ABSTRACT
In 2001, I was traveling with friends attempting to complete a Hindu pilgrimage called the Char Dham Yatra in the Indian Himalayas. This route stops at four sacred sites (dhams or ‘abodes’ of the deity) near the glacial source of a sacred river. As we were traveling by car from Yamunotri, where the Yamuna River begins, to Gangotri, where the Ganges River emerges from a glacier, our driver urged us to stop at a roadside cave in which a village had recently established a shrine to the Hindu god Shiva. We hiked a short distance up the mountainside where we encountered a villager seated in front of the narrow cave opening. We learned he served as priest at the shrine. After we had squeezed in, we were shown rock formations that our local guide explained were naturally formed images of the gods and goddesses of the Hindu pantheon. Later, when we interviewed the village head, he explained that he had recently discovered the cave while searching for an underground water source for the village. The god Shiva had spoken to him in a dream and led him to this spot. He discussed his plans to organize the village in order to make news of the cave visible to the auto and bus traffic passing along the road during the pilgrimage season. He also had plans to build a proper temple that would attract pilgrims and their offerings. Over the years since then, there has been occasional controversy in the village over which castes can rightfully conduct rituals and guide visitors inside the sacred enclosure. However, during this same period, the site has grown and expanded as busloads of pilgrims from all over India have stopped to marvel at the cave shrine, captivated not only by the remarkable natural forms of the gods but also by the vivid storytelling of the village guides. Today, on the basis of successful marketing to tour organizers and drivers, this temple—known as Prakateshwar Panchanan Mahadev—has become one of the most popular stopping points on the Char Dham Yatra, and the story of its miraculous discovery is told and retold to throngs of visitors whose donations have helped build a bustling pilgrimage center. However, two successive years of dramatic monsoon flooding in the region, attributed by some to the effects of climate change at high altitudes, led to steep declines in pilgrimage during 2012 and 2013. Today, those whose livelihoods depend on the success and possible expansion of the pilgrimage economy face great uncertainty about the future. What will become of religious tourism in a region threatened by increased climactic disruption?
