<特集 ヴァナキュラー・ツーリズムからみる南アジア --宗教・聖地・観光-- > 巡礼実践の観光化と脱観光化 --南インドのヒンドゥー教におけるバス巡礼ツアーを事例に--

Abstract

This paper explores how local religious practices interact with the tourism industry in the case of a Hindu pilgrimage tour, “Bhakti Ula” in South India. Tamil Nadu is called as a land of temples and these are important cultural resources for both domestic and foreign tourists to visit. A bus is most popular way for tourism among Indian domestic tourists. While most of bus tours are packaged with visiting various sacred site and sold in the system of tourism as the commercial practice, traditional religious practices flourished in the form of pilgrimage. The participants pay a high attention for religious purity and a life during pilgrimage seems to be temporally ascetic. It is efficient and reasonable opportunity for urban middle-class to deep their religious belief and fulfill their religious needs. They enjoy singing devotional songs together in the bus and have a friendship with the other participants. Especially, the organizer plays important role and can be called as a religious entrepreneur. He plays important roles as a both religious activist and business manager to control this tour. Such a religious entrepreneur unique characteristic in vernacular tourism in this paper.