Lyubomir Svetoslavov Lyubomirov - Assignment II CCE

Beyond the common authenticity notion.

In this paper I attempt to present, discuss and analyze an authentic tourist experience as
well as how, to what extent and in what way are tourism-narratives and authenticity involved in
perceiving the destination. And moreover, may storytelling be the reason for the largest human
gathering on our planet. The project aims to explore who those, in the role of storytellers are,
where do they derive their tale-inspiration from and what role their stories play hereby. In order
to do that, I chose to approach this assignment by distinguishing and analyzing two different
interpretations of narrative which have specific contribution to the genuineness of the
destination. To be completely precise and to make my ideas intelligible, insights from E. Bruner
(2005) are included as theory and ideology. An opinion-stating conclusion is to be found at the
end of the paper.
A narrative is a story of certain real or imaginary experience, which could be both based
on real events or just a creative tale. Depending on the certain influence each narrative has had
on us, we subconsciously build our life perceptions in accordance to them. Compelling yet
affecting, they have great impact on human behavior and attitude. In tourism aspect narratives
are used as sharing lived through emotions, showing captured moments, making authentic gifts,
etc., so that the storytellers can express their experience of the journey. They have various types
and purposes, such as entertaining, instructive, historical, etc. However, narratives have another
vision in the face of religion, which itself represents a legendary tale from our ancestors. The
stories we have been told in our childhood teach us in appropriate behavior, human values, they
save the authenticity of true cultural habits and religious customs. But may the worlds largest
religious tourism event be conducted on the basis of storytelling, and furthermore, how far can
the scattering of tourism-narratives go?
Kumbh Mela or The Grand Pitcher Festival is more than 2 000 years old fiesta and is held
once in every 3 years in 4 different sacred cities in India and it only appears once in 12 years 1.
Considered to be the worlds biggest religious festival with hundred million of people from all
over the world, Kumbh Mela broke the world record being the greatest human gathering in the
1 http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/14/uk-india-festival-idUSLNE90D01Q20130114
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Lyubomir Svetoslavov Lyubomirov - Assignment II CCE

year of 2013, the event in Allahabad, northern India. 2 A piece of curiosity comes up immediately:
What makes that huge flows of people choosing the same destination on the same date? What
motivation do those people have? And this is where the narrative begins:
The name of the festival derives its name from the immortal Pot of Nectar Kumbh. It
has been produced by the Demigods (Devtas) and the Demons (Asuras), who negotiated to fully
complete it and share it in half. However, the Demigods did not keep the convention and the
Demons went after them. The Gods chase continued for 12 days and nights. It is believed, that
during the pursuit of the Gods drops from Kumbh have fallen in the river and millions of
devout come together to partake in the ritual bathing to cleanse themselves of all sins.3
An interesting story, but lets consider how it is being interpreted nowadays and
moreover, how does this fascinating legend generate vast crowds of tourists once in certain
number of years.
Every Kumbh Mela festival continues for 55 days and is visited by an entire city4 of
humans, coming from all over the world to get themselves close to the enlightenment. This
tremendous tourist flows consists of both local travelers and international guests, who dedicated
their souls and lives to their religious belief. Still, the distinction between domestic and foreign
tourists appears, and none of this is new (Smith and Wanhill, eds., 1986 cited in Bruner, E.,
2005:10). In that time of the year a gradually increasing number of incoming tourists visit India
to witness this spectacular event. As the numbers grow rapidly, the festival becomes ever more
wide-spread at 20 square kilometers. In order for visitors to be hosted, plenty of temporary
accommodation buildings and tents are being constructed on the riverbed of Mother Ganges. The
authorities bend their backs5 for the Kumbh Melas guests and build these constructions, in the 3-

2 Diego Buuel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4aJ5tQQcU

3 http://www.kumbhamela.net/origin-of-kumbha-mela.html
4 Diego Buuel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4aJ5tQQcU
5 Professor Orvar Lfgren (1994) Learning to be a tourist, Passage: Cultural Confrontations
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Lyubomir Svetoslavov Lyubomirov - Assignment II CCE

