Sacred site experience

Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 64–84, 2009 0160-7383/$ - see front matter Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Printed in Great Britain

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doi:10.1016/j.annals.2008.10.003

SACRED SITE EXPERIENCE A Phenomenological Study Konstantinos Andriotis Nottingham Trent University, UK Abstract: This paper attempts to broaden the subject of sacred site experience by presenting the findings of a study on the experiences of an exclusive male sacred shrine in Greece, Mount Athos, also known as the Holy Mountain. The study involved a phenomenological approach undertaken through initiating conversations with visitors, participant observation and reviewing narratives on visitor books kept in monasteries. From the analysis five core elements of authentic experience emerged, namely spiritual; cultural; environmental; secular; and educational. These elements were discussed in relation to the methodology adopted and the findings of past research. Keywords: religious, Christian pilgrimage, sacred shrine, experience, authenticity, phenomenology. Ó 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION What do a married Catholic Belgian architect in his early sixties; an old Orthodox Greek divorced pensioner; a single middle-aged Protestant German theologian; a young atheist Spanish college graduate; and a Coptic Orthodox Egyptian student have in common? All of them have a great variety of distinct endowments, characters, creeds, nationalities, and sociodemographic and behavioral characteristics. Despite these differences, all of them are visitors of an exclusive male sacred shrine in Greece, Mount Athos, also known as the Holy Mountain, where they use the same means of transport, they abide by the same rules, they sleep at the same monasteries, and sometimes at the same dormitories, and they dine at the same tables, although they have never met each other before. Mount Athos is the largest, and, by far, the most important community of Eastern Orthodox monks in the world, that symbolizes Byzantium monasticism. It is one of the most world’s renowned monastic communities that claims to present the highest form of spiritual life

Konstantinos Andriotis is a Reader in Tourism & Leisure at Nottingham Trent University (Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK. E-mail ). He edits the International Journals of Tourism Policy and Hospitality Knowledge Management, and the book series Tourism Development and Management—Issues and Approaches. His research interests are in development, planning and community attitudes to tourism. His work has appeared in various journals including: Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Travel Research, and Tourism Management. 64

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known in the Christian society (Gothoni 1993; Sherrard 1977:102). Despite the increasing research interest on Mount Athos (e.g. Sarris 2004; Smith 2004), only occasionally one will find references, rather brief or incidental, devoted to visitors’ experiences. Among the limited exceptions include the studies of Gothoni (1993, 1994) that discuss the experiences of ‘western pilgrims’ to Mount Athos from the 15th century up to the early 1980s. However, these experiences were studied nearly 30 years ago, and experiences vary over time (Lengkeek 1996). A more recent study was undertaken by Kotsi (1999), who analyzed the ways with which women participating in a ‘floating pilgrimage’, experience the enchantment that derives from inaccessibility and interdiction of visiting Mount Athos. However, the gender of the author was prohibitive for entering the shrine, and thus this study does not address main dimensions of sacred shrine experience, as those involved with attendance of services in the church. Mount Athos presents persistent masculinized themes, as those identified by Edensor and Kothari (1994) in relation to the heritage industry. The masculinized feature of the place, mainly the wild landscape, the primitive way of life and the adventurous activities on offer, are exclusively oriented towards the male gaze in their appeal. Thus, all past studies focusing on Mount Athos turn to be engendered. Gender is critical to the construction of the place, which can be considered as a male landscape, which celebrates masculinity and enchants an imaginary of masculinist past. Gender not only serves as a basic principle for how the Athonite monastic society is organized, but also impacts all social relationships and experiences of visitors. According to Chouinard and Grant: ‘‘human experience is gendered . . . (and) common experiences cannot be presumed’’ (1996:177). Despite this argument, much of the extant work on gender and tourism concerns employment patterns and sex tourism (Pritchard and Morgan 2000:884). As a result, past research has failed to acknowledge the role of gender in the representation and experience of heritage sites (Aitchison 1999). Likewise, research on Orthodox sacred shrine experience is a rarity in the literature, with notable exceptions the studies of Dubisch (1995) for Tenos; and Shackley (1998) for St Katherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai, Egypt. However, these studies, as well as the majority of studies on religious tourism and pilgrimage (e.g. Eade 1992; Nolan and Nolan 1992) have been concentrated on congested shrines, which many visitors experience as ‘‘commodities’’. Despite the extensive literature on sacred shrine visitation, the major dimensions which explain the nature of a sacred shrine experience have not yet been optimally identified. To address this shortcoming, this paper attempts to broaden the subject of sacred shrine visitation experience from the aspect of phenomenology. In doing so, it presents the findings of a study on the experiences of male visitors to Mount Athos, and examines the overall relative importance of various elements, which, generally speaking, can be assumed as the main attributes of the place. The rationale for choosing Mount Athos as a case is centered on various distinct attributes of the place. First, the site has changed little for over a thousand years, and is considered as the last surviving remnant

