Sacred Sites/Sacred Stories: Global Perspectives

ANU Religion Conference 2018: Sacred Sites/Sacred Stories: Global Perspectives

The study of sacred sites is a prominent feature in a number of disciplines. Sacred sites and stories and pilgrimage are the theme of the conference. Topics of enquiry range from the role of sacred sites in religious traditions, through to how sacred sites form part of the development of modern tourist industries, the role of sacred sites in international relations and the ways in which sacred sites can be the focus for disputes. At a time when many sacred sites and their stories face challenges due to economic development, environmental change and the impact of mass pilgrimage and tourism the conference offers an opportunity for wide-ranging discussions of the past, present and future of sacred sites and stories and their significance in the world today.
  
The conference will have the following panels:
•    Pilgrimage and Tourism
•    Historical Perspectives
•    Visual Arts and Architecture
•    Indigenous Traditions
•    Competition and Contestation

PROGRAM

THURSDAY 5 APRIL 

12pm - 1.15pm - Registrations

Opening Section (APCD Lecture Theatre 1) - 1.15-1.45pm

                         Acknowledgement of Country
                         Welcome Greetings  Dr Peter Friedlander
    Welcome Greetings  Prof Michael Wesley (Dean, College of Asia and the Pacific)

                          Announcement: Dr David W. Kim
 

1: 45 pm - 2:00 pm / Break (15 mins)

Presentations

2:00 pm - 3: 30 pm / Hedley Bull Building

Parallel Session 1: Visual Arts & Architecture 1

Chair: McComas Taylor (Australian National University)

Room: Lecture Theatre 2

Paper 1: Caroline Tully (University of Melbourne)

 Traces of Places: Sacred Sites in Miniature on Minoan Gold Rings

Paper 2: Margaret Chua (University of Canberra)

New Look, New Vision and Direction: A Case Study of a Buddhist Monastery in Singapore

Paper 3: Supriya Banik Pal (West Bengal, India)

Art and Cultural Heritage of Mahabharata and Ramayana: A View through the Terracotta Temples of Bishnupur, West Bengal

Parallel Session 2: Historical Perspectives 1

Chair: J. Gordon Melton (Baylor University, USA)

Room: Seminar Room 3

Paper 1: Muhammad Iqbal (National University of Modern Languages, Pakistan)

Significance of the Islamic Shrines in Pakistan: A Historical Perspective

Paper 2: Peter Friedlander (Australian National University)

The Chinese Temple in Sarnath: Global Patrons and Local Patronage

Paper 3: Mukesh Kumar (University of Technology, Sydney)

Competition and Contestation at a Hindu-Muslim Shrine: The Case of the Sant Laldas in Mewat, North India

 

Parallel Session 3: Competition and Contestation 1

Chair: Carole Cusack (University of Sydney)

Room: APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Paper 1: Abdurezak Abdulahi Hashi (International Islamic University Malaysia, Malaysia)

Jerusalem: A Sacred Site and Focus of Notable Disputes among Abrahamic Traditions

Paper 2: Duncan Wright (Australian National University)

                Archaeology of a Coral Sea Ceremonial Pathway

Paper 3: Abbas Panakkal (Kozhikode, Kerala, India)

Transformation of Admiral to the Sainthood and Sacred Stories of Chinese Sanctum Sanctorum from Malabar Coast

3: 30 pm - 4: 00 pm / Coffee Break

 

Presentations

4: 00 pm - 5: 30 pm / Hedley Bull Building

 

Parallel Session 4: Daesoon Jinrihoe in Korea

Chair: David W. Kim (Australian National University)

Room: APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Paper 1: Massimo Introvigne (Centre for Studies on New Religions, Italy)

 The YHTC as a Global Work of Art

Paper 2: Seon-Keun Cha (Daejin University, Korea)

The Sacred Space of Daesoon Jinrihoe: Distinctiveness and Significance

Paper 3: Rosita Šorytė (Diplomat, former Chairperson of the European Union Working Group on Humanitarian Aid)

            The YHTC as a Centre for Social Welfare and Humanitarian Aid

 

Parallel Session 5: Pilgrimage and Tourism (Asia) 1

Chair: Yuri Takahashi (Australian National University)

Room: Lecture Theatre 2

Paper 1: Helene Connor (University of Auckland)

Piety, Perils and Place:  Pilgrimage to Saint Catherine of Alexandria's Monastery

Paper 2: Lior Chen (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)

Qasr El-Yahud: Jewish-Israeli Appropriations of a Christian Baptism Site

Paper 3: Shay Rozen (Avshalom Institute, Israel)

Doors of Hope: Baha'i Western-Women Pilgrimage to the Holy Land

Parallel Session 6: Indigenous Traditions & Pilgrimage

Chair: Barbara Nelson (Australian National University)

Room: Seminar Room 3

Paper 1: Obydullah Al Marjuk (Independent University, Bangladesh)

                Mahbub Alam (Independent University, Bangladesh)

