A woman prays in ecstasy in front of a statue of BuddhaPilgrimage is widely considered a ritual journey of purification. Whether taken in a metaphorical sense or not, modern pilgrims agree that peregrination is inherently different from other types of travel. Placing its meaning in the actual walking, for the modern pilgrim there is not just one end, but rather there are many. These are attempts to make a visible manifestation of contact between the human and the divine, where personal transformation lies at its centre.
This summer I had the privilege of seeing two apparently different pilgrimages, one in Cambodia, the other in Camino de Santiago, Spain.
A statue of Saint James is being embraced from behind by pilgrims