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of the Byzantine Empire. Citing the works of Goffman (1959) and Turner (1973), it is a ‘back region’, typically ‘out there’, and eccentric, where monks carry on their everyday lives and visitors have the chance to realize a true experience. Second, its core presents apart from religious ritual (people praying), historic artefacts, treasures, and rich environmental resources. However, in contrast to most other shrines, where influences from increased tourism demand is a considerable problem, commoditization in Mount Athos is still limited and controlled, since strict entry regulations apply and very limited facilities and services that attract tourists exist. Third, according to the Mount Athos charter, the peninsula is devoted only to the male gender, all forms of female life being denied access (except for cats to control vermin). Fourth, visitors are required a commitment to abide by the singular Athonite rules, including no loud talking, laughter or music, no singing, no swimming and a willingness to adapt to the slow rhythms of Byzantine monasticism life. Although there may be other shrines where strict regulations exist and females are prohibited entrance, the subject of male sacred shrine experience has been treated from a narrow point of view. PHENOMENOLOGY OF MALE VISITORS’ EXPERIENCE TO MOUNT ATHOS Study Area The phenomenon of sacred shrine visitation had existed many hundreds of years before the phenomenon of tourism appeared in human behavior (Fleisher 2000:311). For centuries one sacred shrine visited by male Orthodox Christians from all over the world is Mount Athos. Its history begins in 963 A.D. in the Easternmost Chalkidikian promontory of Greece (Figure 1). Mount Athos is a self-governed part of the Greek state, subject to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in its political aspect and to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople as regards its religious aspect. Except from the 20 organized cloisters, Mount Athos has a wide variety of other monastic settlements. These range from sketes (sort of colonies of the larger monasteries that are smaller and easier to keep up); to scattered monastic cottages called kellions, each with a church. Beyond that, are a few areas where monks and hermits live in hillside huts or cliffside caves scattered all over the 35 mile long peninsula. The peninsula is inhabited by an austere regime of 2,300 mainly Greek Orthodox monks with some also coming from ex-Soviet Union States, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus. The latest generations of Athonite monks are from an urban background and are highly educated, many being university graduates (Gothoni 1993; Speake 2005). Since the majority do not have any skills of the peasant, works like fishing, farming and construction have to be done by lay workers (Speake 2005). In 2006, approximately 78,000 persons visited Mount Athos, among which only 3.8% (approximately 3,000 persons), were Heterodox.

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Figure 1. The peninsula of Mount Athos

These numbers are not radical and lamentable, compared to many other shrines, such as the Orthodox monastery of Saint Katherine in Mount Sinai that accepts on a regular basis at least 1,000 visitors per day (Shackley 1998). The remoteness of the shrine and the control of admittance in an attempt to protect its seclusion, without which the shrine will lose its raison d’ etre, have sheltered the place from the influences of the modern world and contribute significantly to an experience, characterized by ascetic abstinence and humility. Thus, visitation to Mount Athos corresponds to Urry’s (1990) ‘romantic gaze’ where travellers crave solitary enjoyment. Strictly speaking Mount Athos is a place of exclusion, remoted from required facilities and from transport availability. It is a de facto gated community, offering a quality visitor experience in a culturally sensitive manner that only a limited number of people have the privilege to experience. It is among the last sacred shrines that provides a joyful experience of restricted entrance that leaves visitors ‘agaped’, and yields to happiness, contentment and a heightened sense of a great escape. The reclusive nature of Mount

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Athos allows visitors to contemplate a way of life stripped from the excessive indulgences and of contemporary society. Visitors to sacred places have multiple motivations, interests and activities, some of which have nothing to do with religion directly, but are connected with holiday making or with journeys undertaken for social and cultural reasons (Nolan and Nolan 1992). In this respect, religious trips are frequently multifunctional journeys which involve religious dominant factors along with other tourist motivations (Weidenfeld 2005:147). As a result, many studies (e.g. Fleisher 2000; Smith 1992; Weidenfeld 2005) have discussed the differences and similarities between tourists and pilgrims. The main conclusion of these studies is that it is almost impossible to distinguish between ‘religious travelers’ and ordinary ‘vacationers’, since both are often linked to one another in a shared space (Gatrell and Collins-Kreiner 2006:2). As a result, Weidenfeld (2005:148) supports that there is no obvious dichotomy between pilgrims and tourists, other that the pilgrim places importance in being able to fulfill his religious obligations without hindrance, while the tourist travels for hedonistic purposes. Based on the above rationale, some authors (e.g. Gothoni 1994; Kotsi 1999; Sherrard 1977) queried whether all visitors to Mount Athos are true pilgrims. For instance, Sherrard (1977:102) judged by the norms of what constitutes a pilgrimage in the traditional religious sense of the world, estimated that during the 1970’s at least ninety per cent of visitors to Mount Athos were not pilgrims. However, Sherrard, as a non-Orthodox, has judged on the basis of the Latin word of pilgrimage that emphasizes the aspect of the journey. This is pronounced when he states that visitors to Mount Athos ‘‘do not walk the long, steep, often relentless paths, so that inner change, for the production of which walking is an essential element, cannot take place in them (1977:102)’’. However, pilgrimage in Orthodox Christianity differs to most other religions. Turning to the Greek context, the Greek language does not have a word exact synonym to the word pilgrimage and pilgrim. Instead it uses the words ‘proskinima’ and ‘proskinitis’ that refer more generally to worship and devotions at a church (Dubisch 1995; Gothoni 1993, 1994), while physical endurance is not required. Based on this framework the extent to which all visitors to Mount Athos are ‘true’ pilgrims has not been yet clarified. For this reason the author uses the words ‘visitor’, ‘proskinitis’ and ‘proskinima’, instead of the words pilgrim and pilgrimage, without any intention to dispute the holiness of the shrine. Admittance to Mount Athos Although in some places there are monasteries accepting paying guests, who seek an unusual lodging to ‘experience’ a historical tradition (Smith 1992), lodging for visitors to Mount Athos is free of charge. However, admittance to Mount Athos is a complex process, mainly because its authorities want to encourage genuine pilgrims while deterring mere tourists. As a result, a quota of 120 Orthodox males a day,

