Tradition guide
Buddhism
Buddhist sacred sites trace the movement of teachings, relics, monastic communities, cave practice, stupas, temples, and pilgrimage routes across Asia and beyond.
413 sacred places share this lineage. Use the country and site-type filters to narrow in.
Atlas summary
Buddhism sacred sites overview
Buddhism sacred sites connect places through shared lineage, ritual use, memory, and pilgrimage practice across the Pilgrim Map atlas.
Use this page to compare country clusters, common place types, UNESCO-tagged landmarks, and the map distribution before exploring individual site pages.
| Coverage | 413 Buddhism sacred places in the current atlas. |
|---|---|
| Country clusters | |
| Common place types | |
| UNESCO heritage | 21 UNESCO-tagged Buddhism sites appear in this browse view. |
Dates connected to Buddhism
Upcoming festivals, feast days, and pilgrimages tied to Buddhism. Add any to your calendar, or see the full observance calendar.
Showing 1-48 of 413 sites in this tradition guide
Abhayagiri Vihara
Anuradhapura, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Founded around 89 BCE by a king fulfilling a vow of vengeance and restoration, Abhayagiri grew into one of the ancient world's most cosmopolitan Buddhist institutions — a...
Adam's Peak (Sri Pada)
Dalhousie, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka
Rising 2,243 meters above the Sri Lankan highlands, the conical peak known as Sri Pada—or Adam's Peak—draws pilgrims from four world religions to a single mysterious...
Ajanta caves, Maharashtra
Phardapur, Maharashtra, India
In a horseshoe gorge of the Deccan Plateau, Buddhist monks spent seven centuries carving thirty caves from the basalt cliffs....
Akechi-ji (明智寺)
Yokoze, Japan
Akechi-ji is the ninth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama....
Alchi Gompa, Ladakh
Alchi, India
On the valley floor by the Indus in western Ladakh, Alchi preserves the finest surviving early western-Himalayan Buddhist art....
An'yō-in (安養院)
Kamakura, Japan
An'yō-in is the third station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho — a small Jōdo-shū temple in Kamakura founded as Hōjō Masako's grief-prayer for her husband Minamoto no Yoritomo,...
Anao-ji (穴太寺)
Kameoka, Kameoka, Kyoto, Japan
Anao-ji is station 21 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism temple in Kyoto dedicated to Shō Kannon....
Angkor Wat
Siem Reap, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure on earth—a stone representation of Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the center of the universe....
Anko-ji
Japan
Ankō-ji is an independent Tendai temple founded in 775 CE by Prince Kaisei on a wooded hillside north of Takatsuki....
Anraku-ji (安楽寺)
Kamiita, Kamiita, Tokushima, Japan
Anraku-ji is Temple 6 of the Shikoku 88, in Kamiita, Tokushima. Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing, presides here, and Anraku-ji is the only fudasho with its own onsen....
Anraku-ji (安楽寺)
Yoshimi, Japan
Anraku-ji, the Yoshimi Kannon, is the eleventh station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage....
Asuka-dera
Asuka, Nara Prefecture, Japan
In a quiet valley surrounded by rice fields, Japan's oldest surviving Buddha statue has watched from the same location for over 1,400 years....
Awa Kokubun-ji (阿波国分寺)
Tokushima, Tokushima, Tokushima, Japan
Awa Kokubun-ji is the official kokubunji—provincial Buddhist temple—of Awa Province, founded by imperial edict of Emperor Shōmu in 741 to pray for the welfare of the...
Bagan
Nyaung-U, Mandalay, Myanmar
Bagan spreads across the central plain of Myanmar: over two thousand Buddhist temples, stupas, and monasteries surviving from a time when more than ten thousand were built....
Bangka Longshan Temple
Taipei, Wanhua, Taipei City, Taiwan
Founded in 1738 by Fujian settlers in Taipei's oldest quarter, Longshan Temple holds more than a hundred deities beneath one roof....
