Yorimichi and his descendants, rather than the quasi-
public focus of the temple. Esoteric Tendai ceremonies
were carried out in front of the Main Hall icon,
Dainichi Nyorai, while the Phoenix Hall appears to
have been Yorimichi’s private devotional chapel where
he himself could meditate upon Sukhavat. After his
death, his daughter Kanshi lived at Byodoin and car-
ried out ceremonies on behalf of her father and other
relatives, both at the temple’s sutra repository and at
the Phoenix Hall.
See also:Japan, Buddhist Art in
Bibliography
Akiyama Terukazu. “The Door Paintings in the Phoenix Hall
of Byodoin as Yamatoe.” Artibus Asiae53, nos. 1– 2 (1993):
144–167.
Yiengpruksawan, Mimi Hall. “The Phoenix Hall at Uji and the
Symmetries of Replication.” Art Bulletin77, no. 4 (1995):
648–672.
KARENL. BROCKPILGRIMAGE
The practice of journeying to locations of special sig-
nificance is a common feature of many religious tra-
ditions and it has played a formative role in the history
of Buddhism. Given this rich pilgrimage tradition,
there are several ways to approach the subject of pil-
grimage in Buddhism. These range from analytical per-
spectives that highlight the distinctive histories and
social dynamics of individual pilgrimage sites in the di-
versity of cultures shaped by Buddhism, to perspec-
tives reflecting a broader comparative framework.
These latter approaches emphasize features common
to a number of Buddhist pilgrimages, and to religious
pilgrimage in general. This entry examines Buddhist
pilgrimage from several angles and is organized in
three sections: historical overview, pilgrimage prac-
tices, and contemporary perspectives.
Historical overview
We cannot say with assurance when pilgrimage first be-
came a part of Buddhist tradition. However, the fact
that the canonical collections of several early Buddhist
schools include a sutra in which Gautama Buddha him-
self exhorts his followers to visit sites associated with
his life indicates the centrality that pilgrimage came to
have in the early centuries of the Buddhist movement.
This passage occurs in the MAHAPARINIRVANA-SUTRA,
which narrates the Buddha’s last days before his final
passing away. In the Pali version, four places identified
with pivotal events in his life (birth, enlightenment,
first teaching, and final passing away) are described as
worthy of being seen and productive of strong religious
feeling, and the passage concludes by promising that
anyone who dies while undertaking such a journey with
serene joy will be reborn in a blissful heavenly realm.The earliest archeological evidence of Buddhist pil-
grimage comes from inscriptions commissioned by the
Indian emperor AS ́OKAin the third century B.C.E.
There are also later textual traditions that give As ́oka
a formative role in the creation of a Buddhist sacred
geography through the enshrinement of Gautama
Buddha’s relics in eighty-four thousand relic monu-
ments throughout his empire. According to the Rum-
mindepillar edict in Nepal, As ́oka visited the site of
the Buddha’s birth and erected a commemorative pil-
lar there. Another inscription may refer to As ́oka’s pil-
grimage to the site of the Buddha’s enlightenment at
BODHGAYA, and a third, located at NigalSagar in
Nepal, tells of As ́oka’s visit to and enlargement of the
relic monument of the former Buddha Konagamana,
suggesting that a devotional cult centered on the lives
of previous BUDDHAShad also emerged at this time.The history of Buddhist pilgrimage becomes clearer
during the S ́un ̇ga period (second to first centuries
B.C.E.) with the relic monuments at Bharhut and SAN
CI,
where we also find extensive donative inscriptions.
These remains suggest the existence of well-developed
regional pilgrimage centers supported by a wide range
of donors, including lay and monastic men and women.
Significantly, neither Bharhut nor Sañcis identified
with the presence of Gautama Buddha during his life-
time. Instead, the sites have been rendered religiously
powerful through the enshrinement of relics, and
through vivid artistic representations of scenes from the
Buddha’s biography, including his past lives.The sites attested in the As ́okan inscriptions and in
the S ́un ̇ga-era monuments point to the two primary
means through which particular locations became the
focus of special religious devotion: claims that the
Buddha himself visited them during his lifetime and
later enshrinements of physical objects that represent
him, either through alleged historical continuity (bod-
ily remains or objects he used) or visual evocation
(sculptures and paintings). These were not mutually
exclusive options, as many sites were associated with
events in the Buddha’s life and with later relic andPILGRIMAGE