month preparation for the fiesta, and once it is over, the place becomes again a huge, sandy and
uninhabited riverside.6
According to the legend, bathing in the holy river during that special period cleanses the
soul. Although the problem with hygiene habits in India is well-known and foreign tourists need
to take caution even when they drink water or use cutlery7, a record-breaking 30 million people
take a dip into the Gangas water, guests and locals at once, where they are no more two
different worlds(Lfgren, O. 1994:113). The belief is that once this is done, their consciousness
is purified.
The biggest tourist attraction, however, is where the religious devotion goes even farther.
Human-beings dressed in orange robes and called Sadhu have renounced all material life and aim
to transcend their earthly bodies8. They get closer to the enlightenment by subjecting themselves
to extreme acts of spiritual dedication. A man, who claims to have lived without food and water
from 70 years9, one who has been standing up for 12 years and another, whose arm has dried out
and became rotten as a result of his extreme agony on upper level his arm is being raised for
more than 40 years. And these represent just a tiny part of all extremely-attractive personages
among all sacred Sadhus.
So this narrative is being spread from mouth to mouth, told differently - a vivid reminder of the
disparity between touristic and ethnographic ways of seeing 10 (Bruner, E., 2005:7). And those
acts of transcending the human body are being captured by the crowded numerous tourists, who
fetishize culture and contribute to its authenticity commodification (Roland, K. 2010:6) 11.
However, unlike the plate-lipped women from Ethiopia, who we have been presented on Lecture
6 http://mahakumbhfestival.com/
7 http://www.sanatansociety.org/india_travels_and_festivals/hygiene_tips_precautions_traveling_travel_india.htm#.VifABH4rLIU
8Diego Buuel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4aJ5tQQcU
9 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani
10Edward M. Bruner, Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel Stories Foreign and Domestic
11 L. Kaifa Roland (2010) Tourism and the commodification of Cubanidad
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Lyubomir Svetoslavov Lyubomirov - Assignment II CCE

5: Cultural change in tourism, Sadhus dont even apply for gaining any profit out from pictures
taken on them. Money doesnt seem to exist for in their world, but strong religious belief and
spirituality instead. Yet how do the actors in this impressionistic tale 12 (cited in Jensen, M.,
Scarles, S. and Cohen, S. 2015:65) feel being photographed completely naked and furthermore,
the essential narrative question: who has the right to tell the story? (Bruner, E., 2005:12).
Although the authorities tend to keep tourists and reporters away from the most private rituals,
they often finish their journeys with an arsenal of captured extraordinary human performances to
share with their relatives and friends - Performances for tourists have local histories, change
over time, and are constructed specifically to be marketed and sold to an audience. Foreign
visitors see themselves as returning to a cherished past (Bruner, E., 2005:11), making a journey
not in space, but in time, experiencing an ancient narrative. They get back home with numbers of
captured memories and the process of commercializing those witnessed sacred moments of
religious ceremony begins, no matter morally allowed or not.
Once in every 12 years the humanity witness the greatest human gathering on our planet,
along with extreme, even dangerous and life-threatening acts of religious faith. But does it worth
to sacrifice the sweetness of life for a narrative? We may only have the answer once we get
closer to the strength of Hinduism. For some, in the role of locals this is called religion, but for
the overwhelming majority this is just a madness based on well-narrated story. Some of the
visitors travel to get one step forward on their path to spiritual enlightenment, while others just
aim to witness the most spectacular religious journey in the world. All in all, this tourism
phenomenon has striking resemblance Bruners New Salem, which would not be existing without
a story13.
As to the unfavorable effect that touristic-tales may cause, for some, those narratives
about vast amounts of visitors are rather seen as ruin past true culture and authenticity, and
hereby, commodify the genuine ethnography of Indian Peoples. On the other hand, as Jensen, M.,
Svarles, S. and Cohen, S. (2015) argue, embodied experience cannot be captured. What Diego
Buuel14 refers to as Army of naked warriors and being among crowds of spiritually devoted
12 Jensen, M., Scarles, S. and Cohen, S. (2015) A multisensory phenomenology of interrail mobilities
13 Edward M. Bruner, Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel Stories Foreign and Domestic
14 Diego Buuel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4aJ5tQQcU
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Lyubomir Svetoslavov Lyubomirov - Assignment II CCE

people could not be represented through the lens of any camera or by the best narrated
impressionistic tale. In other words, there are stories that cannot be told and must be experienced.

LIST OF REFERENCES
1. Diego Buuel - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ4aJ5tQQcU Referred to on
14.10.2015, Published on Mar 9, 2013
2. Edward M. Bruner(2005), Culture on Tour: Ethnographies of Travel Stories Foreign and
Domestic
3. Jensen, M., Scarles, S. and Cohen, S. (2015) A multisensory phenomenology of interrail
mobilities
4. L. Kaifa Roland (2010) Tourism and the commodification of Cubanidad
5. Millions of Hindus take to the Ganges at largest festival http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/14/uk-india-festival-idUSLNE90D01Q20130114 Referred to on 14.10.2015, Published on Mon Jan 14, 2013 7:53am BY FRANK JACK
DANIEL
6. History of Kumbh Mela - http://www.kumbhamela.net/origin-of-kumbha-mela.html Referred to on 14.10.2015
7. Professor Orvar Lfgren (1994) Learning to be a tourist, Passage: Cultural Confrontations
8. Tips for hygiene in India http://www.sanatansociety.org/india_travels_and_festivals/hygiene_tips_precautions_travelin
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Lyubomir Svetoslavov Lyubomirov - Assignment II CCE

g_travel_india.htm#.VifABH4rLIU - Referred to on 16.10.2015, Published by Peter
Marchand
9. Travelers guide to mystical Kumbh Mela - http://mahakumbhfestival.com/ - Referred to on
15.10.2015
10. Prahlad Jani - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prahlad_Jani - Referred to on 17.10.2015,
Published on 23 September 2015, at 22:56.

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