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Sacred mountains

Mountains central to certain religions

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Themes of sacrality

Edwin Bernbaum, a preeminent scholar of sacred mountains around the world, suggests that although no single, universal theme underlies all sacred mountains across the globe, it is possible to identify certain patterns that help to clarify the principal roles that sacred peaks play in different cultures. Bernbaum identifies the following ten themes expressed through sacred mountains that are particularly widespread in cultures around the world, summarized below. A particular sacred mountain may have one or more of these themes represented in it; some may have nearly all of them.

  1. Height: When we look at a mountain the first thing to impress us is usually not its central location, but its height, which evokes an immediate response of wonder and awe. Poised above the surrounding landscape, set in a fluid realm of drifting clouds and flowing sky, its summit appears to float in another world, higher and more perfect than the one in which we dwell.
  2. Center: The view of the mountain as the center appears in its most comprehensive form as a central axis linking together the three levels of the cosmos – heaven, earth, and hell or underworld. As the link between heaven earth, and hell, it acts as a conduit of power, the place where sacred energies, both divine and demonic, spew into the world of human existence.
  3. Power: Many sacred mountains are revered as places of awesome power manifested in various ways – natural, supernatural, and even political.
  4. Deity or abode of deity: As places of power and heavens on high, mountains serve as abodes of gods and goddesses, often situated at the center of the cosmos, world, or region.
  5. Temple or place of worship: Mountains often appear in the form of temples housing the deities who reside on or within them. As centers and high places open to the sky, mountains provide altars for making offerings to gods and spirits. Also, mountains may take the form of places of worship, viewed or imagined as shrines, churches, and cathedrals.
  6. Paradise or garden: Modern societies share with traditional cultures the widespread view of mountains as sacred gardens and earthly paradises.
  7. Ancestors and the dead: Whether revered as heavens or feared as hells, mountains have a widespread and important role as hallowed places of the dead. In many cases, the resemblance of mountains to tombs, which often mimic the shape of hills, make them natural places of burial. In seeing mountains as abodes of the dead, people often regard them as the places from which their ancestors came – or as those ancestors themselves.
  8. Identity: As divine ancestors, mountains provide many societies with their identity and cohesiveness.
  9. Source: People throughout the world look up to mountains as sources of innumerable blessings, sometimes attributed to the ancestral spirits dwelling within them. For many cultures the most important of these blessings is water. Other blessings that flow from sacred mountains include fertility, health, and well-being, as well as treasures of various kinds.
  10. Revelation, transformation, inspiration, and renewal: As places of power, close to heaven, mountains serve as dramatic sites of revelation, transformation, inspiration and renewal. The revelation or vision on a mountain often transforms the person who receives it. Hermits of traditions around the world seek out mountains as places to transform themselves through practices of physical austerity and spiritual contemplation. Poets and mystics have visualized the ascent of the sacred mountain as a symbol of the ultimate pilgrimage, leading to the heights of heaven and the final goal of spiritual realization. For lay people who do not aspire to the supreme heights of spiritual transcendence or enlightenment, mountains serve as places where they can find inspiration and renewal.

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