Search Results (7)

In the history of Turkish-Islamic culture, every stage of human life—from birth to death—has been ritualized with profound symbolic and spiritual meanings. Turkish religious music has functioned as a fundamental element in these transitional phases, possessing both aesthetic and devotional dimensions. In individual rites of passage such as naming, circumcision, beginning school, and marriage, as well as in collective rituals such as bidding farewell to and welcoming Hajj pilgrims or observing religious days and nights, Turkish religious music has held a significant place. Confronting death—an inevitable and sorrowful reality of life—Turkish society has employed religious music as a consolatory and spiritually guiding medium, transforming it into a ritual mode of expression intended to soften the disruptive impact of death and to give meaning to the mourning process. Sufi order funerals represent one of the manifestations of this aesthetic depth. In this context, (Janāza) funeral ceremonies are not merely occasions of farewell but also rites of metaphysical acceptance and surrender. Since death is considered not an end but “wuṣlat,” that is, reunion with the Absolute Truth (al-Ḥaqq), within Sufi thought, the funeral rites of Sufi orders have been shaped accordingly. In Mawlawī, Bektāshī, Jarrahī, and Rifāʿī orders, not only the canonical funeral prayer (ṣalāt al-janāza) but also various forms of religious music are performed, imparting both aesthetic and spiritual depth to the ceremony. This study aims to examine the religious musical practices present in the funeral ceremonies of these four major Sufi orders, all of which have historically maintained a close relationship with music. A qualitative ritual-musicological approach has been adopted; semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Shaykh of the Rifāʿī order, the Zakirbaşı of the Jarrahī branch of the Khalwatī order, and a Dede of the Bektāshī order. The data sources of the study consist of interview materials, archival-based works, literature on the history of Sufism, sources on Turkish religious music, and digital recordings of Sufi orders’ funeral rituals. The limited number of interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis, while textual analysis and contextual interpretation were employed to examine in detail “the musical forms, thematic structures, performance contexts, and symbolic functions” present in these rituals. Preliminary findings indicate that the music unique to Sufi order funerals fulfills multiple functions, including “spiritual consolation, strengthening social solidarity, doctrinal expression of belief in the afterlife, and transforming mourning into a sacred experience.” The funeral traditions of the four orders examined possess distinctive musical structures, and these structures constitute an identifiable aesthetic form within the Ottoman and Turkish religious-musical tradition. It has also been determined that the repertory performed in Sufi orders’ funeral ceremonies is largely rooted in the tekke (Sufi lodge) musical tradition and that various forms of Turkish religious music are prominently represented in these rituals. This study has brought to light the religious musical repertory performed within the funeral rituals of Sufi orders—an area that has remained insufficiently explored to date—and has demonstrated that this repertory exerts positive psychosocial effects on both Sufi adherents and other participants in their approach to death. In this respect, the study sheds light on the repertory of Turkish religious music and offers an original contribution to the scholarly literature. Full article

This article examines an epigraphic strategy deployed by the Ming court (1368–1644) in the aftermath of the 1556 Jiajing earthquake. Focusing on two stelae from Shanxi, one dedicated to the Jiao-Long Spirit and the other to Empress Nüwa, it proposes “epigraphic layering” to describe the purposeful division of roles between a stele’s faces. Each stele’s front carries an authoritative imperial proclamation admonishing the deity, while the back envoys prayer that appeases the deity and consoles the populace. By splitting imperial command and contrition between the two faces, the Ming court could assert cosmic order while simultaneously expressing penitence during the crisis. This dual-voice inscription technique was a creative adaptation of established ritual epigraphy to extraordinary circumstances. The study sheds new light on late imperial Chinese ritual practice, epigraphic communication, and state–temple relations, demonstrating how this dual-voice strategy helped navigate tensions between imperial authority and local faith. Full article

In American Hybrid (2009), Cole Swenson describes hybrid poetics as a reconciliation between the two dominant poetic traditions of the 20th century, which might be called lyric and experimental (xx–xxi). More recently, however, “hybrid” refers to any work blurring boundaries between poetry and other genres. This is most notable in the ever-increasing interest in the lyric essay but also in the constant revision of contemporary elegy as anti-elegy. In Poetry of Mourning, Jahan Ramazani defines anti-elegy in terms of its refusal of consolation and instead its seeking of more melancholic mourning. Subsequently, as noted by Bardazzi, Binetti, and Culler, “Elegy remains a poetic genre and yet, it has also developed a ‘mode of discourse’ that moves beyond its literary borders and finds its expressions in entangled intra-actions between the most diverse range of elegiac objects”. In the early 21st century, hybrid elegy represents the collision of two major changes in American culture: the changing nature of American death rituals and the increasingly intermedial literary landscape. Drawing on examples from Nox by Anne Carson and Ghost Of by Diane Khoi Nguyen, an elegiac version of the hyper-personalized American death ritual is inscribed in assemblages of images and text on the page. When read as a personalized American death ritual, the hybrid elegy materializes its own tradition and poetics, which are expressed in the poetic constraints of assemblage and recognizable in their reliance on elegiac repetition. Full article

