Encyclopedia of Buddhism Volume One A -L Robert E. Buswell

P ILGRIMAGE
the Buddhist heartland for access to texts, to places of
religious power associated with buddhas and other
powerful religious figures, and to centers of Buddhist
learning (thus a centripetal force). An analogous, centrifugal
movement drew Buddhist relics and images
(and in some cases, Gautama Buddha himself, as recounted
in later texts) outward to create new centers
of pilgrimage in what had been the territorial margins
of Buddhist tradition. In many cases these new devotional
centers were established in places long regarded
as religiously powerful because of the presence of local
or regional deities, places often marked by striking
natural features such as mountains, lakes, and caves.
Typically, these “pre-Buddhist” beings were not simply
replaced, but instead subdued and converted into
guardians of Buddhist sacralia. Such centers of pilgrimage
undoubtedly brought together devotees with
diverse religious identities and forms of practice, thus
facilitating the integration of Buddhist ideas and practices
into broader religious milieux.
The fluidity of interaction that pilgrimage so effectively
orchestrates has contributed greatly to the expansion
and adaptation of Buddhist traditions outside
the land of its origins. Buddhist pilgrimages are generally
voluntary undertakings motivated by a range of
individual concerns, including the acquisition of merit,
the need for purification and expiation, and hopes for
healing, increased prosperity, fertility, and so on. They
also commonly bring together people from diverse social
and religious groups. As a result, they have frequently
encouraged the interplay of different symbolic
systems and behaviors, thus facilitating the adaptation
of Buddhist traditions to new historical circumstances.
In the case of Chinese pilgrimage sites, for example, it
is difficult to determine what defines a “Buddhist” pilgrimage,
since popular beliefs and practices were
drawn from Daoism and Confucianism, as well as Buddhism,
and these seemingly exclusive religious designations
are meaningful only when referring to
professional elites. Thus these sites have commonly enabled
a multivocality of meanings and a diversity of
practices to flourish side by side with varying degrees
of integration.
Pilgrimage practices
Certainly the most salient feature of pilgrimage is
movement. A minimal definition of pilgrimage is a
journey to a place of special religious significance, and
movement here means the movement of individual
bodies away from the places where they typically reside
and toward a center of intensified religious power.
A pilgrimage is usually an exceptional undertaking, often
involving significant disruption of the pilgrim’s ordinary
life and frequently entailing some element of
physical discomfort or ordeal. Among the more striking
examples are the protracted journeys of the early
Chinese pilgrims to India; Faxian was away for fifteen
years, Xuanzang for sixteen. The degree of difficulty
and danger faced by the pilgrim obviously varies
widely; in addition, specific Buddhist pilgrimage sites
have been more or less accessible at different historical
periods. The availability of cars, buses, and planes
has clearly transformed the pilgrimage experience for
many modern participants.
As was the case for the early Chinese pilgrims, the
goal of the journey was often not a single site of religious
significance, but rather the completion of a pilgrimage
route punctuated with a succession of sites,
each with its distinctive associations. Japanese Buddhist
pilgrimages, such as those to Shikoku and Saikoku,
typically involve the clockwise completion of an
extensive pilgrimage circuit; these reflect the common
Buddhist practice of circumambulation (Sanskrit,
pradaksina) in which one ritually honors a person or
object of religious authority by circling them clockwise,
thus keeping the right side of the body facing them.
Circumambulation of sacred mountains is a prominent
feature of Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage, with
some pilgrims going so far as to complete an entire circuit,
sometimes hundred of miles long, with a succession
of full-body prostrations.
Other forms of ritualized devotion include various
forms of offering, such as flowers, incense, light in the
form of candles or lamps, gold leaf, and so on, as well
as the recitation of appropriate chants or MANTRAs. Offering
rituals are often not limited to the Buddhist figures
represented at Buddhist shrines; as noted above,
other supernatural beings and forces are commonly
believed to reside in pilgrimage sites and these are also
venerated, sometimes in fulfillment of a special vow
to honor the deity in return for a specified benefit.
Finally, a broad range of Buddhist figures are deemed
worthy of veneration by pilgrims, including buddhas,
BODHISATTVAS, and ARHATs. In some Chinese Chan
Buddhist communities, the miraculously mummified
bodies of deceased teachers became the object of
pilgrimage.
One of the fundamental organizing principles of pilgrimage
is the contrast between the heightened power
and purity of the pilgrimage site and the space around
it, and this is reflected in special modes of bodily
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