Ashes and Flowers: some Hindu approaches to death and dying

Contemporary interest in death and dying in the West has provoked reflection upon other cultural and religious traditions. Many writers assume that just as health and death are predominantly in the West the realm of the clinical so in India they are in the realm of the sacred. This article rejects t...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: King, Anna S. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Routledge 1998
In: Journal of beliefs and values
Year: 1998, Volume: 19, Issue: 1, Pages: 19-31
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Description
Summary:Contemporary interest in death and dying in the West has provoked reflection upon other cultural and religious traditions. Many writers assume that just as health and death are predominantly in the West the realm of the clinical so in India they are in the realm of the sacred. This article rejects this oversimplification and explores the complexity of Hindu approaches to death and dying through an examination of the varied attitudes, beliefs and practices of pilgrims, pilgrimage priests and renouncers in the sacred pilgrimage centres of Hardwar and Rishikesh. It argues that the resources offered by the culture for responding to death and dying are used creatively and contextually by many Hindus in ways that depend very much on their personal experience and individual narratives as well as the social pressures and traditions operating around them.
ISSN:1469-9362
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of beliefs and values
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1080/1361767980190102