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and 12 Heterodox has been established. In enforcing this quota, visitors should schedule their trip long in advance by phoning or applying by post for a later date to the Pilgrims’ Bureau. In addition to this quota, a limited number of officials and people invited by monks is allowed entrance. Once somebody has been put on the quota for the day he wishes to enter, he presents himself to the office of the Holy Executive of the Community of Mount Athos to receive a ‘Diamonitirion’, which is his permission to enter the shrine. This permit entitles to four days of stay and costs 25 euros. From the village of Ouranoupolis the ferry runs to Dafni, the main harbour in Mount Athos. From Dafni visitors can take the ferry to the monasteries located in the west coast of the peninsula. An alternative path is through road links from Karyes a small town on the peninsula, where a mini bus service caters for the transfer of visitors. Staying in Mount Athos Hospitality at monasteries and ‘sketes’ is part of the visitors’ progress through Athos. When visitors arrive at a monastery the first thing they do is to see the ‘archontaris’ (host to visitors), who offers them a traditional greeting of a glass of cold water, a piece of loukoumi (traditional sweet), and a shot of raki (Greek spirit). Diamonitirion, when presented at any monastery, entitles to a bed, meals and roving within the monastery. Typically, about six hours a day are devoted to church services that consist almost entirely of chanting. At the end of each service visitors have to follow the monks into the unadorned refectory and sit at communal tables, where the meal is being served. Meals are eaten swiftly, lasting as long as it takes for a monk to read a story aimed to elevate faith and action. After dinner, guests return to the church where the priest presents the sacred relics of the monastery (Saints’ bones and ancient religious raiments of distinguished ecclesiastics) for veneration. The monks follow the old Julian calendar and the Byzantine time. Phenomenology of Tourism Experience Many studies on tourism and religious experience have adopted a positivist methodology approach (e.g. Cohen 2003; Fleisher 2000). Although methodologies that quantify experiences are intuitively attractive, some authors (e.g. Riley and Love 2000) have critiqued them for reducing the complexities of human experiences to numbers and statistics as well as for their inadequacy to capture complete accounts of their understanding and meaning. Therefore, there is a need to adopt alternative strands of interpretivist methodologies based on the notion that people have feelings, values and mindsets, and are able to give accurate accounts of all these (MacDermott 2002:266). In other words, it is useful to explore experience of travellers by adopting a phenomenological approach.

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Phenomenology is designed to consider participants’ subjective perceptions of the main focus of inquiry by shedding light on the meaning assigned to their lived experience, and discovering the common meanings underlying empirical variations of a given phenomenon, rather than with the mere application of methodology (Casmir 1983:309; MacDermott 2002). In phenomenology, the researcher attempts to provide a direct description of somebody’s experience as it is, without taking account of its psychological origin and the causal explanations which the scientist may be able to provide (Merleau-Ponty 1962:vii). Thus, phenomenological approaches can be applied to those disciplines, such as tourism, where the focus is on understanding human experience (Casmir 1983). In the tourism literature an increasing number of studies has adopted a phenomenological framework, although most of them have been focused on the periphery of phenomenology (Li 2000:865). To refer to a few of them, Masberg and Silverman (1996) examined college students’ experiences at heritage sites; Li (2000) investigated the way that geographical consciousness influences the tourists’ experiences; Uriely, Yonay and Simchai (2002) studied the types of experience of Israeli backpackers; and Hayllar and Griffin (2005) investigated the nature of the tourist experience in the Rocks historic precinct of Sydney, Australia. On the other hand, Noy (2008), inspired by the concept of phenomenology pursued various sensitivities and sensibilities emerging from the evocation of the experience of a tourist excursion. Finally, Cohen (1979) identified five modes of tourism experience, namely recreational, diversionary, experiential, experimental, and existential. Among these modes, the existential mode is the one pertinent to the aims of this study. This is because it emphasizes the spiritual connection to a place, by focusing on those travelling to remote centres and sacred shrines for a quest of spirituality. Cohen’s seminal work, although theoretical in context, is among the limited attempts having adopted a phenomenological approach from a spirituality perspective. Study Methods The current research explores the experience of visitors in a natural context by adopting a phenomenological approach. In particular, the author visited Mount Athos three times. These visits lasted from four to eight days and involved social interaction between the researcher and other visitors. The first visit took place in September 2004. No formal preparations were made at that time since the visit was not undertaken for research purposes. Only when the author arrived at Mount Athos, he started observing with a more professional eye, participating in activities and venturing to talk with other visitors. This visit offered the opportunity to the author to gain clarity from his own preconditions, and to design the methodology. During the second and third visits, in May 2006 and July 2007, the author had planned to continue data collection and as a result was prepared in advance by reading related studies. The author stayed at the

