Alphabe Thursday … E is for Gretel Ehrlich and Egeria

This week I find two more walkers for my Alphabet:

Gretel Ehrlich (1946), American writer and Buddhist walked up Tai Shan, a notable mountain pilgrimage site in China. It was first ascended by the First Emperor in the 3rd century BC in his chariot.

The walk to the summit now is 7000 step staircase leading from the the City of Peace at the foot of the mountain through three heavenly gates to the Temple of the Jade Emperor at the top.

Ehrlich tells us that the the phrase ‘going on a pilgrim’ when translated into Chinese means ‘paying ones respect to the mountain’ as if the mountain was an empress before whom we kneel and honour.

In the 4th Century AD a Christian pilgrim called Egeria climbed Mount Sinai.  Although she is largely unknown, her diary remains; she was as it suggests an abbess of some stature.  She was guided through the Egyptian desert a notable area of Christian pilgrimage by resident holy men.  Together they passed through the valley where the children of Israel waited as Moses climbed the mountain of God.  For Egeria, Sinai was the mountain on which God descended and where Moses ascended to receive the Tablets of Law. Climbing or walking was the profession of those faithful in the Scriptures