ARTICLE IN PRESS

Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

www.elsevier.com/locate/socscimed

The world of yoga: The production and reproduction of

therapeutic landscapes
Anne-Cecile Hoyez1
Department of Geography, Universite de Rennes 2 Haute Bretagne, Campus Villejean, Place du Recteur Henri Le Moal,
35043 Rennes Cedex, France
Available online 10 April 2007

Abstract
Yoga is becoming more and more fashionable all around the world. This activity, partly considered as therapeutic,
reveals contemporary ways of producing global practices. Via a questionnaire completed by individuals at yoga centres in
India and France, the paper analyses this phenomenon using the concept of therapeutic landscapes. Furthermore, it
examines how these therapeutic landscapes are inuenced by globalisation.
Bringing together the concepts of therapeutic landscapes, globalisation and the practice of yoga, the paper analyses the
production and reproduction of yogic therapeutic landscapes in the worlds space. Constituted of natural physical elements
and built structures, these therapeutic landscapes are also strongly linked to emotional qualities and intimate feelings
evoked by the place and related to health and well-being.
The paper also underlines that the emergence of internationally recognised therapeutic landscapes demands a cultural
and social geographical approach that could help to examine the repercussions of local and global phenomena on
therapeutic landscapes. Indeed, very often, yogis, all around the world, refer to ideal places where they rarely go.
Consequently, they create an imagined therapeutic environment that the paper describes.
r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Therapeutic landscapes; Yoga; India; France; Globalisation

Introduction

Therapeutic landscapes in geography

The aim of this paper is to develop new insights

regarding concepts of therapeutic landscapes in
health geography. The study arises from research
carried out in India and France, and offers the
example of a non-western practice related to health,
namely yoga.

The paper draws upon ideas from the literature

on therapeutic landscapes which were developed by
Gesler in 1992 (Gesler, 1992, 2005). From Geslers
conceptualisation, based on a cultural and humanist
approach of therapeutic places (Gesler, 2003),
various geographers, during the 1990s, have added
new insights on the concept of therapeutic landscape. Kearns and Gesler have underlined the
importance of physical, social and symbolic aspects
of therapeutic landscapes, turning attention towards

E-mail address: anne-cecile.hoyez@uhb.fr.

Teaching and research assistant.

0277-9536/$ - see front matter r 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2007.02.050

ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

the observation of individual and/or collective

environmental perceptions (Kearns, & Gesler,
1998, 2003). Similarly, other geographers also
focused on the role of therapeutic landscapes as
determinants of health and well-being (Williams,
1999).
Based on these conceptual studies of therapeutic
landscapes, research has also developed through
empirical studies of healing places and their effects
and qualities (Gesler, 1993; Kearns & Collins, 2000;
Tyson, 1998). Other studies are oriented towards the
way that institutions (media, publicity, enterprises)
help to produce therapeutic landscapes (Kearns &
Barnett, 1997).
In a different way, certain geographers have
explained how marginalised groups create and
negotiate therapeutic landscapes (Parr, 1999).
Moreover, some studies on therapeutic landscapes
focus on the application of the concept to studies of
the day-to-day routine of certain individuals, like
those who are less mobile, such as elderly people
(Milligan, Gatrell, & Bingley, 2004) or people from
rst nation ethnic groups (Wilson, 2003). All these
authors insist on the fact that therapeutic landscapes are shaped by images and identities linked to
the health system in its broadest sense. Recently,
some interesting incursions have been made in
studies of literary representations of health and
medical settings (Baer & Gesler, 2004; Tonnelier &
Curtis, 2005).
Some geographers have underlined the link
between health, tness and therapeutic landscapes.
This body of work explores how physical exercise
facilitates, reproduces and represents bodily
activity in secure and healthy places (Andrews,
Sudwell, & Sparkes, 2005). In a similar vein,
other geographers have used the concept of
therapeutic landscape to study complementary or
holistic medicine (Andrews, Wiles, & Miller, 2004;
Williams, 1998).
The present paper explores contemporary contexts of the globalisation of therapeutic landscapes
through the example of yoga. By examining the
production of a therapeutic landscape in the source
country (India), it is possible to conceptualise its
reproduction in different places in Europe and the
USA.
Considering the growing connectedness of people
and places (Robertson, 1992), it seems important,
nowadays, to include the process of globalisation in
the way geographers analyse health, therapy and
well-being. This paper adds new ideas about

113

contemporary processes of globalisation of therapeutic landscapes.

Globalisation and culture
The question of globalisation in social sciences,
and especially in geography, is extensively discussed.
Some models of globalisation have been theorised
by authors seeing globalisation as an economic and
political conjuncture, leading to a situation where
nation states are no longer signicant actors, where
cultures and tastes are homogenised and where the
economy relies on global corporations. From this
perspective, globalisation is irresistible and a new
conventional wisdom. However, there are opponents who contest these views (for a survey, see
Johnston, 2000; Waters, 2001). They consider
globalisation as a complex of interrelated processes,
producing more diversity as more localities become
linked to global forces.
In the case of cultural or social practices,
globalisation is a complex and a multilateral reality.
In fact, cultural globalisation is not Americanisation but concerns circulations of cultural
products at the planet scale (Warnier, 1999). For
example, even if India receives elements of western
ways of life, this country can also be considered as
an emitting pole in the matter of social and
cultural practices, in particular if we consider the
phenomenon of yoga (Vaguet, 2002). Also, globalisation of cultural and social practices must be seen
as the result of interconnections (branchements)
between identities (Amselle, 2001). This approach
aims to show that globalisation is not a blend of
different cultures previously seen as impermeable,
but a new global culture composed of many cultural
and social practices that are transformed by
globalisation.
The phenomenon of yoga puts in question
various spatial aspects that result from interactions
between societies. The diffusion of yoga contributes
to the creation of a territorialised network through a
wide distribution of yoga centres. This distribution
is the direct consequence of social and cultural
logics which recall the concept of ethnoscape
developed by Appadurai (1996). According to
him, identity scapes are re-created by some groups
of individuals in a socio-spatial environment different from the original one.
Moreover, globalisation is modelled by the
construction of social links (Castells, 2000), the
increase of interindividual relationships and con-

