Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the aestheticisation of Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage through the lens of pilgrims' image-making, arguing that this activity influences the pilgrimage experience. Self-created visual narratives offer rich insights into personal and cultural aesthetics associated with pilgrimage.

Paper long abstract:

During the 2010s, at least two films dramatising Tibetan pilgrimages to Mount Kailash in Western Tibet were released in mainland Chinese cinemas, one achieving remarkable success. In the same period, the surge in popularity of Tibetan Buddhism among urban Han Chinese saw pilgrimage travel to Tibetan areas become an integral part of what it meant to practise Tibetan Buddhism. With the spread of smartphones and other devices, documenting pilgrimage travel through photos and videos became a routine part of the experience. In 2015, Nuola Huofo, a young Tibetan reincarnate lama from western Sichuan, decided to lead a group of his Chinese disciples on a two-week circumambulation of Mt Kailash with two videographers in tow whose job was to capture the entire journey. After their return, the footage was fashioned into a documentary, producing a vivid depiction and record of a transformative pilgrimage experience.

In this paper, using Nuola Huofo’s amateur documentary as my focus, I explore the aestheticisation of Tibetan pilgrimage through image-making by Chinese Buddhist pilgrims – and, in this case, their Tibetan lama. On the one hand, I argue that pilgrims’ attention to capturing or representing the spiritual or transformative dimensions of the pilgrimage in a visually compelling manner influences how they perceive, experience, and engage with the practice of pilgrimage. At the same time, I suggest that pilgrimage participants’ self-created visual representations – together with their choices in framing, composition, and narration – offer rich insights into the personal and cultural aesthetics associated with pilgrimage.