Pilgrimage or religious tourism

This week I received the final copy of the doctoral dissertation by Albertus Bagus Laksana, already discussed earlier in this blog (13 November 2012). It is on Muslim and Catholic Pilgrimage Practices, explorations through Java (Surrey, Ashgate, 252 pages). It states that Muslims can have much profit, more or less like pahala in visiting Catholic places of pilgrimage, and vice versa.


This same day, I saw on the UCAN page, that the local government of the district of Mamasa, West Toraja, wants to build a 14 meter high statue of Mary, 'hoping that it will promote tourism to this region'. People come to Toraja for traditional rituals of burial, but apparently Mary is an attraction in some regions as well. Look to Lourdes, Kevelaer, even to the Dutch town of 's-Hertogenbosch.
I add here an image of the statie of Mary in Sikka, still quite modest, just four metre high. Sancta Maria, ora pro nobis!