ARTICLE IN PRESS
114

A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

nections (Giddens, 1991), the rise of the concept of

global village (Friedman, 1994) and the concept of
global ecumene (Hannerz, 1989, 1992, 1996).
Taking ideas from this literature, this paper aims
to underline interactions between spaces of ows
and places, and the spatial materialisation of yoga
centres. It considers yoga as a local and global
interpretation of the link between health and place.
Also, globalisation of yoga must be understood as
the result of the assembling of elements of cultures,
social practices, identities and politics in space and
place.
Background: yoga practice
The knowledge of subjective content of yoga
practice is important to understanding values and
signicance of places and spaces.
Yoga refers to Hinduism, a religious system
which is rooted in a geographical area, if we
consider it as a religion practised in India for
centuries. But there are also westerners in Europe or
America who claim to follow Hinduism or a
practice/notion derived from it (karma, vegetarianism, yoga, etc.), putting Hinduism in a position
between tradition and modernity (Hacker, 1995).
In Hinduism, there are several manifestations of
the sacred in such things as temples, rivers
conuences, mountains, bridges crossing rivers,
images, icons and people (priests, gurus, ascetics,
etc.). The association between these elements creates
pilgrim centres, places promising cure or salvation.
These sacred places, people or objects, in day-to-day
life, are elevated to the rank of supernatural
elements that help one to connect his/her life to
spiritual notions (Flood, 1996).
Moreover, in Hinduism, some specic practices,
such as yoga, meditation or classical dance, can take
the same importance as believing, and even be more
important. Indeed, what a Hindu does is more
important than what he or she believes.
In general, the word yoga refers to the etymological Sanskrit root yug which means to unite,
yoke, join, but today, we can assert that yoga is
more famous than understood (Filliozat, 1987):
yoga, as it appears today, is a recent interpretation
of an ancient practice. The question of dening yoga
is becoming quite difcult and one should rather
talk of an orthopraxy that takes different forms
depending on the way people look at it through time
and space. Nowadays, modern yoga refers to a
complex discipline that can involve corporeal

concerns, as well as philosophical, cultural or even

political concerns. Modern yoga also emphasises on
self-realisation, mind expansion and bodily adjustment. Currently, there are many debates concerning
yoga as a modern discipline (Alter, 2004; De
Michelis, 2004).
Much has been written about yoga in the west;
however, much attention has been placed upon
those that have indicated a link between health,
therapy, healing and yoga (Hoyez, 2006).
Health is the primary reason for adopting yoga.
However, spiritual motivations are also superimposed on health concerns, also leading to healthrelated notions (notion of well-being, mental
relaxation, etc.).
Moreover, from the beginning of the 20th
century, yoga was approached through corporeal
modalities. The aim was to gain a healthy body, a
body in good shape. Re-placed in a global
discourse, yoga has been introduced not only in
therapeutic discourses, but also in a discourse on
well-being, placing the body in its social surroundings. Since there is an emphasis on the body in
health geography (Dorn & Laws, 1994), we must
underline the process of geographicisation of the
yogis body. In many texts and discourses, we nd a
certain notion of purity attached to the yogis body
and to the place where yoga is practised. The place
must be pure, and so must be the individuals body.
The yogic place can be interpreted as an image of a
place permitting good mental concentration and
acting on the body of the person who is practising
regularly. Also, bodies are located in places that
reect purity, well-being and good health. The link
between the yogi and his/her body is produced
through the use of a specic imagery (photographs
and literary descriptions).
Besides, we can underline an ideological, cultural
and political construction of this body discipline
(Alter, 2000; Zimmermann, 2002), which is instrumentalised as a practice which shapes identity. That
idea recalls the Foucaldian theme of governmentality (Foucault, 1979). Governmentality evokes the
relation between the self and the self, the way that
individuals control, determine, delimit their freedom
and the others, depending on instruments they
concretely manipulate. In that sense, the body and
its techniques of control authorise the individual to
act on his own, to gain perfection or to attain a
certain state of well-being.
This paper considers the concept of therapeutic
landscape as essential in the understanding of

ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

meaning, values and experiences related to health. It

will focus on specic (yogic) spatial arrangements
associated with a set of emotions and feelings
pervading the landscape. Therapeutic landscapes,
yoga and globalisation are the three main ideas that
structure the paper. All three are brought together
in daily practices across the world, a phenomenon
observable in French and Indian yoga centres, and
in other locations described here.

Method
My case study is drawn from eldwork undertaken in Indian and French yoga centres. The
eldwork was based on enquiries and on observations; however, I did not practise yoga during the
course of the research, instead those practising yoga
were observed in various locations. In total 212 years
were spent in the eld, attending yoga centres and
observing the practices and perceptions of individuals using such centres.
Between the years 2000 and 2005, 291 individuals
participated in the study (89 from France and 212
from India). A sociological questionnaire, composed of 121 semi-guided questions, was used in
order to elicit responses regarding the following
themes: (a) the home environment of the individual,
(b) the social, (c) religious and (d) medical environments frequented in connection with yoga and their
past experiences with yoga since they took it up. To
that were added some questions about the perception of space (where would you like to go to
practice yoga?, How far are you able to travel to
practice yoga?, etc.). Such questions provided a
pretext to develop a rapport between the researcher
and participant. This then allowed longer exchanges
to occur which provided the opportunity for more
detailed qualitative information to be shared. In
addition to the questionnaire, individuals were
approached before or after their yoga class in order
to discuss in more depth their perceptions and
practices associated with yoga. Semi-structured
interviews were informally conducted with the
participants, and provided the opportunity to
observe in detail the meaning of practising yoga at
the individual scale.
In India, three places were selected for this part of
the work (one centre in Chennai, Tamil Nadu; two
centres in Pune, Maharashtra). The Indian sample
was divided into two categories: Indians and
international yogic travellers.

