Sacred Waters: A Cross-Cultural Compendium of Hallowed Springs and Holy Wells

417 Pages·2020·18.579 MB·English

by  Celeste Ray

SACRED WATERS
Describing sacred waters and their associated traditions in over thirty countries and
across multiple time periods, this book identifies patterns in panhuman hydrolatry.
Supplying life’s most basic daily need, freshwater sources were likely the earliest
sacred sites, and the first protected and contested resource. Guarded by taboos, rites
and supermundane forces, freshwater sources have also been considered thresholds
to otherworlds. Often associated also with venerated stones, trees and healing flora,
sacred water sources are sites of biocultural diversity. Addressing themes that will
shape future water research, this volume examines cultural perceptions of water’s
sacrality that can be employed to foster resilient human–e nvironmental relation-
ships in the growing water crises of the twenty-first century. The work combines
perspectives from anthropology, archaeology, classics, folklore, geography, geology,
history, literature and religious studies.
Celeste Ray is Professor of Environmental Arts and Humanities at the Univer-
sity of the South, USA. She is the author of The Origins of Ireland’s Holy Wells and
Highland Heritage: Scottish Americans in the American South, and the editor of volumes
considering ethnicity and historical ecology.

SACRED WATERS
A Cross-Cultural Compendium of
Hallowed Springs and Holy Wells
Edited by Celeste Ray
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, Celeste Ray; individual chapters, the
contributors
The right of the editor to be identified as the author of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered
trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without
intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Ray, R. Celeste, editor.
Title: Sacred waters: a cross-cultural compendium of hallowed springs and
holy wells / edited by Celeste Ray.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2020. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019044846 (print) | LCCN 2019044847 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367445126 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367445133 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003010142 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Holy wells. | Springs—Religious aspects. |
Springs—Folklore.
Classification: LCC GR690 .S23 2020 (print) | LCC GR690 (ebook) |
DDC 398.26—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044846
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019044847
ISBN: 978-0-367-44512-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-44513-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01014-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
CONTENTS
List of figures ix
List of tables xi
Notes on contributors xii
Holy wells and sacred springs 1
Celeste Ray
PART I
Ancient influences 33
1 Fons et origo: observations on sacred springs in classical antiquity and
tradition 35
Christopher M. McDonough
2 Water sources and the sacred in Modern and Ancient Greece 41
Evy Johanne Håland
3 Life and death from the watery underworld: ancient Maya
interaction with caves and cenotes 50
Nicholas P. Dunning
PART II
Stewarding curative waters and caring for pilgrims 59
4 “Go drink from the spring and wash there”: the healing waters
of Lourdes 61
Michael Agnew
vi Contents
5 The well of Zamzam: a pilgrimage site and curative water in Islam 71
Ahmad Ghabin
6 Sacrality and waterfront sacred places in India: myths and the making
of place 80
Rana P.B. Singh
PART III
Genii loci and ancestors 95
7 Freshwater sources and their relational contexts in Indigenous
Australia: views from the past and present 97
Liam M. Brady
8 Inca shrines: deities in stone and water 110
Marco Curatola Petrocchi
9 Dragon wells and sacred springs in China 121
Jean DeBernardi, Yan Jie and Ma Junhong
10 Sacred springs of the Tewa Pueblos, New Mexico 131
Richard I. Ford
PART IV
Temporal powers, social Identity and sacred geography 139
