Pilgrimage Tourism to Sacred Places of High Himalaya and Its Impact on Residents across Generations. The Case of Yamunotri Temple

Pilgrimage to mountain regions is one of the oldest forms of tourism practiced since immemorial times. Pilgrims are driven by the idea of being closer to the ‘divinity’ or the God/s, but they impact all spheres of local communities’ lives at the pilgrimage site. Each year millions of pilgrims visit sacred sites such as summits, lakes, rivers and caves hidden in the high Himalayas. This chapter focuses on one of the remote and most regarded holy places in Garhwal Himalaya, Yamunotri Temple (3291 m), becoming a mass pilgrimage destination. In the last 35 years (1975–2010), the temple’s annual pilgrimage number has grown nearly tenfold, from 30,000 to 288,000 pilgrims. This research looked at the two generations of the Yamunotri River Valley residents, examining how their lives changed under growing pilgrimage tourism. By investigating 10.3% of the population (47.3% of households) of the upper Yamuna river valley – commonly called Yamunotri Valley – the data from one generation (parents) and the following generation (their children) has been collected via face-to-face interviews. The findings show the significant changes in employment structure (tourism: +14.9%; agriculture: −22.8%; other: +7.9%) and area of cultivated land (–34.1%). The chapter concludes that every contact with ‘the other’ (even if belonging to the same culture) alters the lives of local communities in many dimensions.