Pilgrimage, Tourism, and Community: A Case Study of the Gunungpring Sacred Graveyard in Indonesia

Tourism and community have strong ties and impact one another in many ways. The community is an important factor which helps in preserving and maintaining the development of tourism. Focusing on religious tourism in Indonesia, this paper examines the role of community in the endurance of the traditions in religious tourism. Usually, religious tourism is characterized by visits to sacred locations such as graveyards, temples, or mountain peaks. This study focuses on the case of visiting a sacred graveyard among Muslim people in the Javanese society in Indonesia. The fieldwork was conducted in Gunungpring Sacred Graveyard in Central Java. A discussion will be made about the roles played by the community for the survival of small-scale religious tourism, to which only scant academic attention has been paid.