Introduction to Pilgrimage
Introduction to Pilgrimage
Pilgrimage to holy places has long had an important role in Tibetan religious life. Pilgrimage, usually rendered as nékorwa (gnas skor ba) or néjelwa (gnas mjal ba), literally means circling (bskor) or encountering (mjal) powerful sacred places (gnas, pronounced né), and can encompass a wide range of destinations and practices, including holy mountains, lakes, caves, temples, or places associated with the lives of holy masters. Often, these sacred places are thought to contain numinous power that can grant purification, protection, spiritual blessings, enhanced life force, or good karma to those who encounter them.
The Buddhist tradition traces pilgrimage practices to the Buddha's final instructions. The Mahaparinibbana Sutta describes how the Buddha's close disciple Ananda came to mourn and, seeing his beloved teacher near death, wondered aloud what the Buddha's followers would do without him. The Buddha told Ananda that his followers should visit the four major sites associated with his birth, awakening, first teaching, and death (or parinirvāṇa), promising rebirth in heaven to those who approach with a devout heart. Over subsequent centuries, Buddhist communities developed extensive networks of sacred sites, including additional places associated with the Buddha's life and stupas containing the Buddha's relics. As Buddhism spread from India to Tibet, it also encountered and integrated indigenous Tibetan conceptions of sacred landscape. According to these conceptions, the landscape teemed with various non-human beings, some of whom were fierce protectors of mountains, lakes, and other natural features. Buddhist legends tell of powerful tantric masters who defeated fierce Tibetan protector spirits, subduing them and converting them into protectors of Buddhism.
This rich cultural synthesis created a tradition that encompasses a wide range of pilgrimage destinations. Some are part of the natural environment: lofty mountains, often considered the dwelling places of deities or tantric buddhas, serene lakes understood to be the female consort to nearby male mountains, and caves where great masters like Padmasambhava practiced.
Mount Kailash (gangs dkar ti se, pronounced Gangkar Tisé) is the most famous example of this kind of pilgrimage destination. Kailash is revered by Tibetans for multiple reasons—it is identified with Mount Meru, or other mountains mentioned in various Buddhist scriptures, it is believed to be the abode of Cakrasamvara, and it is remembered as the site of legendary battles between Milarepa and his Bon opponents. Such layering of significance is common for holy places, which seem to absorb the numinous power of each successive generation of pilgrims. According to tradition, although Kailash appears to ordinary perception as a normal mountain, advanced practitioners who have purified their perception see it for the mandala it truly is. Pilgrims travel from the entire Tibetan cultural sphere to perform the 52-kilometer circumambulation around the mountain’s base—some even taking vows to complete the circuit via full-body-prostration. Kailash also recurs as an allusion throughout Tibetan pilgrimage, with even relatively minor mountains being praised as a "second Kailash." In this way, Tibetan sacred geography exists on multiple scales—first, there are the nationally significant pilgrimage mountains; then, there are regionally important pilgrimage mountains; and finally, there are pilgrimage mountains venerated only by the inhabitants of a single valley or village.
Pilgrims also travel to features of the built environment, such as temples, stupas, or monasteries. Such places are considered sacred by virtue of the holy images, relics, or texts they contain, or because of the holy people who dwell there. For example, the Jokhang in Lhasa is an important pilgrimage destination for many who wish to see the sacred Jowo image, which according to legend was commissioned by the Buddha himself.
Finally, some Tibetan pilgrims traveled all the way to India or Nepal to visit places where the Buddha is said to have performed important deeds. These sites, most famously Bodhgaya, but also places like Sarnath, Vulture Peak, or Rajagrha, were generally not visited by Tibetans after the 14th century or so, when Buddhism declined in India, but travel there renewed in the 19th century. Today, because of restrictions around pilgrimage sites in the Tibet Autonomous Region, there has been a revival of interest in sites in India and Nepal, including the Boudha Stupa.
Historically, pilgrimage was a social activity involving people from all walks of life, from laypeople to religious elites, and often undertaken by groups of people from specific towns or families. Pilgrims engage in a variety of spiritual practices at these sites, including prostrations, clockwise circumambulations of the site, offering prayers and material gifts like money, silk scarves, or butter, viewing and paying respects to significant religious objects, and performing specific meditative visualizations.
Tibetan Buddhists also developed rich textual traditions around pilgrimage, creating various forms of pilgrimage writing. Pilgrimage guides (gnas yig, pronounced néyik) are detailed guides that describe sacred sites in intricate detail and instruct pilgrims what to do and see at a given location. We also find praises of sacred places (gnas chen la bstod pa, gnas bstod), prayers to the sacred place (gsol 'debs), and travel diaries (nyin deb). These textual sources may not depict pilgrimage as it happened—anthropologists have pointed out the important differences between textual ideals and actual realities—but they convey what authors thought most important and inspiring about a place.
Some texts also provide more general advice on how pilgrims should conduct themselves. Kathok Situ Chökyi Gyatso, for instance, describes three types of pilgrim. The very best pilgrim sees all places as equally holy, the worst becomes tired and critical, while the middling pilgrim—most realistic for most travelers—maintains devotion, collects merit, and strives to maintain pure perception despite physical challenges.
Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage has evolved through centuries of cultural transformation. It encompasses a wide range of pilgrimage destinations, practices, and literary genres. Political changes, diaspora, and shifting access to sacred sites have challenged traditional pilgrimages. Yet, pilgrimage remains a beloved and resilient expression of Tibetan Buddhist practice, and these sites continue to inspire new generations.
Bibliography & Further Reading
Buffetrille, Katia. “The Great Pilgrimage of A Myes rMa-Chen: Written Traditions, Living Realities.” In Mandala and Landscape, edited by A. W. Macdonald, 75–132. Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 1997.
Geary, David. The Rebirth of Bodh Gaya: Buddhism and the Making of a World Heritage Site. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.
Hartmann, Catherine. “How to See the Invisible: Attention, Landscape, and the Transformation of Vision in Tibetan Pilgrimage Guides.” History of Religions 62, no. 4 (May 1, 2023): 313–39. https://doi.org/10.1086/724562.
______. Making the Invisible Real: Practices of Seeing in Tibetan Pilgrimage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2025.
Huber, Toni, ed. Sacred Spaces and Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture A Collection of Essays. Dharamsala, H.P: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1999.
______. The Cult of Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
______. The Holy Land Reborn: Pilgrimage and the Tibetan Reinvention of Buddhist India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Ramble, Charles. “The Complexity of Tibetan Pilgrimage.” In Searching for the Dharma, Finding Salvation – Buddhist Pilgrimage in Time and Space: Proceedings of the Workshop “Buddhist Pilgrimage in History and Present Times” at the Lumbini International Research Institute (LIRI), Lumbini, 11 - 13 January 2010, edited by Christoph Cueppers and Max Deeg, 179–96. Lumbini: Lumbini International Research Institute, 2014.
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