115

In France, questionnaires were circulated among

four different yoga centres in the city of Rouen
(Normandy). Questions were separated into four
categories, as we did in India. But in France,
contrary to the Indian context, individuals were not
prepared to spend time in interviews. French yogis
come for their class, and leave as soon as it nishes;
however, it was possible to conduct interviews by
making an appointment for a future date. This
allowed individuals to share their perception of
yoga in their day-to-day life.
Also important in France was the observation of
international connections with India and other
countries. From Rouen, I was able to trace links
with Indian centres mentioned above (one in
Chennai, and one in Pune) through an analysis of
teachers mobility. For example, two of them were
trained in India, for a period of 2 to 12 months, and
returned there regularly to take classes with their
Indian teacher/guru. In yoga centres in Rouen, the
Indian origin of the yoga taught is clearly
announced on advertisements as a yoga from X
in Pune, and a yoga from Y in Chennai.
I realised then that the representation of the
French landscape of yoga is closely linked to precise
Indian places, and India more generally. Each
French yoga teacher is connected (directly or
indirectly) to a school in India. However, some
French yoga teachers preferred to learn yoga from
Indian teachers settled in Paris rather than travelling to India. These types of teachers are usually
very interested in Indian philosophy, culture,
ancient texts and languages. But 34 of the French
teachers that I interviewed have never been to India.
India, for them, is a sacred land, a land of nonviolence and philosophy. Their practice and knowledge of yoga is constructed on an idea of what
should be done, how and where, according to
contemporary readings and interpretations of ancient texts.
After analysing the ndings from these questionnaire data about yoga practice in France and India,
it was decided to take a more in depth qualitative
approach to understanding yoga practice. Research
was conducted based on observation of places,
spaces and landscapes of yoga. Besides interviews
with key informants such as gurus and disciples,
observations were carried out at two other wellknown places: Rishikesh (located in Uttaranchal, in
the Himalayas, considered as the capital of yoga,
and known as the place where the Beatles went to
meditate in the 1960s) and Pune (located near

ARTICLE IN PRESS
116

A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

Mumbai, location of the Osho Meditation Resort,

which attracts many westerners since the 1970s).
During this stage of the research, I spent several
weeks attempting to develop an understanding of
the history and the functioning of the place.
Information was gathered from yogic travellers,
who had interesting perceptions of the place, and
from gurus, who diffused original knowledge about
it. An important part was given to narrations of
movements and place and landscape conceptions,
using an ethnographic approach.
In order to grasp the way in which the world of
yoga functions, I also conducted research via the
internet. International yoga centres advertise for
their courses on their websites. These advertisements often underline the beauty, purity and
eventually therapeutic virtues of the site or location.
Materials like photos and texts emanating from
these websites help to understand in more detail the
places observed in Europe and India.
I present rst a discussion of how I found yoga is
represented and how this representation is globalised. Second, I contextualise how the knowledge
and practice of yoga has expanded into new spaces
through globalisation. Third, I describe the production of a therapeutic landscape in Rishikesh, India.
To end, three examples will be developed in the last
part of the paper to illustrate how these ideas of
therapeutic landscapes are manifested in other
specic sites around the world and how these
demonstrate globalisation of ideas of a therapeutic
landscape.
Yoga and therapeutic landscapes
Aspects of therapeutic landscapes of yoga are
diverse. Yoga is supposed to be practised in an ideal
place. This place is characterised by infrastructures
and a particular environment. Elements that constitute yogic therapeutic landscapes can be found in
ancient texts, but over centuries, these elements were
transcribed and transformed and, nowadays, yogic
therapeutic landscapes are the result of cultural,
social and individual conceptions.
Places for yoga
The basic infrastructure that constitutes a yogic
therapeutic landscape is the ashram, the place where
the guru and his community of disciples live. The
ashram is considered as an idyllic place, where
humans and nature are united, and where social

relations rely on non-violence and devotional

respect to the guru. Symbolically, the location of
the ashram, which is remote from ordinary life, is
supposed to reect the state of mind of the yogi.
However, nowadays, the denition of the ashram is
enlarged and there are more and more ashrams
developing social and cultural activities. Moreover,
ashrams are more and more located in urban spaces.
There has been a reinterpretation of what is
reected in ancient texts, and the production of a
spatial imaginary and symbolism goes together with
design of the built environment. Also, nowadays,
the place for yoga can be a simple yoga centre
where the design of the place is based on an
interpretation of the urban environment. There
must be an adaptation of the place to peoples
needs. For example, yogic places are enclosed,
submitted to specic adaptations, such as controlling the heat, the lighting, the sound insulation. The
place for yoga can also be considered as a place
adjusted for urban residents need for a small
island of peace and serenity in the midst of urban
life.
Landscapes for yoga
Nevertheless, natural elements are very important. These natural elements may determine the
location of a place for yoga: a mountain, a river, a
pleasant climate, etc. are required. These elements
recall, on the one hand, the divine nature of the
worlds construction invoked by most religions,
and, on the other hand, are associated with an idea
of well-being consistent with yoga practice. Transferred to urban yoga centres, that idea leads to a
series of modications of the built form of the place:
there can be a photograph of Himalayan peaks, or
of the Ganges, and there is a particular attention
given to the warmth and quietness of the place.
Following Geslers theory of therapeutic landscapes, we can consider places for yoga as therapeutic landscapes in the sense that they also appeal
to particular social and cultural relations where
health and therapy are important. A perfect
adjustment between activities, localisation and
collective relations between individuals is supposed
to have positive effects on ones health and wellbeing. Well-being is included in the set of emotions
and activities inhabiting therapeutic landscapes.
In parallel, therapeutic landscapes also include
cultural or historical memories (Gesler, 1993, 1996).
Places for yoga are reputed for many testimonies

ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

talking about mental and physical rejuvenating

gained through the practice of yoga in particular
places (Bhardwaj, 1999) like Rishikesh, Varanasi
(North India) or Kanyakumari (South India).
A yogic therapeutic landscape is moreover made
of a combination between places and discourses on
these places. These discourses guide spatial representations and practices, reinforcing a geographical
approach based on narrated experiences. As one
guru wrote: India is the sacred land which has given
birth to countless sages [y] It is a land peculiarly
suitable for divine contemplation and Yogic
practices. Every country has its own special
attractive features. India is the land of Yogins and
sages. This is the special attractive feature of India.
This is the reason why people from America,
England and all parts of the world come to India
for the practice of Yoga (Swami Sivananda, 1947).
Similarly, Mark, an American yoga practitioner
who came to Rishikesh to learn yoga, told me in
2002: I come to India because it is great: yoga,
Ganges, Himalayas, jungle, lassis [drinking
yoghurt], saddhus, herb y Yes, India is great and
I feel great in India. These two types of discourses
reect the intertwining between historical associations, emotions, activities, individual and collective
identity.
Also, practising yoga is always linked to specic
attributes of the place, to specic emotions, to
specic feelings and implicates a modication of the
structure, circumstance or understanding on the
place in which it is practised. These modications
have an effect in terms of perceived and practised
space and place. Through these yogic ideas, certain
places are socially and culturally constructed as
therapeutic landscapes.