Mazaar: The Notion of Sacred Place, Syncretistic Tradition and Inspiration for Devotees

Paper 2: Kiran Shinde (University of Melbourne)

Everyday Places as Sacred Space: The Transit and Temporality in Palkhi Pilgrimage, India

Paper 3: Barnali Chetia (Indian Institute of Information Technology, Vadodara, India)

    Rangpur's Ahoms: A Forgotten Saga of Indigenous Culture and Traditions

FRIDAY 6 APRIL - HEDLEY BULL BUILDING, ANU

9.15am - 9.45pm - Registration 

Key Address (1):  APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Presider: A/Prof McComas Taylor (9: 45 am - 9: 50 am)

9: 50 am - 10:40 am / Key Speaker (Prof Eileen Barker, London School of Economics, UK)

   Title: Contemporary Creations and Re-cognitions of Sacred Sites

              Announcement: Dr David W. Kim

10:40 am - 11: 00 am / Coffee Break

Presentations

11: 00 am - 12: 30 pm / Hedley Bull Building

Parallel Session 7: Megastatues in Contemporary Asian Religions

Chair:  Tamara Jacka (Australian National University)

Room: Lecture Theatre 2

Paper 1: J. Gordon Melton (Baylor University, USA)

                               Guanyin Mega-statues in East Asia

Paper 2: Massimo Introvigne (Centre for Studies on New Religions, Italy)

                Fiona Hsin-Fang Chang (National Cheng Chi University, Taiwan)

                 Remembering Guiguzi: Megastatues of a Divinized Chinese Sage

Paper 3: Edward Irons (The Hong Kong Institute for Culture, Commerce and Religion)

                           Maitreya's Boundless Gaze Fills the Landscape:

The Religious Implications of Maitreya Statues in the Contemporary Asia

Parallel Session 8: Historical Perspectives 2

Chair: Peter Friedlander (Australian National University)

Room: Seminar Room 3

Paper 1: Raisa Rasheeka (Independent University, Bangladesh)

Death and Hereafter: A Cross-Cultural Study of Burial Patterns and Beliefs in the Afterlife

Paper 2: Yuri Takahashi (Australian National University)

Min Thein Kha's 'Ayudaw Mingalar' Garden: An Acceptance of Theosophy in Myanmar

Paper 3: Arshad Munir (University of Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan)

Significance of the Sacred Sites of Minorities in Punjab Province of Pakistan: A Historical Perspective

 

12: 30 pm - 2:00 pm / Lunch Begin

 

Lunch Time Book Talk (1: 00 pm - 1: 30 pm): APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Presider: Dr Yuri Takahashi (Australian National University)

Author: Dr Yasuko Claremont (University of Sydney)

        Citizen Power: Postwar Reconciliation

 

Presentations

2:00 pm - 3: 30 pm / Hedley Bull Building

 

Parallel Session 9: Visual Arts & Architecture

Chair: Barbara Nelson (Australian National University)

Room: APCD Lecture Theatre 1

 

Paper 1: Lucie Folan (Australian National University)

 Transported Home: Paintings that Enable Mental Pilgrimage by Expatriate Jain Communities

Paper 2: Louise Morris (Deakin University, Melbourne)

                             TIDE and the Social Sacred

Paper 3: TBA

 

Parallel Session 10: Indigenous Traditions 1

Chair: Virginia Hooker (Australian National University)

Room: Lecture Theatre 2

 

Paper 1: George Quinn (Australian National University)

            The Nail that Pins Java to the Face of the Earth

Paper 2: Geoff Broughton (Charles Sturt University, Canberra)

                 Brooke Prentis (Aboriginal Christian Leader, Australia)

                             Walking on Country, Together

Paper 3: Naijing Liu (Australian National University)

Preliminary Notes on Kinship Terms in Tsum: Polyandry in Transition

 

Parallel Session 11: Pilgrimage and Tourism (New Age)

Chair: McComas Taylor (Australian National University)

Room: Seminar Room 3

 

Paper 1: Tiffany Trotman (University of Otago)

Finding One's Way: The Camino de Santiago as a Liminoid Experience

Paper 2: Saidalavi P.C. (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi and Australian National University)

     Being Crazy and a Sufi: Making of Koyappappa as a Saint in Kerala

Paper 3: Carole M. Cusack (University of Sydney)

           Sighthill Stone Circle: A Modern "Neolithic" Sacred Monument

3: 30 pm - 4: 00 pm / Coffee Break

Presentations

4: 00 pm - 5: 30 pm / Hedley Bull Building

Parallel Session 12: Indigenous Traditions 2

Chair: David W. Kim (Australian National University)

Room: APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Paper 1: Zia ur Rehman (The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan)

The Role of the Shrine of Bahauddin Zakarya in the Social Cohesion

Paper 2: Patrick Gesch (Divine Word University, Papua New Guinea)

Migrations and Visitations: Sacred Sites in the East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea

Paper 3: Carol Hayes (Australian National University)

The Spiritual in the Mundane: The Poetry of the Shikoku O-Henro Pilgrimage

Parallel Session 13: Competition and Contestation 2

Chair: Eileen Barker (London School of Economics, UK)

Room: Lecture Theatre 2

Paper 1: Phrasamu Phongsak Supprathum (Nantien Institute, Wollongong, Australia)

         Dhammakaya Cetiya: World Inner Peace Centre in the Plights?