11 Divine waters in Ethiopia: the source from Heaven and Indigenous
water-worlds in the Lake Tana region 141
Terje Oestigaard and Gedef Abawa Firew
12 Ori Aiye: a holy well among the Ondo of Southeastern
Yorubaland, Nigeria 148
Raheem Oluwafunminiyi and Victor Ajisola Omojeje
13 Sacred wells of Banaras: glorifications, ritual practices and healing 159
Vera Lazzaretti
14 Yaksutŏ: Korean sacred mineral spring water 168
Hong-key Yoon
15 Sacred hierarchy, festival cycles and water veneration at Chalma in
Central Mexico 177
Ramiro Alfonso Gómez Arzapalo Dorantes
Contents vii
PART V
Medieval Europe 185
16 Between fons and foundation: managing a French holy well in the
Miracula Sancti Theoderici 187
Kate M. Craig
17 Finnaun y Doudec Seint: a holy spring in early medieval Brycheiniog, Wales 194
Andy Seaman
18 Gvendarbrunnar of medieval Iceland 204
Margaret Jean Cormack
PART VI
Contested and shared sites 211
19 A higher level of immersion: a contemporary freshwater mikvah
pool in Israel 213
Robert Phillips
20 Waters at the edge: sacred springs and spatiality in Southwest Finnish
village landscapes 220
John Björkman
21 Memory and martyrs: holy springs in Western Siberia 230
Jeanmarie Rouhier-Willoughby
22 Sacred and healing springs in the Republic of North Macedonia 240
Snežana Filipova
23 Water sanctuaries of Hatay, Turkey 247
Jens Kreinath
PART VII
Sacred waterfalls 257
24 Sacred waters of Haitian Vodou: the pilgrimage of Sodo 259
Elizabeth McAlister
25 The Olympic Mountains and the sacrality of water in the Klallam world 266
Cailín E. Murray
26 Back into the light: water and the indigenous uncanny in northeastern Japan 275
Ellen Schattschneider
viii Contents
PART VIII
Popular pieties 285
27 With sacred springs, without holy wells: the case of Estonia 287
Heiki Valk
28 The holy wells of Wychwood Forest, England 299
Martin Haigh
29 Holy wells and trees in Poland as an element of local and national identity 309
Wojciech Bedyński
30 Visiting holy wells in seventeenth-century Sweden: the case of
St. Ingemo’s Well in Dala 318
Terese Zachrisson
31 The Buddha’s thumb, Nāga legends and blessings of health: sacred
water and religious practice in Thailand 328
Rachelle M. Scott
PART IX
Hydrology, stewardship and biocultural heritage 337
32 At the end of the field, a pot of Nemunai is boiling: a study of
Lithuanian springs 339
Vykintas Vaitkevičius
33 Where does the water come from? A hydrogeological
characterisation of Irish holy wells 350
Bruce Misstear, Laurence Gill, Cora McKenna and Ronan Foley
34 The holy springs of Russia’s Orel region: traditions of place and
environmental care 359
Jane Costlow
35 Sentient springs and sources of life: water, climate change and
world-making practices in the Andes 368
Astrid B. Stensrud
36 Flora, fauna and curative waters: Ireland’s holy wells as sites of
biocultural diversity 378
Celeste Ray
Index 391
FIGURES
0.1 St. Winifred’s holy well, northern Wales 4
2.1 Sacred spring, Akropolis cave at Athens 44
2.2 Collecting water at the Life-giving Spring, Tinos 46
3.1 Schematic view, Xcoch acropolis 51
3.2 Chʼa Cháak or rain-summoning ceremony, Yucatan 52
4.1 Pilgrims at Grotto of Massabielle, Lourdes 63
4.2 Marian torchlight procession, Lourdes 65
5.1 Well of Zamzam 72
5.2 Containers of Zamzam water, Medina 75
6.1 Map of important pilgrimage sites, India 83
6.2 Map showing Kumbha sites and Gangaization 85
6.3 Map of Ganga River basin and location of holy places 87
6.4 Varanasi map 90
6.5 Ayodhya map 92
7.1 Map with key locations, Australia 98
7.2 Jarrka well 101
8.1 The sanctuary of Chuquipalta 111
8.2 Chuspiyoq site 112
9.1 Three wells in China (the Well of Sweet Dew at the South Cliff
Temple, Dragon Spring Well at Jingshan Temple, and Dragon Well
in Hangzhou) 123
9.2 Hupao Springs, Hangzhou, and Eternal Life Spring, Wuyi Mountain 127
11.1 Gish Abay or the Source of the Nile 142
11.2 Sacrifice of a calf to the Nile 146
1 2.1 Ori Aiye and well gatekeeper 151
1 2.2 Priests with kola nut 155
1 3.1 Kalodak kūp and man receiving water at the kūp 162
1 3.2 Dharma kūp 163