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same monasteries as many other visitors, often sharing the same dormitories. Being of similar background as with most of the visitors (Greek Orthodox), made it easy to engage with them. For the non-Greek visitors, all communications were performed in English. The aim was to initiate conversations with the informants about the meaning of their experience in ‘idle chatter’, and to establish rapport. At first conversations were initiated with superficial discussions on simple descriptive questions, such as previous journeys to Mount Athos, purpose of visit, marital status, religion, and profession. Where appropriate conversations moved on to the discussion of particular experiences in great detail. These conversations, in total 27, took place on the ferry, in Karyes, the capital of Mount Athos, and during the author’s stay in monasteries. On some occasions, discussions were taken one to one and in some others with two to four visitors, consisting a group. According to some authors, e.g. Schutz (1972) and van Manen (1990:63), the most straightforward way to investigate the nature of a certain experience or phenomenon is to ask selected individuals to write down their experiences. This became possible through a review of the visitor books being kept in the guest houses of monasteries; a type of research which in the knowledge of the author remains largely undiscovered in tourism studies. In total, the author asked for access to the visitor books of eight monasteries. Out of these eight monasteries, two responded positive to the request. Visitor books, contain reflective accounts of experiences of phenomenological value, and provide visitors with the opportunity to publicly articulate and express their experiences in a creative way. In addition, Noy (2008) suggests that entries in visitor books can provide information about tourists’ preoccupations. The location of visitor books in the guest house, instead of being reserved near the exit, as happens in most heritage sites, makes it consequential and interactive. Since data included in visitor books were not written at the researcher’s request, they minimized reactivity, and, as a consequence they maximized naturalness (Noy 2008; Poria 2006). For this reason visitor books can be considered as self-revealing and honest research instruments, serving as a fountain of lived experiences to which the researcher could find practical insights. Participant observation provided complementary forms of experiential material to those collected from face to face conversations. In phenomenological research close observation, where the researcher enters the ‘world of immediate experience’ (Husserl 1970), entails data gathering that remains natural and authentic (Sarantakos 2005). In this study observation research was used in times where data were not possible to be collected through face to face contacts, e.g. during the church services. Ethical considerations are particularly pronounced in the case of participant observation where researchers disguise their identity from the people they are studying. Where observational research was undertaken in public places, it was not always possible to gain informed consent, although in cases of face to face conversations the author was asking respondents’ informed consent. Likewise, before reviewing visitor books the author had obtained the consent of the abbot of the respective monastery.

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All data collected were recorded in a pocket notebook. At first, to get a sense of the overall substance of the data, and to understand their content, the researcher read the notes. Following this, every entry was reread one by one in order to capture the depth of expressions behind the sacred shrine experience. Every statement was given equal value and weight, a process referred by Moustakas (1994) as horizonalization of the data, and each nonrepetitive, nonoverlapping statement was listed in order to develop the structure of the data. On completion of the list a total of 24 formulated meanings related to the phenomenon were identified. The most frequent meanings included spirituality, pilgrimage, remoteness, serenity, escape, nature, socialization, authenticity, heritage, history, art, scholarship and out of class learning. These meanings were merged into five themes (clusters) that recurred as commonalities in most visitors’ experiences. Clusters were validated by reference back to the original notes to find quotations illustrating each of the themes, and the most powerful and eloquent quotes that speak directly to the phenomenon in question are provided in the text. In order to support a more interpretive discourse in the notes, links across the relevant literature were sought. To validate the analysis, various authors (e.g. Colaizzi 1978), recommend to return to the respondents who provided the data. This was not possible in the current study mainly because the author did not keep any contact details of the respondents in an attempt to ensure anonymity. Instead the author relied on a colleague to read, reflect on, and respond to the synthesis of the data. This action was useful in order to reduce researcher bias that could emerge from imposing his own beliefs and background. Although quantitative data were collected, the aim of the analysis was not to quantify responses. Rather it was concerned with stimulating insights of the experience and emphasizing their meaningfulness. Elements of Experience It is misleading to talk of one single travel experience, given the heterogeneous nature of the activity (Ryan 2002) and the complex multidimensionality of the concept (Hull, Michael, Walker and Roggenbuck 1996). Thus, the visitors’ motivations for visiting the Holy Mountain vary. These differences are manifested by different activities, and behavior which results in experiences with certain core elements, as those analyzed below. Spiritual Element. Certain religious places are believed to generate magnetism on peoples’ consciousness (Dubisch 1995). This power is highly experienced in Mount Athos, where the majority of visitors believed that the shrine has, what Preston (1992) calls ‘spiritual magnetism’. Whether or not all visitors are ‘true pilgrims’, undertaking religious devotions is unknown. Admittedly, a large number of visitors to Mount Athos are ‘proskinites’ that their scholarship has been motivated by authentic Orthodox Christian tradition and faith. This spiritual motive was frequently apparent while observing their rituals,

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both inside and outside the church. While in the church, ‘proskinites’ expressed their devotion to God by praying, making the sign of cross, lighting candles, and kissing the icons, insisting that it was the prototype, not the painted wooden object, that they honored. As Orthodox believers often declared during the long hours of services in the church, while they were facing the iconostasis and the frescoes, they thought they were in the presence of God and the saints. During the author’s three visits to Mount Athos the vitality of the spiritual tradition carried on by Athonite monks was everywhere on display. As recorded in the visitor book of one monastery by an American, probably of Greek origin: Glory to God for allowing me to venerate at this holy monastery of Konstamonitou, part of my life-long dream of coming here to the Holy Mountain. Thanks to Panagia (Madonna), I have now been counted worthy to venerate at all 20 Athonite monasteries. This was possible only by the prayers of my holy elder, Yeronda Ephraim of Philotheou and now in America, and my spiritual father Yeronda Dositheos (Visitor from Arizona, USA, 29/9/2005).

