Niels Gutschow completed his architectural studies with a PhD dissertation on Japanese castle towns before turning to South Asia as a conservation architect with projects in Nepal (since 1971), and as an architectural anthropologist working in Bhaktapur (Nepal), Puri (in Orissa) and Benares. Gutschow first came to Benares in

1962 as a visitor. He returned in search of sacred places in 1975, but only started to resolve the entire sacred landscape in 1990. Fifteen years were needed to complete a comprehensive survey of the temples and pilgrimage routes. Gutschow teaches South-Asian urban rituals at the South Asia Institute of Heidelberg University, but

continues to spend a major part of the year in Bhaktapur, Nepal. Among others, he published Tempel und religiöses Leben in der heiligen Stadt der Hindus (DuMont 1993; with Axel Michaels) and The Nepalese Caitya. 1500 Years of Buddhist Votive Architecture in the Kathmandu Valley (Edition Axel Menges, 1997). His recent publication Handling Death (with Axel Michaels) covers death rituals of the Newars in Bhaktapur.

The book gives for the first time a comprehensive view of the complex world of India’s sacred place par excellence. It discusses the immaterial essence of »place« – which in Benares materializes in the shape of lingas, deities, ponds, wells or rivers. Thousands of these places represent tirthas, crossings between this world and the other. Since the locative aspect of religion is in constant search of places at which to profit from divine energy, Benares (also known as Banaras, Varanasi, Kashi, Avimukta or Anandakanana) represents the entire universe: the Cardham, the four corners of the subcontinent, the seven sacred cities of India, the twelve lingas of light, all these and many more are found there. The imagined landscape is documented by 18th- and 19th-century pictorial presentations, which convey a more powerful message than topographical maps based on »true« distances. Following the footsteps of pilgrims, the book leads through a sacred landscape that seems almost overloaded with imprints of meaning. Countless lingas – stones that embody elements of cosmogony and anthropogenesis, as the French philosopher Jean Malaurie states – echo cosmic power. Beyond a scholarly presentation of pilgrimages and documentation of their routes the book opens up a new view: visually compelling photographs focus on sacred objects like lingas as the objects of worship. The presentation of ritual acts transcends the narrow confines of scholarly discourses and is revealed as art.