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WHEN CLIMATE CHANGE UPENDS SACRED RITUALS, THE FAITHFUL ADAPT


Members of an Indigenous nation climb down after performing a rituals at to the
Colque Punku glacier during the Qoyllur Rit'i festival near in Cusco, Peru, in
May. (Salwan Georges/The Washington Post)
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By Salwan Georges
and 
Ruby Mellen
November 28, 2024 at 7:00 a.m. EST
Staff photojournalist Salwan Georges traveled to four countries to show the
impact of climate change on religious practices. He walked hundreds of miles in
Iraq and Spain in extreme heat, hiked 15,000 feet up a Peruvian glacier, and
visited temples in Thailand at risk from rising sea levels....more
Staff photojournalist Salwan Georges traveled to four countries to show the
impact of climate change on religious practices. He walked hundreds of miles in
Iraq and Spain in extreme heat, hiked 15,000 feet up a Peruvian glacier, and
visited temples in Thailand at risk from rising sea levels....more
308
Sorry, a summary is not available for this article at this time. Please try
again later.

The effects of a warming planet are changing the ways humans pray. From the
peaks of Peru to the shores of Thailand, centuries-old rituals are transforming
as the world continues to heat up.

Extreme heat and wildfires, melting icecaps and rising oceans are altering
pilgrimages, threatening temples and endangering the sacred Andean glacier.

Believers are finding ways to preserve their traditions. But even as they adapt,
older generations say much is being lost.

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SCROLL TO CONTINUE







IRAQ

THE MARCH TO KARBALA







Each year, in what has become the largest annual religious gathering in the
world, millions of Shiite Muslims march to Karbala, Iraq. They come to mark
Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period to commemorate the death of Imam
Hussein, Muhammad’s grandson and a towering figure of resistance in Shiite
Islam.

The journey is long — some travel from as far as 300 miles away — and many make
it by foot. Most pilgrims begin in Najaf and walk north to Karbala, the site of
Hussein’s tomb.



But this pilgrimage takes place in a country that the United Nations says is
among the most vulnerable to climate change. Temperatures in Iraq are soaring,
making the journey increasingly dangerous. This August more than 20 million
pilgrims walked on dusty roads in the unrelenting heat.

During a different pilgrimage in the Middle East this summer — the Hajj in Saudi
Arabia — more than 1,300 people died due to the excessive heat, a stark reminder
of how perilous these conditions can be.


(TWP)

Arbaeen’s pilgrims, committed to continuing the rite, are finding ways to cool
down. Along the route, volunteers hose down travelers with water. In Karbala,
the government has tried to improve conditions — planting trees over the past 10
years and covering nearly 40 square miles of the streets with fabric.


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Waheed Shimran, 29, came with his nephews Aqeel Hassan, 15, and Mustafa Sultan,
14.

“Today is very hot, more than 50 [degrees Celsius]. But it wouldn’t stop us,” he
said on Aug. 22. “I’ve been walking in each pilgrimage for 18 years, and this
year is hottest.”

Arbaeen has taken on a new meaning after being banned under Saddam Hussein. It
is now also a symbol of national pride.



In recent years, some of the rituals and walking have moved to the evenings due
to the relentless heat.



But exposure to high heat and humidity in the evenings could mean people are
still not getting the relief they need. A 2022 study warned that heat stress
throughout the pilgrimage could reach increasingly dangerous levels by the end
of the century.



Jamshid Al-Farhani, 45, came from Ahvaz, a city in western Iran. The journey
took two days. “We walked mostly during the night,” he said. “Some said the heat
can kill us, but our faith for Hussein was our motive.”


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SCROLL TO CONTINUE







PERU

THE MELTING SHRINE







The impact of climate change on religious traditions is not confined to the
Middle East. Each year a pilgrimage to the base of Peru’s sacred Colque Punku
glacier attracts around 100,000 worshipers. The Qoyllur Rit’i — or “Snow Star” —
is one of the most important religious ceremonies on the Andean calendar.



The shrine at the glacier’s bottom, which includes a rock with the image of a
crucified Jesus, draws representatives from Indigenous nations, who gather there
to dance and pray.



Some climb up the steep glacier, where for centuries local tribes have worshiped
its waters. But the ice is rapidly melting.



Willington Callañaupa Quispe, former president of the Paruro Nation, remembers
coming to the valley when he was 7 years old, more than three decades ago.

“My experience was amazing. That energy of nature and the snow,” he said. “Many
when they arrive, when they see it, they start crying.”



This year his son decided to join him and participate in the dancing. He wants
to become a leader, just like his father.

“I assure him that when the moment comes, it won't be like this,” Quispe said.
“There will be other types of customs, who knows? We will be left as a mere
memory.”

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Beatriz Aparicio, 69, who has been coming to this festival for around 25 years,
has witnessed the glacier melt before her eyes.

“The glacier used to come down to the bottom,” she said. “Now there is no ice.”

Peru’s glaciers are melting at a rapid pace because of increasing temperatures
linked to climate change. A 2019 study from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
found that the country’s glaciers had lost nearly 30 percent of their mass
between 2000 and 2016.

Officials have begun to restrict who can climb to the icy top, and how much holy
water can be taken from its peak.



But Quispe is not ready to give up on this pilgrimage even as it changes.

