This book brings together essays by anthropologists, scholars of religion, and art historians to explore some of the most fundamental challenges that religious

This collection offers a challenge to any simple understanding of the role of images by looking at aspects of the reception of image worship that have only begu

The history and underlying ideology of pilgrimage examined, from prehistory to the middle ages. The enduring importance of pilgrimage as an expression of human

The importance and ramifications of saints, sainthood and pilgrimage in contemporary Iran and neighbouring countries are great, yet the academic conceptualizati

Relics of previous Buddhas -- Relics of the Bodhisattva -- Relics of the still-living Buddha : hairs and footprints -- The Parinirvāṇa of the Buddha -- Aśok