Basgo Gompa, Ladakh
Nimo, Ladakh, India
On a hill above the Indus, the eroded ramparts of the Namgyal kings' citadel hold three temples to Maitreya, the future Buddha....
Baylangdra Temple
Lengbi, Wangdue Phodrang District, Bhutan
Hidden for centuries and revealed only in 1988, Baylangdra is one of the three holiest pilgrimage sites of Guru Rinpoche in Bhutan....
Beppu Hells (Jigoku)
Beppu, Oita Prefecture, Japan
The Hells of Beppu have inspired awe and terror for over a millennium. These boiling, steaming pools of vivid color gave physical form to Buddhist visions of the suffering...
Biyun Temple, Baihe
Baihe, Tainan City, Baihe, Tainan City, Taiwan
Halfway up Pillow Mountain in the volcanic Guanziling hills, Biyun Temple has sheltered a Guanyin statue carried from Fujian since the turn of the eighteenth century....
Bodai-ji (菩提寺)
Sanda, Sanda, Hyōgo, Japan
Bodai-ji is station bangai-bodai-ji on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kazan-in branch temple in Hyogo dedicated to Kannon....
Boku'un-ji (卜雲寺)
Yokoze, Japan
Boku'un-ji is the sixth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama....
Bomdila Monastery, Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh
Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, India
High in the West Kameng hills of Arunachal Pradesh, Bomdila Monastery is a Gelugpa Buddhist centre built as a faithful replica of the Tsona Gontse monastery of southern...
Borobudur
Desa Borobudur, Central Java, Indonesia
Rising from the Kedu Plain of Central Java, Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist monument—a three-dimensional mandala carved in volcanic stone....
Boudhnath (Boudha)
Gokarneshwar Municipality, Bagamati Province, Nepal
Rising 36 meters above Kathmandu's northeastern sprawl, Boudhanath Stupa is one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world and the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist site...
Buddha Dhatu Jadi
Bandarban, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh
On a sixty-metre hill above Bandarban, a golden temple rises from the green canopy of the Chittagong Hill Tracts....
Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi
Amkhera, Madhya Pradesh, India
The Great Stupa at Sanchi rises from a hilltop in central India—a hemisphere of stone that has held sacred meaning for over 2,300 years....
Bulguksa Temple
Gyeongju-si, North Gyeongsang, South Korea
Bulguksa Temple rises on the slopes of Mount Tohamsan as a physical theology—Korean Buddhism made visible in stone....
Butsumoku-ji (佛木寺)
Uwajima, Uwajima, Ehime, Japan
Butsumoku-ji is the forty-second temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of its most distinctive: a Shingon temple where the principal image was carved from a camphor...
Buttsū-ji
Mihara, Japan
Buttsū-ji — Omoto-san Buttsū-ji — is the head temple (daihonzan) of the Buttsū-ji branch of Rinzai Zen, founded in 1397 by Kobayakawa Haruhira and Zen master Gucchū Shūkyū...
Byōdō-ji (平等寺)
Anan, Anan, Tokushima, Japan
Byōdō-ji, Temple 22 of the Shikoku 88, takes its name from Kūkai's vow that all illness be healed equally....
Candi Jawi, Java
Prigen, East Java, Indonesia
Near Prigen in East Java rises Candi Jawi, the late-thirteenth-century memorial temple of King Kertanagara of Singhasari....
Chemrey Gompa, Ladakh
Chemre, Ladakh, India
Chemrey Gompa rises on a hill above its village about 40 km east of Leh, a Drukpa Kagyu monastery founded in 1664 and dedicated to King Sengge Namgyal....
Cheri Monastery/Chagri Monastery
Boegarna_Dodennang, Thimphu District, Bhutan
Perched above the Thimphu Valley at 2,850 metres, Cheri Monastery is where Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal established the first Drukpa monastic order in Bhutan in 1620....