The globalisation of yoga

Yoga has now become a transnational world
practice. In many societies, the number of yoga
practitioners increases as well as the number of yoga
schools. Yoga is a globalised phenomenon, and
there is a growing space for the many ways of
understanding this practice, combining spiritual,
cultural and therapeutic knowledge (Hoyez, 2005).
Globalisation of yoga has been aided by religious
seekers coming to India (Strauss, 2002a), by gurus
migrating to other places (Altglas, 2005), by
transnational movements such as the Theosophical
Society (Bevir, 2000) or Ramakrishna Missions

117

(Wessinger, 1995) and by celebrities such as the

Beatles (Saltzman, 2000).
I have determined four periods that lead to the
current situation of a globalised yoga. These periods
rely on different spacetime conceptions. At rst,
from Vedic times to the mid-19th century, yoga was
practised only in India by a minority of
ascetics wandering throughout the subcontinent,
or living in monasteries. The key places for yoga at
that time are difcult to localise, but we can,
however, mention four regional networks: northern
places (Himalayas), eastern places (Kolkata),
southern places (KanyakumariChennai), western
places (Mumbai). This network was loose and
unorganised precisely. Nevertheless, this network
corresponded to a national strategy aiming to
organise the circulation of yoga in the territory
of Hindus, in a symbolic and pragmatic way.
In the midst of Indian society, yoga was an
elitist discipline, practised and taught in certain
categories of the population (ascetics and orthodox
Brahmins).
This situation changed in 1893, due to the
coming out of yoga from India. The starting point
of this second period corresponds to the journey of
Swami Vivekananda, a Bengali saint, from Kolkata
to Boston via eastern Asia, and from Boston back
to Mumbai via Europe. Going across Asia, USA
and Europe, the Swami slowly constituted transnational and interindividual networks around his idea
of bhakti yoga (Williams, 2001). This global
movement was then relayed by Indian, American
and European devotees, who took up the task of
teaching his knowledge and ideas in monasteries,
private circles and sometimes public places, out of
India. Back to India, the Swamis success was
interpreted in terms of a certain superiority and
originality. That was the impulse for a feedback
movement all around India, concretised in the
creation of monasteries, schools, medical dispensaries, etc. The missionary work of Swami Vivekananda aroused new vocations for some young
people, who, in their turn, travelled to Europe or
USA.
This second step marks the beginning of interaction and exchange between India and other countries. Places dedicated to yoga or circulation of
Hindu knowledge were multiplying in India, northern America and western Europe. Consequently
from 1900 to 1940 yoga was circulating in a
unidirectional way: from India to northern America, and from India to western Europe.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
118

A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

Over time, this phenomenon developed further,

creating circulation between western Europe and
North America. These links between Europe and
America essentially connected world centres of
yoga practice, i.e. intellectual centres composed of
two categories of people: orientalists, who worked
on the translation and interpretation of Hindu texts,
and fervent practitioners of yoga, who launched
collective yoga classes. The ideas exchanged between Europe and America were reappropriated
and contributed to reinterpreting yoga in a new
way. During this period, further yoga centres were
created and transplanted outside India.
The period between 1950 and 1970 saw the
emergence of a worldwide yoga. Ideas and interpretations about yoga circulated quickly, and in
many directions. Consequently, during this period,
there were growing interrelations and a feedback
process between India and Europe, India and USA,
India and South Africa, India and Australia, and
also between Europe and USA, northern America
and southern America. During this time, yoga
began to circulate around the world, forming a
worlds international circuit. The density of communication and movement became more and more
important, and the creation of new places is a
striking example of the rapid emergence of this
practice in world space.
Due to this multi-centred conguration, the
original circuit linking Indian and western countries
split into many local, small circuits, representing
circulations taking place at a local geographical
scale. Consequently, new poles were emerging and
diffusing yoga practice in a specic country or
region, such as USA (especially California), western
Europe (especially London and Paris), or Australia
(Sydney) and Japan (Tokyo). Metaphorically, we
can view these poles no longer as transmitting or
receiving but rather absorbing or resorbing :
they absorb, assimilate what they can or what they
wish, before they resorb and sort out elements they
are going to keep and adapt.
This situation showed the importance of a
phenomenon which tended to attract a universal
audience. But we have to take into account that, in
the way yoga centres function, interpersonal connections were playing a growing role, and universality did not mean homogeneity.
In the fourth period, from the 1980s to the
present day, more and more yoga styles and types
appear. One can talk about indigenous yogas in
the sense that in many countries, such as Brazil or

the Czech Republic, yoga was systematised by a

small number of persons. Some Brazilians, through
readings and through interindividual interactions,
have built a local knowledge of yoga (in Sao Paulo
or Porto Alegre, for example). A similar situation
emerges in Eastern Europe. Just after the fall of
communism, a yoga centre was set up in Prague.
The teachings at the centre depended largely on the
founders illegal yogic activities before 1989, and are
facilitated by the help of a German and a British
teachers association.
Nevertheless, one could argue that this worldwide
diffusion is not complete in the sense that some
countries are not represented. Indeed, Arab countries, Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa do not
appear in world maps of yoga centres. Political
and social situations in some of these countries
prevent the implantation of yoga centres; or, if there
is no formal ban, yoga centres are less numerous,
less frequented, and do not generate signicant
activity. Following a personal communication with
an informant, it seems that these centres were
created by and for an elite (constituted of white
expatriates and local elites).
Spacetime paths of globalisation of yoga are
representative of the complexity of circulation at the
world scale. Indeed, the globalisation of yoga
operates on two scales of time. On the one hand,
over a long time scale, ancient mythology determines the main places for the practise of yoga in
India. On the other hand, the contemporary reality
of the phenomenon has been determined over a
short time because the diffusion occurred during the
70s; that is to say, at the time when the main places
of yoga were created in India and elsewhere. Thus
spatial change in the practice of yoga can be read
through the production of places, and through
modication of circulations, and their reinforcement through diverse socio-historical stages, at the
world scale. These spatial changes imply that some
modications have been made in places and through
links between individuals.
We are now going to focus on case studies of
examples of these famous places of yoga practice,
which are largely shaped by interpretations of
physical environment and emotions. Indeed, in
terms of health, yoga is also closely linked to the
quality of the place and the environment in which it
is practised. This idea concerns the emergence of
yogic landscapes as therapeutic landscapes, and can
also be interpreted in terms of Tuans thought about
topophilia (Tuan, 1974).

ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

Rishikesh: the production of a therapeutic landscape

Rishikesh is a hill station situated in the state of
Uttaranchal, at 220 km at the north of New Delhi.
The name Rishikesh is derived from an ancient
hagiography: Rishi means wise man (sage), and kesh
means abode (Stutley, 2003). This hagiotoponimy
underlines the mythical, sacred and auspicious sense
of place for Hindu devotees. By consequence,
Rishikesh is an important place for Hindus and in
Hinduism, and it is the starting point for Himalayan
pilgrimages (called Chardham, in which char means
four and dham means place of pilgrimage).
Starting from Rishikesh, devotees can reach four
main places of Hindu pilgrimages (among them
sources of the Ganges and of the Yamuna).
Moreover, the location is understood very symbolically because it is the geological place where the
Ganges completes its journey across the Himalayas,
considered as the territory of Gods, and reaches the
plain, considered as the territory of men.
It is very difcult to nd historic sources about
the development of this city. Apart from mythical
texts and essays, there is nothing exceptional written
about Rishikesh. If there is an identity linked to that
place, it is essentially thanks to the account of a
mythical place which has been passed down through
the ages.
After Indian independence, the Hindu identity of
Rishikesh attracted many refugees interested in
tradition and the idea of a new life in a free and
Hindu India (Strauss, 1997, 2002b). At the same
time, Rishikesh became increasingly famous among
the urban middle classes, which saw in Rishikesh a
leisure place easily accessible from New Delhi.
During the 1960s, Rishikesh began to be associated internationally with yoga and meditation,
especially when the English popular musicians The
Beatles and young hippies settled there to obtain
self-realisation and live an ideal life in a traditional
way.
Since the 1980s, the Uttaranchal ministry of
tourism has promoted Rishikesh as an ideal
spiritual and touristic place and emphasises on
yoga through the organisation of an annual international festival of yoga.
Nowadays, Rishikesh is well known for this
practise. The city is full of places to practise yoga,
and the city attracts saints, gurus, teachers of Indian
or international origin. Rishikesh now has a hybrid
identity, characterised by the environment and the
population which are part of the landscape at large.

119

The Ganges, the Himalayas, the jungle, Hindu

temples, gurus, monks and ascetics are important
markers of the representation of the yogic landscape.
These elements are only a part of the landscape
and the other part is constituted by a strong sense of
place. This idea is recurrent in the description of
places and landscapes of yoga, as we can see
through these examples of advertisements for yoga
places. Sometimes, the place is referred to as a
spiritual one, the spirituality being expressed in
notions of beauty and purity through to a discourse
on the environment: Situated in the panoramic
banks of the Holy Ganga in the lap of lush, green
Himalayas, Rishikesh is a well-known spiritual and
meditation centre. [y]. It is a true, spiritual haven.
Parmath Niketan is the largest ashram in Rishikesh.
The ashram provides a clean, pure and sacred
atmosphere as well as abundant, beautiful gardens.
With over 1000 rooms, the facilities are a perfect
blend of modern amenities and traditional, spiritual
simplicity (Uttaranchal Tourism and Parmath
Niketan Ashram, 2002). In other cases, the place
is described as spiritual with an emphasis on the
individuals own perception of the environment: A
ower-lled island of peace, seated on the banks of
the Holy River Ganga in Rishikeshone of the
Holy cities of Indiasurrounded by the Himalayan
foothills. [y]. The Ashram still vibrates with the
peaceful energy created by its founder Swami
Rama. Coming to this ashram even for the rst
time, one experiences the special energy, inspiration
and pull to a mental silence (The gateway to the
Gods: Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kankhal, 2002). Alternatively, the place for yoga can be seen as crossroads of identities and knowledge: The yoga centres
of Rishikesh have enhanced the signicance of the
place, home tourists and foreign tourists from all
over the world visit this place to have lessons in
yoga and meditation (The gateway to the Gods:
Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kankhal, 2002).
Yogic places and landscapes are frequented and
exploited for their benecial atmosphere. They
gather specic natural attributes supposed to be
good for the mind and the body, and linked to
health and well-being. Moreover, they attract other
therapeutic activities, such as ayurvedic clinics and
medical shops (ayurveda being one of the traditional medicines of India), reiki (an Asian system of
healing through body energy), Indian and/or Thai
massage, healing music. Consequently, we nd
many therapeutic activities in Rishikesh that have

ARTICLE IN PRESS
120

A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

newly re-emerged from Indian or Asian knowledge,

at a destination for international yogis.
These activities are inseparable from the places
curative and emotional virtues, and from the
environment. They represent, in the mind of yogis
(as well as non-yogis), an ideal place for yoga and
physical and mental well-being. The reputation of
the place is continuously reinforced, while its shape
changes over time as a result of rapid changes in the
needs and demands of consumers. Consequently,
Rishikesh can be viewed as a supermarket of yoga
or a landscape of consumption (Kearns & Barnett,
1997). Indeed, the city is the object of many public
campaigns to attract people to this healing and
cultural place. Advertising for a therapeutic place in
Rishikesh is usual, and there is no regulation over
setting up of shops and health clinics. The promotion of Rishikesh as a healing place combining
tradition and modernity (i.e. Indian knowledge and
eclectic practices) is evident in media representation
and in the site itself.
This is important in the formation of yogis
itineraries in India: generally, if one goes to India to
learn or experience yoga for the rst time, one
would go to Rishikesh. Within Rishikesh, this has
an important impact on the day-to-day landscape.
Activities complementing yoga are multiplying so
fast that the gap between the ideal landscape and
the reality of the place is increasing. Rishikesh is
more and more polluted and busy, ashrams are
more and more modern, and impose restrictions on
access for some groups of consumers.
Rishikesh is nowadays a kind of central place
where everything and everyone is available for yoga
and health purposes. However, not all yogis can go
to Rishikesh, to be healed or to obtain well-being,
and yoga practitioners have an alternative solution:
the production of a yogic place in their own
neighbourhood.
Globalised therapeutic landscapes: India everywhere
and nowhere
The following section of this paper will discuss
the international reproduction of yogic landscapes.
An Indian yogi told me the landscape and the
time are crucial in yoga, but they are not restricted
because our ancestors conceived yoga so as to be
applicable everywhere at anytime (Mark B., 2002,
pers. comm.).
The therapeutic landscape is mostly imagined
through references originating from near or far