“The festival will never go away. Let’s be clear, it’ll never disappear.” he
said.



SCROLL TO CONTINUE







SPAIN

THE CAMINO ON FIRE








The warming planet is leaving worshipers — whether climbing a sacred glacier in
Peru or traversing the Camino de Santiago — searching for alternatives. Each
year around 400,000 travelers walk the various routes to Santiago de Compostela
Cathedral. Some are worshipers seeking to retrace the steps of Saint James’s
journey to Galicia in northwestern Spain. Others are tourists, drawn by the
history and the Pyrenees views.


(TWP)

But in recent years, the nearly-500-mile-long Camino has become more
treacherous, even deadly, as extreme heat and wildfires have become more common.
Europe is the fastest-warming continent in the world, and 2023 was Spain’s
second-hottest year on record, surpassed only by 2022.

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In 2022, Spain also experienced a destructive wildfire season, which experts
said was fueled by increased heat and drought.

People walk the trail all year round, but many do it in the summer, around Saint
James’s Day, which falls on July 25.



Emilio Rio López, 74, has lived in the village of Vilar, which rests near the
trail, for much of his life. He said the summers have grown hotter and winters
milder since his childhood. The 2022 wildfires swept through parts of Spain and
other European countries in numbers not seen since 2006, when the European
Forest Fire Information System began recordkeeping. The flames destroyed parts
of López’s village and transformed the landscape.

“I had never seen a fire as big as that one in my life,” he said. “Even on
television.”



Pilgrims walking for days in the Spanish summer heat cooled off in nearby river
streams. Some said they started their walks very early in the morning to avoid
the hottest parts of the day.



Travelers have made adjustments to the traditional routes for cooler and shadier
alternatives. At times it was so hot authorities barred them from continuing.


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Anahita Aryan walked the trail 22 years ago, when she was a little girl. This
time she chose to walk a route farther north with her husband, Daniel Marngeu,
as part of a larger organized religious pilgrimage.

“We chose this camino because we want something fresh, because it’s the northern
camino so we were hoping it wouldn’t be this hot,” said Aryan. But despite their
attempts to choose a cooler route, the couple said the heat was oppressive.

When pilgrims reached Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, many wept and fell to
the ground, emotional to have finished retracing James’s path.



The journey was long and scorching, but they made it.


(TWP)

SCROLL TO CONTINUE







THAILAND

THE SINKING TEMPLES











Thailand’s Buddhist temples, which draw millions of tourists and worshipers each
year, also are facing a growing crisis.



The nation’s low-lying seaside regions, home to many of these sanctuaries, are
increasingly vulnerable to coastal flooding as sea levels rise.

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Bangkok — home to more than 10 million people — is just around 5 feet above sea
level and sinking at a rate of around 0.8 inches a year. In other provinces,
including Samut Prakan, on the Gulf of Thailand, temple grounds have been
inundated by water.



Wat Khun Samutrawat, a Buddhist temple registered in 1967 after serving as a
monastery for hundreds of years, has seen worsening flooding. Families living
nearby have been forced to move farther inland — some as many as five times
within two generations — as the gulf waters swallowed more than half a mile of
land.

The temple’s walls have visible water damage.



In Phetchaburi province, also on the gulf, the Wat Kom Naram temple, established
in 1827, was relocated in 1972 because of rising waters. The new temple was
built higher to avoid seawater floods. Old manuscripts at Wat Yai Suwannaram,
also in Phetchaburi, still bear the marks of flooding.



“When I was really young, I remember that the temple had activities around the
chapel, like traditional performances, outdoor movies and candlelight
processions on Buddhist holidays — similar to what other temples do on their
temple grounds,” said Kerati Thaschoaroen, 58, an archivist at Wat Kom Naram.

“I was about 5 or 6 years old at that time, and those activities were still
happening. After that, after the floods began, those activities ceased, and
eventually they all vanished,” Thaschoaroen said.

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As sea levels continue to rise, there appears to be no finite solution to the
ever-persistent problem. Already community leaders in hard-hit areas are
debating new ways to stave off further erosion, including seawalls and flooding
barriers.



But for parts of their villages, it’s already too late. Roads have become
rivers, with only some markers hinting at what once was.



“This problem is getting worse,” said Visanu Khengsamut, the village leader who
oversees Wat Khun Samutrawat’s jurisdiction. “However, our community isn’t
sitting idle.”

ABOUT THIS STORY

Mustafa Salim in Iraq, Paul Gambin in Peru, Iván Torres Hdez in Spain, S. Noina
Supratya in Thailand, and Ana Herrero in Venezuela contributed to this report.

Design and development by Alexis Arnold. Additional design by Frank
Hulley-Jones. Video editing by Jon Gerberg. Editing by Olivier Laurent, Reem
Akkad, Chloe Meister and Matt Callahan.

308 Comments
Salwan GeorgesSalwan Georges is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist
covering news nationally and internationally for The Washington Post. In 2021,
Georges was named Photographer of the Year by Pictures of the Year
International. In 2023, he was named Photographer of the Year by the National
Press Photographers Association.@salwangeorges
Follow
Ruby MellenRuby Mellen reports on foreign affairs for the Washington Post.
@rubymellen
Follow


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