Chiba-dera
Chiba, Japan
Chiba-dera — also read Senyō-ji — is the 29th station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho and Chiba City's oldest temple....
Chikurin-ji (竹林寺)
Kōchi, Kōchi, Kōchi, Japan
Chikurin-ji crowns Mt. Godaisan above Kōchi City — a Japanese Mañjuśrī mountain modelled on China's Mt....
Chimi Lhakhang
Oomtekha, Punakha District, Bhutan
Chimi Lhakhang sits on a round hillock amid rice paddies in the Punakha Valley, reached by a twenty-minute walk through fields....
Choedrak Monastery
Gyaltsa, Bumthang District, Bhutan
At 3,800 metres on one of Guru Rinpoche's four sacred meditation cliffs in Bumthang, Choedrak Monastery clings to rock face above deep forest....
Choeje Dra Monastery
Gyaltsa, Bumthang District, Bhutan
Choeje Dra Monastery — also romanized as Choedrak or Choje Drak — stands against one of Guru Rinpoche's four sacred meditation cliffs in Bumthang....
Chōhō-ji (Rokkaku-dō) (頂法寺)
Nakagyo-ku, Nakagyo-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Chōhō-ji (Rokkaku-dō) is station 18 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism, Ikenobō / ikebana lineage temple in Kyoto dedicated to Nyoirin Kannon....
Chōkoku-ji (Iiyama Kannon)
Atsugi, Japan
Iiyama Kannon — the local name for Chōkoku-ji on the slopes of Mount Hakusan in Atsugi — has drawn pilgrims for some thirteen centuries....
Chōkoku-ji (Shiraiwa Kannon)
Takasaki, Japan
Chōkoku-ji at Shiraiwa, the Shiraiwa Kannon, is the fifteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage and one of the few remaining Shugendō-affiliated temples on the...
Chōmei-ji (長命寺)
Ōmihachiman, Ōmihachiman, Shiga, Japan
Chōmei-ji is station 31 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism temple in Shiga dedicated to Senju Kannon Jūichimen Kannon Shō Kannon....
Chōsen-in (長泉院)
Chichibu, Japan
Chōsen-in — Sasado-san Chōsen-in — is the 29th station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, a Sōtō Zen temple in the Urayama River valley of Chichibu, Saitama....
Chūzen-ji ((日光山))
Nikkō, Japan
Chūzen-ji, station 18 of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, sits on the eastern shore of Lake Chūzenji at 1,269 meters, beneath sacred Mount Nantai....
Daien-ji (大渕寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Daien-ji — Ryūga-zan Daien-ji — is the 27th station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, a Sōtō Zen temple in the Kagemori valley of Chichibu, Saitama....
Daihō-ji (大宝寺)
Kumakōgen, Kumakōgen, Ehime, Japan
Daihō-ji is the forty-fourth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and its symbolic midpoint, the Nakafudasho....
Daihonzan Eiheiji (Eihei Temple)
Eiheiji Town, Fukui Prefecture, Japan
Hidden in the cedar forests of Fukui Prefecture, Eiheiji stands as one of the two head temples of Soto Zen Buddhism....
Daihōon-ji
Japan
Daihōon-ji, known popularly as Senbon Shakadō, holds Kyoto's oldest surviving wooden building inside the city limits — a 1227 National Treasure main hall that survived the...
Showing 1-48 of 413 sites
Key questions
Buddhism sacred-site questions
- What are Buddhism sacred sites?
- Buddhism sacred sites are places connected by shared lineage, practice, memory, ritual use, or pilgrimage tradition.
- Where can I find Buddhism sacred sites?
- The strongest country clusters in this guide include Japan, China, Bhutan, Taiwan, Laos, India.
- What kinds of places are included?
- Common place types include temple, buddhist temple, monastery, sacred mountain, stupa, cave.
- Can I map Buddhism sacred sites?
- Yes. Compare country clusters and site types first, then open individual pages for coordinates, historical context, and visitor guidance.