from Hindu or Indian conceptions of the yogic

place. However, references to yogic therapeutic
landscapes are globalised.
By adopting Giddens approach to globalisation
(Giddens, 1991) we can consider that the number of
connections and the enlargement of interindividual
networks are sufciently well formed to multiply
therapeutic landscapes across the world. With the
globalisation of yoga, interpretations of yoga and
interpretations of therapeutic places and landscapes
of yoga circulate around the world. The three
examples that follow will exemplify this phenomenon.
Yogaville: An American place for yoga
Yogaville is located in Virginia, USA, and was
built in 1972 according to yogic therapeutic landscapes: near a river, a forest, in a lovely environment. It is a modern institution that has been
founded by American devotees who were searching
for alternative healthcare in America (Satchidananda Ashram Yogaville, 2006). Within Yogaville,
yoga is clearly Hinduised because it relies on a
transplantation of Hindu elements originating from
India. In order to clearly delineate the origin of the
guru, and the knowledge associated with him, the
centre was built according to symbolic Hindu
architectural principles. The main building has the
form of a lotus (the ower which symbolises India
and the Hindu territory), the main gate recalls the
temples of South India and the colours chosen
(pink, white and light blue) represent Indian rather
than American styles.
Swami Satchidananda, the guru, originating from
South India and one of the early members of the
Divine Life Society of Rishikesh, spoke at the
Woodstock festival in 1969. From this point, he
became popular and developed an American
following. He was later asked to stay in America
by a rich family who believed he could cure their son
of his addiction to drugs. As a result of his success
in curing their son of his addiction, the family
decided to build a centre for those suffering from
drug addiction, this centre later became Yogaville.
Practices in Yogaville all turn towards yoga.
People can come either for 1 day, only to practise
yoga, or for an overnight stay, to practise yoga and
meditation, to experience life in a spiritual community and to listen to talks about how to apply
yoga in daily life. It is also possible to stay for a
weekend programme to learn more about yoga

ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

therapy, massage, yoga and meditation. Moreover,

Yogaville provides the opportunity for silent retreat, where people stay in silence for at least a week
during which they are supposed to turn their
thoughts inwards. During this silent retreat, people
learn or perfect their yoga and meditation practise.
This is achieved by listening to talks, developing the
ability to practise seless service and for advanced
practitioners, it is also possible to register as a
living yoga trainee for more than a month. During
that time, people live in the ashram and take part in
all daily activities.
In Yogaville, the purpose is to live yoga or to
experience yoga in a special landscape recalling
India and Indian healing. India is there as an image
and a reproduction of what should be an optimum
environment, where to practise yoga and take
benet from it.

Divine Life Society, La Mercy, South Africa

In a slightly different way, some other landscapes
are linked to different conceptions and representations of therapeutic practices. In these cases,
transplantation can take different forms, viewed
from outside, but the same references to an Indian
locale appear, codied, within the inside, referring
to norms and codes belonging to a global community. An example is La Mercy, in South Africa.
In the Divine Life Societys ashram, near Durban,
whose headquarters are established in Rishikesh
since the 1950s, the external form corresponds to a
modern and pragmatic architecture. The centre,
constructed in 1956, aims for a functional and
pragmatic practise of yoga (Sooklal, undated). The
founder did not want to reproduce Hindu architecture but instead wanted to build a place where a
maximum of people could come for yoga and
spiritual retreats. Nevertheless, the social organisation of the centre seems not so far from the idea of
the Indian ashram. The built form does not count so
much; more important is the substance of the place.
The result is that a certain community frequents a
landscape where the functionality of the place is
understood only by those who know the way the
centre works. Also, to feel emotions and to gain
something from frequenting the place, people have
to know most of the rituals and practices. In La
Mercy, daily, there are Hindu activities such as
yoga, pujas (rituals and prayers), darshan (vision of
the guru), bhajans (holy songs), etc. These activities

121

are supposed to be effective on ones body and

mind, and therefore to be benecial for health.
It is mainly inside these buildings that we can nd
a reproduction of the yogic therapeutic landscape,
combining places of memory, spiritual places,
common places and healing places. This therapeutic
landscape acts on mental and physical conditions
because it is supposed to bring peace and serenity to
the one entering the place.
This therapeutic aspect can be found in the
vocabulary and conceptual references used by the
centre to justify the link with India, especially
around part of the building called Ganga Rani,
which is actually a swimming pool used as a
reminder of the banks of the river Ganges. This
part of the ashram refers most directly to the Indian
therapeutic landscape: On entering Ganga Rani
many remark on the beauty and serenity that
pervades it (Sooklal, undated).
The place and emotions which it expresses are
reinforced also by series of objects and practices
recalling norms and codes from India: an emphasis
on light, colours, separation between women and
men, position of the gurus photograph, offerings of
owers: With green bregrass all around the pool,
and light from the transparent roof sheeting, Ganga
Rani looks quite spectacular. The girls who perform
Ganga Arati dress in saris and observe strict rules of
cleanliness (Sooklal, undated). The symbolic aspects of the place start from emotions and feelings
linked to serenity, enlarge to Hindu practices, and
end with more specic rituals: The pool is sanctied
with the holy Ganges water on all important
occasions y (Sooklal, undated).
We can nd in this therapeutic landscape a mix
between therapeutic, cultural and identitary landscapes linked to India and Hinduism. Cultural and
identitary runs go through a series of transplanted
practices in a place and a territory. These bonds are
functional and symbolic at the same time: they rely
on ceremonies, as well as clothing codes, and on the
importance of water, brought back from India for
special occasions.
This transplantation comes directly from the
globalisation of yoga, and many other corporeal
and spiritual practices rely enormously on the force
of the community by convoking many identitary
references.
In Yogaville as well as in La Mercy, ashrams have
been entirely constructed. They use external signs,
to denote a semantic of the territory. But in some
cases, therapeutic landscapes emerge with the

ARTICLE IN PRESS
122

A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

reappropriation of a pre-existing natural place. This

conguration is very original and I discuss next how
sometimes a therapeutic landscape is constructed
through notions such as access to natural spaces
promoting well-being.
Dhanakosa Meditation retreat centre in Scotland
In every therapeutic landscape, the countryside
and the natural environment play an important role.
Many individuals and groups like to gather in these
environments to take care of themselves, to ll
themselves with emotions produced by the landscape and the place. But all the places cannot be
entirely constructed as in Yogaville or La Mercy.
The alternative is then to reinterpret a preexisting place in order to make it become a
convenient and ideal place for yoga. We can take
the example of Dhanakosa in Scotland. Dhanakosa
means storehouse of treasures. Prior to becoming a
yoga centre the building was used as a hotel.
Its location can be understood as a potential
therapeutic landscape. The website of the centre
clearly announces the link with the landscape: The
waters of Loch Voil, the mountains and the forests
all combine to create an atmosphere of peace and
harmony in which to meditate. Our retreat programmes provide plenty of free time for walks so
that you can explore and be inspired by the
surrounding countryside. We can also read that:
Dhanakosa is a Buddhist, Meditation and Yoga
retreat centre in Scotland, an ideal place for learning
meditation and complementary activities like yoga,
tai chi, hillwalking, and shiatsu. (Dhanakosa
Buddhism, Meditation and Yoga Retreat Centre,
2006).
Besides these activities, linked to health through
the promotion of certain corporal practices, there is
also an emphasis on the facilities, allowing every
citizen to reach this ideal place: Dhanakosa sits by
the shores of Loch Voil in the Balquhidder valley,
and is surrounded by the magnicent mountains
and forests of the southern Scottish Highlands.
Fifteen miles from Callander and only 112 h drive
from Glasgow or Edinburgh, Dhanakosa is easily
accessible by public transport and provides a quiet
and beautiful setting for retreats (Dhanakosa
Buddhism, Meditation and Yoga Retreat Centre,
2006).
The countryside, the natural environment, the
accessibility from the market place (the city) and
from the clients (urban citizens) are highlighted