Mount Athos allows ‘proskinites’ to mediate away from the cares and distractions of everyday lives. Among the informants there were people frequently visiting their elective monastery to derive spiritual sustenance and to talk to their father confessor. This was the case of a married Cypriot electrician, on his early forties, father of two, who visits Vadopedi monastery once a year to derive, in the words of Cohen (1979), an existential experience and spiritual sustenance. On another occasion a former merchant marine in his late forties, declared that he makes periodical ‘proskinimata’ to Grigoriou monastery and he hopes to become a monk one day, when he ‘‘gets his affairs in order’’. For him, as many other Orthodox believers, visitation to Mount Athos had nothing to do with a travel experience, but was connected with devotedness to God. This devotedness was obvious through the vast majority of the quotes in the visitor books written mainly by Greeks. Practically, ‘true’ pilgrims’ attitude was expressed by the lack of interest in taking part in any secular activities and by ignoring the touristic aspect of the place. One such visitor was a Greek old man who was visiting Mount Athos with his young son. When the author tried to initiate a conversation with him, he waved him off, ‘‘I’m not interested in conversation’’, he said. When he was asked about the purpose of visiting Mount Athos, he replied: ‘‘for the reason that everybody comes, for pilgrimage’’. In reality, visitors who cited spiritual reasons for travelling to Mount Athos encountered the very core of the Athonite world and were more Orthodox than those who did not. For them physical journey was secondary to the inner one, and declared as pull motives for their visit to ‘‘improve their religious faith’’; ‘‘to strengthen their belief’’; ‘‘to be in a sacred shrine’’; ‘‘to get closer to God’’, ‘‘to mediate’’, ‘‘to venerate’’, and ‘‘to pray’’. The desire motivating such 6proskinites’ was to experience ‘‘personal transformation’’ or ‘‘self-actualization’’, which would seem to restrict them to a self-centred spiritual individualism, as it is apparent from the response of an old Greek divorced pensioner in his mid-fifties, who seemed to be in the midst of a crisis:

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My main objective is to strengthen my faith in a way that will enable me to continue my life back home with new energy and a feeling of purpose.

Cultural Element. Rinschede (1992:52) considers religious tourism as a subgroup of cultural tourism, suggesting that differences between these two forms are not clearly definitive, but transitional forms can be distinguished. In supporting this, he gives the example of Rome, where the religious sites are simultaneously significant cultural sites. Based on this, Griffin poses the question: ‘‘how does one distinguish a visitor in genuine need of prayer and spiritual peace, from one admiring the work of eleventh or twentieth century builders, or contemplating the tomb of some famous person?’’ (1994:31). This is a reasonable question since sacred shrines are frequently visited for reasons, other than religious. In the case of a British medical student, admission to the shrine was based on cultural motives. In his own words: ‘‘I only came to see the treasures being kept in every monastery. There is a fortune of treasuries on this mountain.’’ Mount Athos is a living museum of history and art. It is an ancient European heritage site opening up for outsiders who are permitted to view details of the inner operation. The architecture of the monasteries is of the typical Byzantine monastery morphology. Tradition is physically represented in the design and the materials used in the construction of monasteries and other buildings. In Mount Athos, the visitor feels impressed not only by the frescoes, but also by the precious gems, mosaics, art miniatures, old icons, ancient manuscripts and the ecclesiastic utensils. These treasuries are on display in the museums of the monasteries that open only on special occasions and with proper devoteness. Thus, experience of culture is a main element of most visitors. As an old Belgian architect, visiting Mount Athos with his two brothers-in-law said: ‘‘I am interested in Mount Athos and the Byzantine architecture since I was involved in a European project for the restoration of Athonite monasteries. Since then I have visited Mount Athos four times and I have been intrigued by architecture and Greek monastic life’’. For many visitors the presence of monks in their monastic garb doing their day-to-day routines and the opportunity to live their ‘authentic’ primitive life, and their traditional lifestyle, unspoiled by the ravages of external world, was a unique experience (Figure 2). Thus, many visitors were tempted to experience communal life in the shrine, and were critical and deeply suspicious of anything that appeared ‘spoilt’ or ‘touristic’. The quest for authentic experiences was being fulfilled, since most respondents while accounting for their experience on Mount Athos, used the words ‘real’, ‘genuine’, ‘pure’, ‘virgin’, ‘original’, ‘traditional’, ‘primitive’, ‘remote’, and ‘untouched’. As one informant stated, ‘‘the place brought in my mind a picture of the Byzantine era’’, and another mentioned, ‘‘I guess that what makes the place authentic is the buildings, the monks and the communal way of life. One without the others would somehow diminish the experience’’. The same applied to an Egyptian student, evident from his narrative on one visitor book:

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Figure 2. Laymen next to monks in Karyes (the capital of Mount Athos) The purpose of my visit was to visit a new country (Greece), get involved with people from other nationalities, and to know the life of monks. I really enjoyed being with monks and getting to know the way they live. I really enjoyed seeing Christians from other countries and how they live. Mount Athos appeal lies in its atmosphere. It is a living Byzantine remnant and not an artificial restoration. (Electronic Engineer Student in the American University of Cairo, Egypt, 25/7-4/8/2005).

