The Village Hotel

In this paper, I explore the sacred Indian town of Swamimalai, Tamilnadu, as a nexus of religiosity, heritage and commerce by juxtaposing the narratives and aesthetics of these intersecting industries. To unravel these elements, I first examine how Swamimalai is constructed as a sacred place of belonging by two communities who consider it home—temple priests and traditional bronze sculptors. Then I use the case of INDeco Swamimalai, a luxury hotel by the village, to explore how narratives of sacred heritage are appropriated towards aestheticizing a landscape in order to deliver ‘authentic’ spiritual experiences to visitors. The notion of an ‘ideal village’ is instrumental in this production, wherein rural ecology, religiosity and heritage are commingled to furnish a Hindu-coded spiritual milieu. In essence, heritage actors recreate the village as an atemporal idyllic ecological escape from the profane, albeit carefully curated and controlled. As the parameters of this article do not allow for investigating how successful these efforts are, I focus primarily on the service providers.