This paper explores the influence and significance of the activities of the monks’ militia during the Japanese invasion of Chosŏn, from the perspective of the religious efficacy of Buddhism and the spread of the Buddhist concept of wonder. After examining the concept that the monks’ militia played an important part in the war, fighting against enemies in major battles and constructing and defending fortresses, this paper proposes that the religious efficacy of Buddhism was revealed through the performance of burial and guiding ceremonies. Restoring the religious wonder of Buddhism, which had been criticized by the Confucian literati, Buddhist rituals for consoling the bereaved and praying for the welfare of the dead came to thrive. A dilemma existed between the principle of keeping the Buddhist precepts and the reality of fulfilling the demands of loyalty since the activities of the monks’ militia greatly damaged the Buddhist community. While killing was a direct infringement of the values of the sangha, the monks violated this precept in the cause of protecting the state and practicing loyalty. In this situation, where there was such a dilemma between the Buddhist and secular worlds, these monks’ prioritization of loyalty not only indicated the desperate national situation of the time but also reflected the social, cultural, and political context of the Confucian society of Chosŏn. This paper also explores how renowned generals of the monks’ militia, including Samyŏng Yujŏng, emerged as heroes among the people, and memories of their deeds were transmitted through wonder stories. Yujŏng was highly praised as a symbol of Buddhist loyalty, and his heroic story was expanded and reproduced among the population through folk tales and novels. While the intellectuals of Chosŏn who followed Confucian values did not believe those wonder stories, the trauma that the war left behind demanded the appearance of wondrous heroes who helped people overcome that trauma, and this demand enabled Yujŏng to emerge as one of these heroic figures. The activities of the monks’ militia, the religious efficacy of Buddhism, and the creation of the heroic narratives of the monks’ militia generals prove that Buddhism had a firm foundation in late Chosŏn society. Full article

In the face of death, different ethnic groups have unique coping ways. The physical care and spiritual care for the dying can demonstrate the diversity and particularity of ethnic cultural thought. Taking two villages in the interlaced residential areas inhabited by Han, Tibetan, and Hui ethnic groups in Linxia and Wuwei of Gansu Province as examples, this paper focuses on the presentation and significance of multi-ethnic cultural integration in the process of end-of-life care, with a focus on spiritual care. One main point of this paper is that, although hospice care in the modern medical sense is not really implemented in the vast rural areas of China, local end-of-life care, based on the village medical system and religious rituals, equally plays an important role. This is mainly manifested through the implementation of the Narcotics Card System and the widespread spiritual care. The second main point of this paper is that the form of end-of-life care, which embodies the integration of ethnic cultures, contains a certain degree of nursing functions, while taking into account the spiritual care needed by the dying and the grief consolation needed by the bereaved family. Considering the lack of spiritual care and bereavement management in China’s medical space, the religious approaches to end-of-life care, as delineated in this study, could serve as a source of inspiration for the country’s efforts to integrate hospice services into its healthcare system. In short, compared with Western forms of hospice care, in which modern medicine constitutes the main body, China’s local end-of-life care is more reflected in the diversity and integration of spiritual care for the dying. Full article

This article provides an analysis of the concept of karma and related concepts, such as rebirth, merit, and transfer of merit, along with a historical survey focusing on classical texts. The attractiveness of the belief in karma lies in two main reasons. The first is the moral ideal of getting one’s just deserts on the basis of one’s actions and omissions. The second reason involves the idea of rebirth. The belief in both karma and rebirth can bring consolation with the hope of life hereafter, where one’s destiny is determined not by chance, but by the moral quality of one’s actions in this or previous lives. The belief in karma also incorporates diverging elements, such as transfer of merit. The practice of transfer of merit serves to improve an individual’s moral and religious status through rituals or other suitable means, while the doctrine of karma itself strongly speaks to the strict fulfilment of retributive justice. Both motives—fulfilling justice according to the law of karma and improving one’s moral status through transfer of merit—are psychologically powerful and attractive, although their mutual compatibility is debatable. Full article

This article presents a new model of consolation that identifies five key themes: (1) an appeal to the inner strength of the consoland; (2) the regulation of emotion; (3) the attempt to preserve, re-write, and perfect the life of the deceased or, more generally, a person undergoing a radical psycho-social transition; (4) a ‘healing’ worldview, in which death has a legitimate place; and (5) reconnection with the community at the different levels of, for instance, family, society and humanity. The study is based on the Western tradition of written consolations. It partially confirms—and also supersedes—earlier studies of consolation based on different methods and smaller ranges of material. The article explores the applicability of the framework beyond the consolatory tradition by analyzing two versions of the Roman Catholic rite of anointing the sick. It argues for the heuristic usefulness of the model in the field of ritual studies, both by demonstrating the limitations of prevalent typologies of ritual and by suggesting a fresh look at ritual efficacy. Full article