Central Idea
Sacred landscapes are not fixed spiritual entities but dynamic systems shaped by religious authority, global tourism, commercial enterprise, environmental regulation, and risk economies, producing uneven control over meaning, access, and consequence.
Venue
Rishikesh – Uttarakhand
Ganga River Corridor
Adventure Tourism Zones
Spiritual Ashrams and Ritual Sites
“Sacred or Spectacle? Power, Risk, and Spiritual Economy in Rishikesh” is a Diploma Programme experiential learning journey that positions Rishikesh as a contested landscape where spirituality, environmental systems, global tourism, and commercial enterprise intersect. Rather than approaching the site as a retreat or adventure destination, the programme examines how sacred geographies are interpreted, regulated, monetised, and performed within contemporary systems of power.
Students engage with the Ganga not only as a river but as a layered symbol: ecological resource, ritual space, adventure corridor, and economic engine. Through direct experience of yoga institutions, river rafting infrastructure, devotional ceremonies, and commercial hubs, students interrogate how meaning is constructed and who controls that construction.
The programme foregrounds tensions between devotion and display, risk and reverence, authenticity, and branding. Students analyse how adventure tourism repositions natural forces as consumable experience, how ritual becomes public spectacle, and how global spiritual markets reshape local authority structures.
Experiences are intentionally structured to surface ambiguity. Students confront moments where faith, commerce, and environmental responsibility appear inseparable yet ideologically opposed. Rather than guiding students toward resolution, the journey requires them to examine how sacredness is negotiated within systems shaped by economic incentive, institutional authority, and global demand.
Aligned with IB Diploma Programme philosophy, the programme integrates conceptual inquiry with lived experience, ensuring that learning remains analytically rigorous, ethically complex, and resistant to simplified conclusions. Students are expected to question representation, tolerate contradiction, and recognise the uneven consequences embedded within spiritual and ecological economies.
Individuals and Societies
Students examine pilgrimage economies, religious authority, tourism infrastructure, and global spiritual markets as systems shaped by power, governance, and economic incentive.
Environmental Systems and Societies
Engagement with the Ganga river system and regulated adventure zones enables analysis of ecological management, risk, and human intervention within sacred natural spaces.
The Arts
Observation of ritual performance, music, and public ceremony invites examination of symbolism, representation, and the aesthetics of devotion.
Language and Literature
Students analyse how narratives of purity, enlightenment, wellness, and adventure are constructed and communicated across cultural audiences.
Theory of Knowledge (TOK)
The programme generates real-life tensions around belief, authority, representation, and knowledge claims. Students confront questions about who defines authenticity, how spiritual truth is interpreted across cultures, and where certainty dissolves when faith intersects with commerce.
This programme moves students beyond participation in spiritual and adventure experiences toward critical analysis of how sacred landscapes function within global systems of authority, economy, and environmental management. Students are expected to interrogate meaning, examine consequence, and recognise responsibilities that may remain intellectually clear yet practically unresolved.
Learning Approach
Inquiry-driven • Concept-based • Experiential • Analytical • Reflective • Interdisciplinary • Systems-focused
IB Learner Profile Focus
Inquirer • Thinker • Open-Minded • Knowledgeable • Reflective • Balanced
Includes
Pre-Tour • On-Tour • Post-Tour Learning Engagements
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