Tradition

This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.

Buddhism Routes gathers three pilgrimage circuits, one following the events of the Buddha's own life and two Japanese circuits built on different organizing principles.

The Buddhist Circuit connects the four principal sites of the Buddha's life across northern India and southern Nepal: Lumbini, his birthplace; Bodh Gaya, where he attained enlightenment beneath the Bodhi Tree; Sarnath, where he preached his first sermon; and Kushinagar, where he passed into final nirvana. Revived as organized pilgrimage and tourism infrastructure across the twentieth and twenty first centuries, its Indian portion alone drew a reported 1.2 million pilgrims in 2024.

The Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage visits thirty three temples across the Kansai region, each dedicated to Kannon, numbered from Seiganto ji beside the Nachi waterfall to Kegon ji in Gifu. The number is doctrinal rather than arbitrary: the Lotus Sutra's chapter on Avalokitesvara lists thirty three forms the bodhisattva assumes to reach different beings, and the circuit visits one temple for each. Generally described as the oldest established pilgrimage circuit in Japan, it is the template the numbered circuit form spread from.

The Shikoku Eighty Eight Temple Pilgrimage circles the island of Shikoku across about six weeks on foot, associated throughout with Kukai, who was born there; the pilgrim is said to travel dogyo ninin, two travelling as one, never alone because Kukai is held to walk beside them. What the walker wears carries the same claim: the white pilgrim's robe is also a burial garment, worn as though dressed to die on the road if the journey demands it.