Virtual Pilgrimage and their Depicition

"The First Stūpa" (The First Great Event)

Cave painting of the firts great event of the Buddha's life, Dunhuang Cave 76, China, late 11th c., Toyka-Fuong, Ursula . "The Influence of Pala Art on 11th-century Wall-paintings of Grotto 76 in Dunhuang," in The Inner Asia International Style 12th-14th Centuries. Papers presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, edited by Deborah E. Klimburg and Eva Allinger, 67-95. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998, 90

"The Third Stupa", (The third great Event)

Cave painting of the third great event of the Buddha's life, Dunhuang Cave 76, China, late 11th c., Toyka-Fuong, Ursula, "The Influence of Pala Art on 11th-century Wall-paintings of Grotto 76 in Dunhuang", in The Inner Asia International Style 12th-14th Centuries. Papers presented at a Panel of the 7th Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Studies, Graz 1995, edited by Deborah E. Klimburg and Eva Allinger, 67-95. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1998, 91.

Cave Painting of Mt. Wutai, Dunhuang, Mogao Cave 61, China, Fan, Jinshi: The Caves of
Dunhuang, London: The Dunhuang Academy, 2010, p. 205

Pilgrimage can not only be a physical journey to a sacred site, but also a mentally one. Through the making or seeing of the depiction of a sacred space the viewer is able to emphasize an actual pilgrimage to the place. And can also gain merit from the act.

These depictions from Dunhuang Cave 76 are an example of the function of images as virtual pilgrimage maps. They not only display the events themself, and their commemorative stūpas, which point directly to the Indian sacred site, but also through the inscriptions which not only describe the narrative, but also refer to specific landmarks and places in the life of the Buddha.

For example the Sanskrit title of the painting which displays the third event in the life of the Buddha can be read as: “Lumbini caitya (ratna?)", which can be translated as “The (jewel of?) Lumbini stūpa” (Toyka-Fuong, 1995, 74).

This example is not the only one which worked as a virtual pilgrimage map. In Dunhunag Cave 61 is a cave painting of Mount Wutai, located in Shanxi province in China, which shows different narratives and events which relate to the mountain and depicts pilgrims and monks making their way to the mountain. In this way it acted as another way of pilgrimage.