Paper 2: Petra Tlčimuková (University of Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic)

Gohonzon: Nichiren Buddhist Sacred Scroll as a Dislocated Sacred Site

Paper 3: Abdul Ghaffar Bukhari (National University of Modern Languages, Islamabad, Pakistan)

                    Role of Mosques in Human Development

Parallel Session 14: Historical Perspectives 3

Chair: George Quinn (Australian National University)

Room: Seminar Room 3

Paper 1: Basheer Ahmed (Mehran University, Pakistan)

                Muhammad Nabeel Musharf (Australian Islamic Library, Australia)

Hadith Narrators from Debal and Their Services to the Hadith: A Research Enquiry

Paper 2: Karma Gyeltshen (Nan Tien Institute, NSW, Australia)

                 Sacred Geography: Foot Prints of Padmasambhava

Paper 3: Naseem Akhter (Shaheed Benazir Bhutto Women University, Pakistan)

        Shrine of Baba Fareed: A Source of Interfaith and International Relationship

** 5: 35 meet at Hedley Bull Building (with Dr Yuri Takahashi) to walk to conference dinner

Music Performance   Conference Dinner

6: 00 pm - 6: 45 pm   6: 45 pm - 9: 00 pm

Presiders: A/Prof McComas Taylor                      Dr Peter Friedlander   Announcement: Dr David W. Kim

Place:   Great Hall, University House

 

SATURDAY 7 APRIL - HEDLEY BULL BUILDING ANU
8: 45 am - 9: 00 am / Registration

Key Address (2):  APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Presider: Dr Barbara Nelson (9: 00 - 9: 05 am)

9: 05 - 9: 15 Prof Simon Haberle (Head of the School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University)

9: 15 - 9: 20 Best PhD Paper Awards

           9: 20 - 10: 10 am / Key Speaker: Prof Elizabeth Minchin

Title: Commemoration and Pilgrimage in the Ancient World: Troy and the Stratigraphy of Cultural Memory

                    Announcement: Dr David W. Kim

10: 10 am - 10: 40 am / Coffee Break

Presentations

10: 40 am - 12: 10 pm / Hedley Bull Building

 

Parallel Session 15: Pilgrimage and Tourism (Asia and New Age)

Chair: Michael Schimmelpfennig (Australian National University)

Room: APCD Lecture Theatre 1

Paper 1: Midori Horiuchi (Tenri University, Japan)

                         What is "Jiba," the Sacred Place of Tenrikyo?

Paper 2: Gang Hyen Han (International Academy of Neohumans Culture, Korea)

The Role and Meaning of Future Tourism Toward the Most Holy Place of the Descending Holy Spirit: Focusing on the Reality of Onthophany in the Neohumans Culture

Paper 3: Alexa Blonner (University of Sydney)

Blurred Boundaries between Secular Memory and Sacred Space in Religious Tourism:  Example of Two New Religions, the Mormon and Unification Faiths

Parallel Session 16: Delphoi   

Chair: Massimo Introvigne (Centre for Studies on New Religions, Italy)

Room: Lecture Theatre 2

Paper 1: Peter Londey (Australian National University)

                          Delphoi in Imagination and Experience

Paper 2: Greta Hawes (Australian National University)

           Pausanias at Delphi and the Things that aren't There

Paper 3: Sonia Pertsinidis (Australian National University)

                      The Scene of a Crime: Aesop at Delphi

Parallel Session 17: Constructing Sacred Sites of War and Conflict

Chair: Simon Haberle (Australian National University)

Room: Seminar Room 3

Paper 1: Elizabeth Rechniewski (University of Sydney)

                Matthew Graves (Aix-Marseille University, France)

           Boer Wars and Black Wars: Competing Narratives of National Origin

Paper 2: Roman Rosenbaum (University of Sydney)

          Reimagining Sacrosanct Sites in the Graphic Art of Kono Fumiyo

Paper 3: Yasuko Claremont (University of Sydney)

  Ishibumi: A Living Memorial to the Atomic Annihilation of 321 Schoolboys in Hiroshima

12: 10 pm - 1: 20 pm / Lunch

Free Post-Conference Trip

1: 20PM - Meeting for Field Trip with A/Prof McComas Taylor

1: 30PM - Depart ANU Coombs Building to Black Mountain Tower

2: 20PM - Depart Black Mountain Tower to Australian War Memorial

3: 30PM - Depart Australian War Memorial to Parliament House

4: 50PM - Depart Parliament House to Weston Park

5: 20PM - Depart Weston Park to ANU Coombs Building

5: 30PM - Return to Australian National University

End of the ANU Religion Conference 2018