Secular Element. Socialization is an essential element for many visitors to Mount Athos. Although religious events associated with saint’s days are almost the only social happenings of everyday life, sojourn to Mount Athos has serious social implications. In Mount Athos, the communal nature of accommodation and life encourages social interaction and visitors adapt the communal lifestyle by being more open and talkative with strangers than they would be in their normal home environment. As Singh remarks ‘‘pilgrimages’ traditions function to integrate and reinforce or reproduce social relations among participants (2006:377)’’. In reality, the easy interaction among visitors certainly contributed to pleasure and to some cases to their rapid welding into groups that saw themselves, at least for the duration of their stay, as cohesive and relaxed. While visitors look at the sacred journey or leisure, the monks receiving them should prepare for a large influx of visitors, who are characterized and behave differently from them. Regardless of their motivations, all visitors require some level of services and facilities, satisfying the most basic human needs. Visitors to sacred sites often demand various facilities, as those found at home. For those with an inability to adopt a relaxed approach, and with inappropriate attitudes, a series of difficulties were encountered. For

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example, during an overnight stay in a monastery, the author witnessed an incident that best illustrates visitors’ dependence on material comforts and conveniences. From a party of three Greeks one left after two days stay because he could not handle the handicaps associated with staying in Mount Athos. On the other hand, from a group of four pensioners, one complained for not being able to find alcohol. Apparently many visitors were not informed about the singular Athonite rules, and some were reluctant to conform to the Athonite way of life. The act of taking photographs may itself be an important social activity for the travelers serving to strengthen bonds among fellow travelers (Markwell 1997:135). Photography has been one of the main ways in which shrines have become established as magnets for tourists and pilgrims (Ivakhiv 2003). Although photography is a visible expression of appreciation of cultural significance (Markwell 1997), it can be considered an inappropriate activity within the borders of a monastery, considering the presence of monks. As mentioned by the German Catholic student: ‘‘I sometimes felt uncomfortable taking photographs within the borders of a monastery’’. In practice, for spiritual seekers photography was not among their prime activities, as also found by Huntsinger and Fernandez-Gimenez (2000) in their study on spiritual pilgrims at Mount Shasta, California. Nevertheless, for some visitors, such as a married middle-aged bank clerk, photographs were an essential part of their trip: During my four days stay I used more than six films just on pictures of monasteries and sceneries. The place is so unique; you cannot find the same place anywhere else. I can look at the photo of the shrine and remember it.

One might say that ‘‘Orthodoxy is a highly visible religion in the sense that it is represented in a variety of material objects: the votive offerings and icons, and the many prophylactic objects that are used to protect valued property and persons from harm’’ (Dubisch 1990:130). This material manifestation of Orthodox religiosity is evident in Mount Athos. Tangible objects being bought by visitors provide evidence of truly authentic experiences or having participated in the indigenous life of a place (Littrell 1990). However, Mount Athos is the kind of place where people return home with physical/tangible objects, such as icons, incense, rosaries, and books, which for them capture the essence of the place or memories of it, rather than T-shirts and high-end clothing, found in most commercialized shrines. In the two villages of the peninsula (Dafni and Karyes), there are shops selling religious artifacts to visitors. Also some monasteries run shops just inside their front gate, selling religious items to visitors. In most cases, the shopping experience offered at Mount Athos was considered by respondents to be authentic to the place being visited. ‘‘I don’t want anything catering to tourists. I want things that are sacred and typical and provide salient memories of the spiritual character of the place’’, mentioned one single agronomist in his late 30s. This is typical in Mount Athos, where many of the items being sold are handmade by monks.

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Environmental Element. Solitude in wilderness is an important aspect of enjoyment of the tranquility and naturalness of the environment in Mount Athos. The colours, shapes, textures, and other physical qualities of the landscape, include the spiritualized environment through which the ‘pilgrim’ passes, and the place itself combines spiritual search with physical journey. As the bank clerk mentioned: Sitting on the wall overlooking the forest and the sea beyond, gazing at distant peaks and trekking to the summit, offer me a glimpse of the sacred. I feel as though I’m connecting with God.

Throughout the Athonite state a network of tracks, many of them centuries old and well made with a stone base, exists. These tracks are a delight to walk and for some visitors walking to a place surrounded by scenes of spectacular natural beauty is an important activity. Thus, visitors kitted out for ‘trekking in the Himalaya’, and carrying their personal belongings in rucksacks can also be found trekking on Mount Athos. Among them an unemployed Greek in his late 30s, regular visitor of Mount Athos, climbed to the peak of Athos, a trip lasting more than six hours, and mentioned about his nature-based experience, while the author met him in one of the tracks: Trekking in Mount Athos is very pleasant. The paths I’ve crossed were very narrow and I had the feeling that nobody was there. On the way I saw wild flowers, gorges, forests and beaches. I really enjoyed the view.

The experience of this visitor is pushed further by Speake, whose journey to Mount Athos elicited in him a sense of nature: We find an ecological tradition, a natural environment of incomparable beauty—densely forested slopes, a profusion of wildflowers, the majesty of the mountain itself. The sheer variety of the Athonite landscape never ceases to amaze me. And together with the landscape I associate the silence on Athos . . . Many people have been struck by the quality of Athonite silence (2005:15).

