The Ethics of Everest
In the wake of tragedy, considering both the human and the moral costs of the ultimate sports pilgrimage.
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In the Aftermath of the “Himalayan Tsunami”
The numbers may be low compared to global-scale disasters of recent years, but there is a wrenching poignancy to what is happening in Uttarakhand right now. Many of the forces that frame daily life in South Asia are suddenly on display like a raw wound: the wages of development and globalization, the power of the natural world, divine agency, altruism, self-interest, and the political nature of both government action and religious ritual.
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Two Cheers for British Museum’s Sanitized Hajj Exhibition
After two years of planning and development, “The Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam” was launched this week. But the project does not come without hope and expectation in this post-9/11 era.
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Burning Man in the Age of Rick Perry: Revelation, Pluralism, and Moral Imperative
Like any pilgrimage site, Burning Man is less a destination than a pretext for the journey. These days, of course, flying into Reno isn’t so hard—but actually opening up to whatever Black Rock City has to offer… that journey can be arduous. If you go looking for a festival with sex and drugs and dance music, that is all you will find. But if you pause to wonder why there’s a temple in the middle of it, why people come back year after year even if they don’t do drugs, or, for that matter, how it is that the art, community, and culture of Black Rock City is constructed without a Them putting on entertainments for Us, much more can be received.
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