Sacred Mountains of the World

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From the Andes to the Himalayas, mountains have an extraordinary power to evoke a sense of the sacred. In the overwhelming wonder and awe that these dramatic features of the landscape awaken, people experience something of deeper significance that imbues their lives with meaning and vitality. Drawing on his extensive research and personal experience as a scholar and climber, Edwin Bernbaum's second edition of Sacred Mountains of the World takes the reader on a fascinating journey exploring the role of mountains in the mythologies, religions, history, literature, and art of cultures around the world. Bernbaum delves into the spiritual dimensions of mountaineering and the implications of sacred mountains for environmental and cultural preservation. This beautifully written, evocative book shows how the contemplation of sacred mountains can transform everyday life, even in cities far from the peaks themselves. Thoroughly revised and updated, this new edition considers additional sacred mountains, as well as the impacts of climate change on the sacredness of mountains.

Dr. Bernbaum will be in conversation with Phil Cousinau, author of another examination of sacred sites, The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker's Guide to Making Travel Sacred. With remarkable stories from famous travelers, poets, and modern-day pilgrims, The Art of Pilgrimage, also in its second edition, is for the mindful traveler who longs for something more than diversion and escape.Through literary travel stories and meditations, award-winning writer, filmmaker and host of the acclaimed Global Spirit PBS series, Phil Cousineau, shows readers that travel is worthy of mindfulness and spiritual examination. Learn to approach travel with a desire for risk and renewal, practicing intentionality and being present. Whether traveling to Mecca or Memphis, Stonehenge or Cooperstown, one’s journey becomes meaningful when the traveler’s heart and imagination are open to experiencing the sacred. The Art of Pilgrimage shows that there is something sacred waiting to be discovered around us.

Edwin Bernbaum, Ph.D., is a mountaineer and scholar of comparative religion and mythology whose work focuses on the relationship between culture and nature. The first edition of Sacred Mountains of the World won the Commonwealth Club of California's gold medal for nonfiction and an Italian award for literature of mountaineering, exploration, and the environment. He is also the author of The Way to Shambhala, a study of Tibetan myths of hidden sanctuaries resembling the fictional Shangri-La of Lost Horizon. He initiated and directed a program working with National Parks such as Yosemite and Hawai'i Volcanoes to develop interpretive materials based on the evocative cultural and spiritual significance of mountain environments in cultures around the world. He is featured in “Beyond the Mountaintops: Extraordinary Mountaineers, Extraordinary People,” an exhibit at the American Mountaineering Museum on eight climbers who have pioneered advances in climbing and humankind.

Phil Cousineau is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, teacher and editor, lecturer storyteller and TV host. With more than 35 books translated into more than ten languages and scriptwriting credits to his name, Cousineau has also appeared alongside mentors Joseph Campbell and Huston Smith. Host and co-writer of Global Spirit on PBS-TV, he has also appeared on CNN, the Discovery Channel, the Smithsonian Channel, and has been interviewed for stories in Time, Newsweek, and The New York Times. Cousineau lives with his family in North Beach in San Francisco, California, and leads one or two small group travel programs or writing retreats each year. Learn more about his work at philcousineau.com.

Books will be on sale at the event. Reserve your copy when you make your reservation.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Mechanics' Institute, 57 Post Street, San Francisco, United States