This silence made many respondents to adopt a relaxed, laid back, and easy going approach. Silence and escapism from normal way of life was cited by an orthodox Bulgarian in his mid forties, father of three girls, as a primary motive of his visit, by declaring, ‘‘I wanted to get away from the civilized world for a while, and this place offers what I needed most, quietness’’. The mountain itself is a sacred landscape transformed perceptually by the beliefs and emotions of the pilgrims. However, the search of spirituality while on a sacred place surrounded by rich natural reserve is not always the case. Long distance walking can be seen only as a way of seeking relaxation and escapism (Kay and Moxham 1996:176). For instance, the young Spanish who visited Mount Athos after a faltering relationship, chose not to attend any services. Being an atheist, he stressed as his main reason for visiting the place to experience the nature by walking strenuously from monastery to monastery. Monasteries in his case were used as attractions offering lodging and catering. In practice, the experience offered to him is the one that conjures up that of the explorer, initiated by the quest of adventure and excitement, which tours of conventional tourism are allegedly lacking. On the

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other hand, because of the physical hardship associated with the enervating effects of the climate and traveling around the mountain; a large number of visitors preferred to stay within the borders of monasteries, where they could encounter desirable amenities. Educational Element. Traveling for cognitive purposes is evident in the ‘Athonite world’, where visitation possesses the potential for cathartic experiences involved with learning and education. Religious educational practices in the Athonite society remain mostly within the framework of spiritual eldership; that is, the inter-personal relationships which individual elders establish with visitors by disseminating knowledge to them (Sarris 2004:113). Visitors can also educate themselves through conversations with monks, some of whom are highly educated. Monks also fulfill their pedagogical role by giving tours along the borders of monasteries and offering a primer in theology, explaining the importance of repentance, prayer, fasting and celibacy. Thus, for religious motivated visitors their experience is primarily an opportunity to learn about Christianity, and, for many, to listen esteemed monks, identified as having a ‘charisma’, as the main reason for visiting the shrine. Also group discussions initiated by monks, where participants are able to ask various questions concerning the history of the place, theology, life on Mount Athos and so on, offers an experience of educative nature. In practice, some monks can be considered as well-experienced tour guides. Not dissimilar to tour guides, they are able to provide interesting stories about the history of the monasteries, and direct visitors to some beautiful sites, and, all these, free of charge. For many travelers knowledge gained through travel represents a kind of parallel to formal or life long education, mainly because outof-class experiences offer opportunities to apply knowledge obtained from coursework (Kuh 1995:136). This applied to a group of 11 schoolboys who came from a nearby Chalkidiki village along with their fathers and teacher. In their occasion, Mount Athos acted ‘‘as a bridge between the classroom and the outside world to enliven the learning process’’ (Cooper and Latham 1988:331). Likewise, a Serbian art student was motivated to visit the Holy Mountain after attending lectures on Mount Athos and its Byzantine art. By comparison, the young German’s journey was financed by his college with the aim to write a report on monasticism. Revisiting Boud, Keogh and Walker’s (1985) theory on the value of recording experiences as a reflective action towards learning, it can be argued that the writing of this student can be transformed into learning, not only for him, but also for his fellow students, since his narrative report was expected to contain considerable material of an educative nature. Athonite monasteries have rich libraries and have been repositories for rare copies of ancient writers. There are visitors who come mainly for scholarly reasons. This was the case of a single Greek in his mid-forties, whose only reason for visiting the monastery of Megisti Lavra was to read the original book of Saint Nelos. This visitor was disappointed when told that the librarian of the monastery was absent, and nobody else had the authority to open the library. Also, while walking in Mount Athos the author met a van with researchers from the Goulandri

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Museum of Physical History conducting research on behalf of the museum. These researchers transferred their knowledge to aspects of their research on Mount Athos, aiming at incorporating their findings in their exhibitions. Apart from the visitors with the intention to research, average visitors when asked what they had learned from their stay, many stated they had learned too much about themselves. Although the experience of Mount Athos does not have a life-changing effect for everybody, it certainly has significance for personal growth and development in a more general educational sense. This phenomenon is recounted in one of the visitor books: I found Athos to be like staring into a fogged mirror in which things were only half-revealed and half explained – yet somewhat I left seeing myself more clearly. Maybe that’s the secret of Athos. It gives you the time and the space to understand that the real discoveries are made within (Visitor from Australia, 2004).

CONCLUSION The present paper explored male visitors’ experiences on the holy shrine of Mount Athos. It involved a phenomenological approach undertaken through initiating conversations with visitors, participant observation and reviewing narratives on visitor books kept in monasteries. From the findings of the study, it is evident that the ‘Athonite experience’ has certain similar elements. The masculinity of the Athonite sacred shrine experience is part of a much wider discursive framework grounded in complex, multidimensional elements that typify the interplay of male space and masculinized heritage. First, visitors’ experience was overwhelmed by the spirituality of the place. Second, the cultural element was inspired by architecture, heritage, rituals and the Byzantine monastic life. Third, secularity was enhanced by the presence of humans, the communal way of life and the material manifestation of Orthodox religiosity. Fourth, the beauty and complexity of the natural environment, was an essential element often associated with spiritually and intuitively. Fifth, homilies of monks, out-of-class learning, and personal growth and development added an educational element to the experience. From this study it is clear that although for analytical purposes experiential elements were separated, visitors to Mount Athos intentionally seek connection of their visit not only with spirituality, but also with other elements such as culture, environment, education and secularity, which their relative importance determines the attractiveness of the place. However, even those who come for non-religious reasons should not lead one to label their behavior as tourism. Even those visitors who may come to gaze, take photographs and leave immediately afterwards, they are not immune to the spiritual magnetism of the place. As Gothoni states, ‘‘while many visitors (to Mount Athos) on their inward journey admit they are just taking a look, when they return they realize that they have made a pilgrimage (1994:179)’’. Thus, the vast majority of