with a yogic rhetoric. Here, the idea of the place has

been readapted depending on needs and wishes of
urban consumers. We could almost talk about a
kind of a rediscovery of the supernatural, according to Berger (2001).
These ndings can be linked to the literature on
topophilia and natural landscapes. Here, nature,
landscape and scenery, in the modern sense in which
Tuan uses these terms (Tuan, 1974), are the basic
combination which support discourses on yogic
therapeutic landscapes (awe, charm, peace, serenity,
etc.), but not their reality. Discourses on yogic
therapeutic landscapes are emanating from global
ideas, but their realities underline the importance of
the local factors (culture and sociability). This
underlines that the quest for therapeutic landscapes
requires a global production of environmental
perception and topophilia and a local transformation of places to gain benets from the therapeutic
landscape.
Conclusion
Therapeutic landscapes can thus be associated
with yoga, which requires us to examine the
question of their globalisation. All places where
yoga is practised are attached to specic lifestyles,
often recalling Hindu thoughtor at least a hybrid
interpretation of it. The sense of place here is largely
dependent on concepts of well-being. Such a
perception relies on the interpretation of material
and symbolic ideals, which then play on individual
or collective emotions and discourses.
Therapeutic landscapes linked to yoga are balanced between realities and idealities, and between
experiences and discourses about places. A minority
of yogis have really visited Indian therapeutic
landscapes, but a majority have a mental practice
of them or a concrete practice reproducing Indian
therapeutic landscapes.
In every case, the practise of yoga results in a
reappropriation of the place and the landscape.
These places and landscapes provide well-being and
good health at a variety of scales, offering therapeutic potentials which are enlarged by other
activities (invented or reinvented).
Globalised therapeutic landscapes, produced or
reproduced, are multiplying as a result of cultural,
therapeutic and consuming attitudes. In the cases
observed, the globalisation of knowledge coming
from India has been picked up by many different
cultures and societies, which results in new way of

ARTICLE IN PRESS
A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

understanding and practising yoga. Consequently,

over time individuals have transformed or reformulated the sense of place, in order to achieve a sense
of well-being.
This is a case of globalisation of symbols, of
places of consumption. Attitudes that derive from
that process are directly related to places and
landscapes, and they evolve as long as individual
and collective practices of yoga change in time and
space. In parallel, places change according to needs
and demands of a certain part of the society. These
therapy- and identity-related landscapes, which are
reproduced by groups of individuals in socio-spatial
environments that differ from the original setting
they rst developed, are highly revealing of the
meaning assumed by space and time in the
contemporary era.
Acknowledgement
I wish to acknowledge the help of Sarah Deedat
and Sarah Curtis who patiently read and edited the
paper.
References
Alter, J. S. (2000). Gandhis body: Sex, diet, and the politics of
nationalism (216pp). University of Pennsylvania Press.
Alter, J. S. (2004). Yoga in modern India. The body between
science and philosophy (326pp). Princeton paperbacks.
Altglas, V. (2005). Le nouvel hindouisme occidental (249pp). Paris:
Ed. CNRS.
Amselle, J.-L. (2001). Branchements. Anthropologie de luniversalite des cultures (265pp). Champs: Flammarion.
Andrews, G. J., Sudwell, M. I., & Sparkes, A. C. (2005). Towards
a geography of tness: An ethnographic case study of the gym
in British bodybuilding culture. Social Science and Medicine,
60(4), 877891.
Andrews, G. J., Wiles, J., & Miller, K.-L. (2004). The geography
of complementary medicine: Perspectives and prospects.
Complementary Therapies in Nursing and Midwifery, 10,
175185.
Appadurai, A. (1996). Modernity at large: Cultural dimensions of
globalisation (229pp). Minneapolis, MN: University of
Minnesota Press.
Baer, L. D., & Gesler, W. M. (2004). Reconsidering the concept
of therapeutic landscapes in J. D. Salinger the catcher in the
rye. Area, 36.
Berger, P. L., (Ed.). (2001). Le reenchantement du monde (184pp).
Paris: Bayard.
Bevir, M. (2000). Theosophy as a political movement. In: A.R.H.
Copley (Ed.), Gurus and their followers: New religious reform
movements (235pp, pp. 159179). New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bhardwaj, S. M. (1999). Hindu places of pilgrimage in India, a
study in cultural geography (258pp). Munshiram Manoharlal.

