Pilgrimages

Inside a cave high on a cliff in the Owens Valley desert north of Los Angeles, the Rev. Brad Karelius struggled to find words to describe "a life-changing holy encounter" he had there. Surveying the chaotic landscape of dormant volcanoes, lava beds and snow-capped peaks outside, the Episcopalian priest and philosophy professor said, "It evoked a serenity that was a gift. It was as if I'd entered a sacred space that changed me.

If this were Lebanon, Raef Hajjali would have returned from Saudi Arabia to a mini-parade of family and friends, a nice long rest and new social standing in the community. Relatives and neighbors would have slaughtered a sheep in celebration and decorated his home with palm fronds. "The whole town would have been waiting," he said. Instead, he and his wife, Ellen Hajjali, returned home to Altadena a few weeks ago to minimal fanfare, and he was back at work the next day. He didn't last long.

Dozens of Hindu pilgrims fell through a broken guardrail and scores more were trampled when thousands of devotees panicked Sunday at a remote mountaintop temple, leaving 145 dead, police said Rumors of a landslide apparently started the stampede at the shrine in the Himalayan foothills, said C.P. Verma, a senior government official in the Bilaspur district. Pilgrims gathered for celebrations at the Naina Devi Temple began running down the narrow path leading from the peak.

A passenger van packed with explosives blew up Friday at a bus station north of Baghdad where Shiite Muslim pilgrims had stopped for the night, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. The attack occurred a day after a female suicide bomber struck Shiite pilgrims traveling to Karbala for a major religious festival, killing at least 20 people and wounding at least 75.

More than 2 million Muslims from across the globe descended on Saudi Arabia over the weekend to perform the ancient rituals of the hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca that is considered the spiritual pinnacle of a devout Muslim's life. As Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj notes in a website on the event, the word "hajj" merely means "to set out for a place."

Muslims circled the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, for a final time in a hajj that passed without any repetition of the deadly stampedes that have marred past pilgrimages. Hundreds of thousands of the faithful returned to Mecca to perform the "farewell" circling of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped stone structure draped in black cloth that Muslims around the world face during daily prayers. After they packed up to go, many headed for nearby markets to buy mementos and gifts.

The road back to this town in the remote, sparsely populated Sierra Gorda mountains of Queretaro state is a hard one for a runner. There are steep climbs through rocky valleys. A desert must be crossed. Every December, 50 men, women and teenagers from Tilaco leave Mexico City for home, carrying a torch to honor the Virgin of Guadalupe. All are residents of the town and its surrounding hamlets, construction workers and farmers who aren't used to jogging.

The students stared at the overhead screen and read the words in unison: Labbaik. Allah humma labbaik. The Southern California Muslims repeated those words -- "Here I am, Lord. I am here to serve you" -- as they donned pilgrims' robes last week in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina, a key step on their pilgrimage to Mecca.

It's a solitary journey conducted among the multitudes, a personal communication with God alongside millions loudly having the same conversation. "I imagine it to be an ocean of people but still somehow a lonely place," said Hasan Badday just hours before he and other Muslim pilgrims from Southern California boarded buses for a vigil Tuesday on Mt. Arafat in the Saudi desert.

A stampede at one of Islam's holiest sites crushed to death at least 345 worshipers Thursday, tainting with tragedy the annual hajj pilgrimage to the Muslim religion's birthplace in Saudi Arabia. As thick waves of worshipers made their way through the desert plain of Mina to perform one of the fundamental rituals of hajj, lost luggage piled up underfoot and tripped pilgrims. With thousands of eager Muslims pressing from behind, the bodies quickly piled up -- and the crowd trampled them.