David Sharratt '01 has received a $5,000 Phillip J. Otis Fellowship to promote greater understanding of environmental issues and the connection between the environment and spirituality.

Sharratt, a junior philosophy major, has developed a research project on the role of nature and mountains in pre-Spanish Andean cosmology. This summer Sharratt is traveling to the Cuzco region of the Peruvian Andes to observe and document mountain rituals and worship as well as interview Andean people about their religious beliefs.

From Cuzco Sharratt plans to travel north to the Hauraz region in the Cordillera Blanca, where he will research the effects of Western tourism on indigenous mountain communities.

"As the Cordillera Blanca has gained popularity, contemporary mountaineers have brought the modern world to the peoples of the highland. Some climbers come to conquer, some to explore, some to escape and, perhaps, some to worship," Sharratt said. "I want to find out if a potentially positive cultural synergy has developed, or if the tourism of climbers debased the culture."

The final phase of Sharratt's Otis Fellowship involves climbing an unexplored rock route on the Tower of Paron. Sharratt plans to document the climb to a summit of more than 20,400 feet in photographs and a journal.

Established in 1996 by Margaret V.B. and C. Angus Wurtele, the Philip J. Otis Endowment commemorates their son, Philip, a member of the Bates class of 1995, who died attempting to rescue an injured climber on Mount Rainier in August 1995.