CIRCUMAMBULATION is a ritual term meaning literally "to walk a circle around" a holy place, person, or object. Such rituals are related to the widespread significance of the sacred circle, which is the architectural ground plan and ideational scheme of such monuments as the stupa, such cities as Banaras and Jerusalem, and such ritual constructions as the medicine lodges and Sun Dance lodges of the North American Plains Indians. Thus, this topic is related to that of the sacred circle or the maṇḍala and is its ritual extension. One walks around what is set apart, circumscribed as charged or sacred; one might even say that circumambulation sets something apart by circumscribing it with one's own body. It is also to be noted that circumambulation, as a rite of both centering and bonding, is related in some ways to the many types of circle dancing such as the...