are numerous cases in which such opposition has had a decisive bearing on the success or failure of plans to develop such sites of worship. However, beyond this geography of exclusion, we have begun to detect a changing attitude in the ways such buildings are positioned in relation to their local urban landscapes. In several cases, new sites of worship have been represented as welcome contributions to the production of multicultural, ethnically diverse cities. In these instances, public bodies and institutions have co-opted such buildings into broader urban policy agendas. Local religious communities have themselves played a defining role in this shift, having become astute actors in the political sphere, adapting to the processes involved in gaining planning permission and financial support. Evidence of this changing geography is provided through case study material from the town of Preston in Lancashire and the city of Leicester in the East Midlands, both in England.

Chapter 6. The Archaeological Study of Ancestor Cult Practices: The Case of Pampa Chica, a Late Initial Period and Early Horizon Site on the Central Coast of Peru

This chapter explores the spatial and material dimensions of ancestor cult practices for one specific archaeological case: the late Initial Period and Early Horizon (ca. 700–200 B.C.) site of Pampa Chica in the Lurin Valley on the central coast of Peru. It combines the analysis of ethnohistoric accounts, used to formulate an ideal‐typical image of the spatial and material organization of ancestor worship in the Central Andes, with the analysis of several independent lines of archaeological evidence, in order to explore how the specific archaeological case resembles and/or deviates from the ideal‐typical ethnohistoric image. Despite regional and temporal differences, Pampa Chica seems to have been a site designed, built, and used in ways that closely resemble ancestor worship sites described in ethnohistoric documents.

In Homage to T'ien-fei

NEARLY A MILLENNIUM AGO, Chinese communities in the Fukien coastal region began worshipping the spirit of a young woman who came to be called W2 (Celestial Consort). This is the goddess more commonly known as If.' Over the centuries shrines were established in her honor up and down the coast of China, as well as along the banks of rivers and streams reaching inland. To is attributed a vast range of divine power, but overall her reputation rests on her ability to rescue those who suffer hazards at sea. As the special guardian of seafaring populations, she remains unsurpassed. How much, if any, faith in is retained on the Chinese mainland in this age is open to question.2 Of the thousands of shrines once dedicated to her memory, only the remnants of two are officially maintained now, one north in Tientsin X* and one south in Ch'Uan-chouXl. Both are designated as T'ien-hou Kung ir (Palace of the Celestial Empress), in recognition of the honorary title bestowed upon by imperial decree in 1683.3 Outside the continent new shrines continue to be built and old ones restored and enlarged, especially in Taiwan. Many of the currently active sites of worship on this island were in fact established by emigrants from Fukien cities such as Ch'Uan-chou. One late count finds altogether 510 shrines under Taiwan's jurisdiction. The vast majority are ' The title T'ien-fei was granted in 1281 to a folk deity traditionally identified as a daughter of the Lin i lineage of P'u-tien District *FJ in Hsing-hua Prefecture RftRe on the Fukien coast. Although variant sources from the Sung to Ming give conflicting dates for her birth and death, most writers by the early Ch'ing appear to have settled on those of 960-987. As Wolfram Eberhard, The Local Cultures of South and East China (Leiden, 1968), 403, and Ch'iu Te-tsai {hike , Taiwan mniao-shen chuan fXI*NW (Chia-i, 1980), 101, have stated, natives of three Fukien locales, P'ut'ien, T'ung-an Am, and Ch'iuan-chou AMI1, claim their birthplace to be that of a Ma-tsu, distinguished as Mei-chou Ma fi+Hi, Yin-t'ung Ma IRR , and Wen-ling Ma ilff, respectively. Ma-tsu is a shortened form of Matsu-p'o[-p'o] OFTR O] or Ma-ts6-p6, a Fukien dialect word for Grandmother. Precisely when and why a goddess whose mortal life ended at the age of 28 came to be called Grandmother has not been determined to my knowledge. One of the earliest texts to record this name is Yu Yung-he 45*PT (fl. 1691-97), T~v 'i-liu jih-chi 45REnk 8 02(TS CC ed.), 14, in a description of theatrical performances observed at a Kung OFTIR on the southwest coast of Taiwan. Liu Wen-san I'II _-, Taiwan tsung-chiao i-shu E X Ad; # gif (Taipei, 1979), 25, claims the full-faced representation of common in temples today reflects the vision of a gradually aging goddess. The earliest such image to survive in Taiwan is a 1 7th-century wood figure now housed in the K'aichi T'ien-hou Kung N XEg of Lu-erh-men ATr (Tainan). It is said to have been brought ashore in 1661 by Cheng Ch'eng-kung 4131b upon his liberation of Taiwan from the Dutch and is featured in Tao-c hiao wen-hua Af{tr 17 (1979), 37-42. 2 One of the earliest statements to be made on the decline of interest in on the continent is Chu Ch'ieh-chin Gi~b , ;Fu-chien shui-shen k'ao jM4I**T, V; , Nan-lang hsiieh-pao X X 6.1 (1950), 56-63. The author, writing from the National University of Yunnan, claims the cult reflects a general susceptibility to hallucinations. It is Chu's position that faith in flourished in the past because of a backward economy and primitive means of transportation.