123

Castells, M. (2000). The information age: Economy, society and

culture. Vol 1. The rise of the network society (594pp). Oxford:
Blackwell.
De Michelis, E. (2004). A history of Modern yoga, Patanjali and
western esoterism (256pp). Continuum International Publishing Group.
Dhanakosa Buddhism, Meditation and Yoga Retreat Centre.
(2006). Retrieved July 20, 2006, from /http://www.dhanakosa.com/index.htmS.
Dorn, M., & Laws, G. (1994). Social theory, body politics, and
medical geography: Extending Kearns invitation. Professional Geographer, 46(1), 106110.
Filliozat, J. (1987). Les philosophies de lInde (126pp). Paris;
Presses Universitaires de France.
Flood, G. (1996). An introduction to Hinduism (341pp). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Foucault, M. (1979). On governmentality. Ideology and consciousness, 6, 522.
Friedman, J. (1994). Cultural identity and global process (270pp).
London: Sage.
Gesler, W. M. (1992). Therapeutic landscapes: Medical issues in
light of the new cultural geography. Social Science &
Medicine, 34(7), 735746.
Gesler, W. M. (1993). Therapeutic landscapes: Theory and a case
study of Epidauros, Greece. Environment and Planning D:
Society and Space, (11), 95105.
Gesler, W. M. (1996). Lourdes: Healing in a place of pilgrimage.
Health and Place, 2(2), 95105.
Gesler, W. M. (2003). Healing Places (144pp). New York:
Rowman & Littleeld.
Gesler, W. M. (2005). Therapeutic landscapes: An evolving
theme. Health and Place, 11(4), 295297.
Giddens, A. (1991). The consequences of modernity (200pp).
Stanford University Press.
Hacker, P. (1995). Aspects of neo-Hinduism as contrasted with
surviving traditional Hinduism. In W. Halbfass (Ed.),
Philology and confrontation, Paul Hacker on traditional and
modern Vedanta (pp. 229256). New York: State University of
New York Press.
Hannerz, U. (1989). Notes on the global ecumene. Public Culture,
(2).
Hannerz, U. (1992). The global ecumene as a network of
networks. In A. Kuper (Ed.), Conceptualizing society (pp.
3456). New York, London: Routledge.
Hannerz, U. (1996). Transnational connections: Culture, people,
places (201pp). London: Routledge.
Hoyez, A.-C. (2005). Lespace-monde du yoga. Une geographie
sociale et culturelle de la mondialisation des paysages
therapeutiques (492pp). Ph.D. thesis, University of Rouen
Retrieved January 13, 2006 from Centre National de la
Recherche Scientique /http://tel.ccsd.cnrs.frS.
Hoyez, A.-C. (2006). Globalisation and health in complementary
healthcare. Yoga between therapy and culture. In A. Vaguet
(Ed.), Health in India. New Delhi: Manoharlal Banarsidas.
Johnston, R. (Ed.). (2000). Dictionary of human geography (4th
ed., 724pp). Oxford: Blackwell.
Kearns, R. A., & Barnett, R. J. (1997). Consumerist ideology and
the symbolic landscapes of private medicine. Health and
Place, (3), 171180.
Kearns, R. A., & Collins, D. C. A. (2000). New Zealand
childrens health camps: Therapeutic landscapes and the
contract state. Social Science & Medicine, (51), 10471059.

ARTICLE IN PRESS
124

A.-C. Hoyez / Social Science & Medicine 65 (2007) 112124

Kearns, R. A., & Gesler, W. M. (1998). Putting health into place.

Landscape, identity and well-Being (336pp). Syracuse, New
York: Syracuse University Press.
Kearns, R. A., & Gesler, W. M. (2003). Culture/place/health
(224pp). London: Routledge.
Milligan, C., Gatrell, A., & Bingley, A. (2004). Cultivating
health: Therapeutic landscapes and older people in
northern England. Social Science and Medicine, 58(9),
17811793.
Parr, H. (1999). Desilutional geographies: The experiential
worlds of people during madness/illness. Environment and
Planning D: Society and Space, (17), 673690.
Robertson, R. (1992). Globalization: Social theory and global
culture (224pp). London: Sage.
Saltzman, P. (2000). The Beatles in Rishikesh (143pp). Viking
Studio.
Satchidananda Ashram Yogaville. (2006). Integral yoga teacher
training certification, body mind workshops, retreats. Retrieved
July 20, 2006, from /http://www.yogaville.orgS.
Sooklal, A. Ashrams in South Africa. Retrieved July 20, 2006,
from /http://www.sivananda.dls.org.za/Ashrams%20in%20South%20Africa.htmS.
Strauss, S. (1997). Re-orienting yoga: Transnational flows from an
Indian center (343pp). Ph.D. thesis, University of Pennsylvania.
Strauss, S. (2002a). Adapt, adjust, accommodate: The production of yoga in a transnational world. History and Anthropology, 13(3), 231251.
Strauss, S. (2002b). The masters narrative: Swami Sivananda and
the transnational production of yoga. Journal of Folklore
Reasearch, 39(2/3), 217241.
Stutley, M. (Ed.). (2003). A dictionary of Hinduism: Its
mythology, folklore and development 1500 BC 1500 AD
(372pp). New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.
Swami Sivananda. (1947). All about Hinduism (270pp). Rishikesh:
The Sivananda Publication League.
The gateway to the Gods: Haridwar, Rishikesh, Kankhal. 2002.
Brochure. Haridwar: Karamsingh Amar Singh Bookseller.

Tonnelier, F., & Curtis, S. (2005). Medicine, landscapes, symbols:

The country doctor by Honore de Balzac. Health and Place,
11(4), 313322.
Tuan, Y.-F. (1974). Topophilia. A study of environmental
perception, attitudes and values (260pp). NewYork: Columbia
University Press.
Tyson, M. M. (1998). The healing landscape: Therapeutic outdoor
environments (236pp). New York: Mc Graw-Hill.
Uttaranchal Tourism and Parmath Niketan Ashram. (2002).
International Yoga festival 26 February 3 March 2002.
Brochure, Rishikesh.
Vaguet, A. (2002). Les syste`mes de sante face aux tours et detours
de la mondialisation. In F. Landy, & B. Chauduri (Eds.), De
la mondialisation au developpement local en Inde. Questions
dechelles. Paris: Coll. Monde Indien, Ed. CNRS.
Warnier, J.-P. (1999). La mondialisation de la culture (121pp).
Paris: Ed. La Decouverte.
Waters, M., (2001). Globalisation (247pp). London: Routledge.
Wessinger, C. (1995). Hinduism arrives in America: The Vedanta
movement and the self-realization fellowship. In T. Miller
(Ed.), Americas alternative religions (474pp, pp. 173190).
Albany: State University of New York Press.
Williams, A. (1998). Therapeutic landscapes in holistic medicine.
Social Science and Medicine, 46(9), 11931203.
Williams, A. (Ed.) (1999). Therapeutic landscapes: The dynamic
between place and wellness (243pp). New York: University
Press of America.
Williams, G. M. (2001). The Ramakrishna movement: a study in
religious change. In R. D. Baird (Ed.), Religion in modern
India (4th revised ed., 626pp, pp. 5585). New Delhi:
Manohar.
Wilson, K. (2003). Therapeutic landscapes and rst nations
peoples: An exploration of culture health and place. Health
and Place, 9(2), 8393.
Zimmermann, F. (2002). Ce quun hindou dit a` son corps. La
reecriture des representations traditionnelles. In V. Bouiller, &
G. Tarabout (Eds.), Images du corps dans le monde hindou
(511pp, pp. 4969). Paris: CNRS Editions.