Buddhist Pilgrimage and Buddhist Sacred Space
Eight Great Events of the Budha's Life panel, 7th-8th centuries, Sarnath, India, Archeological Survey of India, Archeological Museum of Sarnath, Accession Nr. 261.
Pilgrimage plays an important part in the religious practice of Buddhism, as in other religions. The act of pilgrimage in Buddhism is connected with Buddhist sacred sites or space.
"A sacred space is a defined place, a space distinguished from other spaces. The ritual that a people either practice at a place or direct towards it mark its sacredness and differentiate it from other defined spaces" (Brereton, Sacred Space, Encyclopedia of Religion, 2005).
These places are associated with a religious personality, such as the founding figure of a religion or an important teacher of a religious lineage. By connecting important biographical events with the place. This could be done by a holy narrative which can not only be shown by textual sources, but also in images and depictions of them. The later is for special importants in Buddhism and played an important part in the transmission of the Buddhist teaching and narratives.
An example for this is the depictions of the so-called eight great events of the Buddha's life, which were found in all kind of different forms and materials through archaeological excavations from India to China.
The following exhibition shows different kinds of depiction of these events from various places (Burma, Dunhuang; Yulin, Tibet and India itself), to introduce some of the functions these images had in regard of Buddhist pilgrimage and Buddhist sacred sites.
Additional these places were also legitimated through relics. Especially through the relics of the Buddha, which can be grouped into bodily and contact relics. The former are the relics such as his bodily remains, for example the tooth of the Buddha. The latter the relics he encountered, such as his robe or his begging bowl.
These sacred sites are the main objects of Buddhist pilgrimage, which function is to gain religious merit (Skt. punya) and wordly merit, like good health or fortune. It is the movement to a sacred site motivated by religious devotion. These journeys to a sacred site can not only be done through a physical journey, but also in the way of a virtual pilgrimage. Which plays an important role in the places far away of India as the Buddhist homeland, such as Dunhuang for example.
The act of Buddhist Pilgrimage already started during the lifetime of the Buddha. In which Buddhist monks took a pilgrimage to four places (Vaishali, Sankissa, Rajgir, and Shravasti) at which the Buddha performed miracles to see him and meet him in person. After the death of the Buddha, these sites were replaced by the four other places of the birth, enlightenment, first sermon and Parinirvāṇa of the Buddha. These four were visited, as they are today to seek the presents of the Buddha and of his teachings.