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visitors correspond to Cohen’s (1979) existential mode, and definitely not to the recreational and diversionary ones. In reality, some visitors appear to turn into ‘pilgrims’ at the end or the beginning of their journey, as mentioned in the Guardian for Prince Charles, frequent visitor of Vatopediou Monastery, who found his true spiritual home on Mount Athos, and like his father, is an honorary member of the Friends of Mount Athos (Smith 2004). For others, such as the three heterodox Belgians, motives were as compelling and spiritual as those of true pilgrims, since while staying at Moni Dionisiou they attended services regularly. For those who wish to leave modern consumer subculture and western amenities behind, the primitiveness of Mount Athos relates to its contrast with modern society. Although most religious shrines offer ‘a commodified version of heritage’, what MacCannel (1973) calls staged authenticity, this is not the case in Mount Athos. Mount Athos combines past and present, conveying a causal relationship. It is a land of challenge, adventure, socialization, culture, learning, and for most, religious, offering disdain for materialism through a desire for a simpler, unencumbered life. More in tune with the byzantine monastic rhythms of life, the Holy Mountain allows visitors the opportunity to escape their normal pace of life and enter into an existential experience of unmeasured and uncontrolled time, or timeless, by sharing a temporary sense of communal life, sacred in its own right. While commoditization at Mount Athos appears to be minimal, this does not mean that the place is more authentic than other sacred pilgrimage sites, such as Lourdes, Mecca and Rome. The lack of commoditization does not increase the authenticity of the sacred site, nor the experience that the place provides to the pilgrim-tourist. As pilgrimage is usually a collective activity, even in cases where a pilgrimage site is used as a toured object, the meaning of authenticity is influenced by each individual’s experience of the place. As Belhassen, Caton and Stewart state in the context of authenticity in the pilgrim experience: ‘‘the study of any sacred site is the study of objective authenticity from the believer’s point of view (2008:686)’’. From a methodological point of view, the findings of this study confirm the potential use of visitor books in social studies as a novel data source, able to provide insights into the personal meanings of a sacred site experience. Visitor books as well as the other two data collection techniques adopted in this study, observation and conversations, allowed the study of individual experiences in a natural setting. However, the entries in visitors books remain long after the visitor leaves the place, and provide a great deal of information of the passing of a large number of visitors, in a quick and easy manner, compared to the other two data collection techniques. Thus, the collective impression created by inscribers’ contributions can be seen as an effective way to gain a more complete understanding of the dynamics of sacred shrine visitation by offering valuable information which might otherwise go undetected. Nevertheless, the use of visitor books, as sociological data collection method, faces serious drawbacks. First, the fact that visitor books

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provide only succinct texts means that only the gist of sacred site experience was revealed for each inscriber, although conversations and participant observation made possible to identify more aspects of the experience for each individual. Second, lack of representativeness is perhaps the principal drawback of visitor books. Although writing in visitor books is entirely voluntary, at the level of sufficiency, information gained cannot be claimed as representative for the population under study, since according to van Manen (1990) most people find writing difficult, and they tend to talk more eloquent and with much less reserves than writing their thoughts on paper. Finally, the anonymity of the entries, and, in most cases, the absence of sociodemographic characteristics of informants, resulted in a loss of information. Despite these limitations, the use of visitor books is better than not being able to use them, and their use in a multimethod approach, as the one adopted in this study, can provide a deeper understanding of a sacred site experience. Despite the care with which the identification of the general five elements of sacred shrine visitation was undertaken, it is not claimed that these elements are exhaustive of the phenomenon under study. Although the five theme elements allowed a systematic investigation of an authentic sacred site experience, their ultimate choice remained to a large extent a question of arbitrary judgment. Thus, it is possible that certain elements are missing from those identified. Like any qualitative study, it is not claimed that the researcher was not influenced by his personal interpretation. For example, the author’s religious and cultural background may have influenced the process. Further research is needed to examine cultural influences of researchers on data interpretation. In addition, although phenomenology does not allow generalizations for the reason that the tendency to generalize may prevent the researcher from developing understandings that remain focused on the uniqueness of human experience (van Manen 1990:22), it would be useful to verify the extent of comparison of this study’s findings through parallel studies within shrines of various faiths, in order to examine whether the same patterns and elements of masculinized sacred site experience described for Mount Athos, exist elsewhere. Although this study made possible to reveal male experiences from sacred site visitation, social science research suffers from a lack of studies on gender differences. Thus, there is a need for further research which investigates how femininity and masculinity intersect in the experiencing of sacred shrines, and which ascertains similarities and differences in sacred shrines visitation between men and women. Thus, there is a need to get a female perspective of sacred shrine experience, by studying female experiences in a shrine where males are excluded, as well as to test the results of male and female sacred shrine experience at a non-engendered pilgrimage shrine. To conclude, this study was an initial attempt to examine the actual heterogeneous male experience of Mount Athos visitors. Future research is required to substantiate the finding of this study by integrating the analytical categories identified in this paper into a more holistic approach of visitors’ experiences. Finally, to substantiate the findings of this research it is essential to develop a more detailed theoretical discussion around authenticity in

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order to clarify how authenticity affects sacred shrine experience in a living history site, as Mount Athos. Acknowledgement—The author thanks Alexandros Apostolakis, Noga Collins-Kreiner, Dimitrios Diamantis, Rene Gothoni, Lee Jolliffe, Filareti Kotsi, Pavlos Paraskevaidis, Yaniv Poria, Myra Shackley and Dimitrios Stergiou for their comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

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Submitted 10 January 2008. Resubmitted 9 July 2008. Final Version 09 October 2008. Accepted 10 October 2008. Refereed anonymously. Coordinating Editor: John Tribe

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