Over the past month, we’ve published three new sacred site reports, which we invite you read:

Kii Mountain Range, Japan—For over 1,000 years, the people of Japan have walked pilgrimage routes that wind through the densely forested slopes of the Kii Mountain Range. Today, the mountains are a site of active devotion, but also of increasing tourism, which has fueled concerns about negative human impact on the site. Fortunately, the Japanese have a long history of preserving the ecological and cultural landscape of these sacred mountains, and that dedication persists as they respond to meet the challenges of increased visitors.

Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, Colombia—For the indigenous peoples living on the steep slopes of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, sustaining the balance of the spiritual and ecological world is their sacred task. They call themselves the Elder Brothers, the guardians of the Earth, remaining vigilant while their Younger Brothers, modern civilization, have harmed the mountain’s ecosystem—and, by extension, the rest of the planet—though logging, mineral extraction and, most recently, two dam projects and massive ocean port development that will export mined natural resources while blocking access to a sacred site.

Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan—In March 2001, the world watched helplessly as Taliban forces in Afghanistan methodically dynamited two of the largest standing Buddha figures in the world. Located in the imposing Bamiyan Valley, the figures, standing 125 and 180 feet, had been carved out of sheer sandstone cliffs some 1,500 years earlier under the direction of Buddhist monks. Today, amid efforts to preserve the now-unstable cliffs and indecision over how to best honor or rebuild them, the statues are only a collection of car-sized boulders and dust, a reminder of the worst excesses of the fundamentalist regime that brought them down.