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 193-240 of 413 sites in this tradition guide
Kōzō-ji (高蔵寺)
Kisarazu, Japan
Kōzō-ji — known as Takakura Kannon — is the 30th station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, set in the wooded inland hills of Kisarazu, Chiba....
Kumadani-ji (熊谷寺)
Awa, Awa, Tokushima, Japan
Kumadani-ji is Temple 8 of the Shikoku 88, in Awa, Tokushima. The 1687 Niōmon is one of the largest gates on the entire 88-temple route, designated a Tokushima Cultural...
Kurama-dera Temple
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Rising 584 meters above Kyoto's northern edge, Mount Kurama has drawn seekers for over twelve centuries....
Kurje Monastery
Dawathang_Dorjibi_ Kashingtsawa, Bumthang District, Bhutan
Kurje Lhakhang — the Temple of the Sacred Body Imprint — marks the cave where Guru Rinpoche meditated and subdued a local deity in 810 CE, leaving the impression of his...
Kyichu Monastery
Satsam, Paro District, Bhutan
Kyichu Lhakhang in the Paro Valley is one of two temples vying for the title of Bhutan's oldest, built in 659 CE by King Songtsen Gampo to pin the left foot of a supine...
Kyūshō-ji (久昌寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Kyūshō-ji is the twenty-fifth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage — a Sōtō Zen temple known by its older nickname Otehan-dera, 'Hand-Seal Temple,' for the legend...
Lake Nam Tso
Baingoin County, Tibet, China
Lake Nam Tso sits at 4,718 meters on the Tibetan plateau, one of the highest large lakes in the world and one of the three holiest in Tibet....
Lake Yamzho Yumco
Ngarzhag, Tibet, China
Lake Yamzho Yumco — Yamdrok — is one of Tibet's three holiest lakes and the one most charged with existential meaning....
Leshan Giant Buddha
Leshan, Sichuan, China
For ninety years, three generations of craftsmen carved Maitreya Buddha into the cliffs where three rivers meet at Leshan....
Lianzuo Mountain Guanyin Temple
Daxi, Taoyuan City, Daxi, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
On a small hill above the Daxi valley, its shape said to resemble the lotus seat that supports a buddha, this temple has drawn Hakka pilgrims since 1797....
Ling Jiou Mountain Monastery
Fulong, New Taipei City, Fulong, New Taipei City, Taiwan
On a coastal mountain in northeastern Taiwan, this monastery was founded in 1984 by the monk Hsin Tao as a place to renew Buddhist practice for a modern world....
Linji Huguo Temple
Taipei, Zhongshan, Taipei City, Taiwan
In the heart of Taipei stands a rare survivor: a Rinzai Zen temple built in Edo-period Japanese style during the colonial era, its main hall constructed of timber....
Longmen Grottoes
Luolong District, Henan, China
The Longmen Grottoes stretch along the limestone cliffs of the Yi River south of Luoyang, a kilometer of carved Buddhist figures numbering over 110,000....
Lukang Longshan Temple
Lukang, Changhua County, Lukang, Changhua County, Taiwan
Lukang Longshan Temple holds Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion, in a Qing-era complex so architecturally intact that Taiwan's tourism authority calls it the country's...
Lumbini
Parsa, Lumbini Province, Nepal
Lumbini is the birthplace of Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Buddha. For over two millennia, pilgrims have traveled to this garden in southern Nepal where, according to...
Lushan Mountain
Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China
Rising above the Yangtze plain, Mount Lu has drawn monks, scholars, and poets for over sixteen centuries....
Maegami-ji (前神寺)
Saijō, Saijō, Ehime, Japan
Maegami-ji is the 64th fudasho on the Shikoku 88 and the principal Buddhist anchor of the Mt. Ishizuchi sacred-mountain cult....
Mahabodhi Temple and Bodhi Tree, Bodh Gaya, Bihar
Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India
The Mahabodhi Temple marks where it happened—where a man sat down beneath a pipal tree and, after forty-nine days of meditation, achieved complete liberation from...
Mahasthangarh Buddhist temples
Shibganj Upazila (Bogura), Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh
Thirteen kilometres north of Bogra, the ruins of Mahasthangarh mark the site of Pundranagara — the oldest known urban settlement in Bangladesh, dating to at least the 3rd...
Mahiyangana Raja Maha Vihara
Mahiyangana, Mahiyangana, Sri Lanka
Nine months after his enlightenment, the Buddha is said to have crossed to Sri Lanka and pacified its yaksha inhabitants at Mahiyangana, leaving behind a hair relic...
Mandara-ji (曼荼羅寺)
Zentsūji, Zentsūji, Kagawa, Japan
Mandara-ji is the ancestral temple of the Saeki clan, into which Kūkai was born....
Mangan-ji
Japan
Mangan-ji at Kawanishi, Hyōgo, is a Kōyasan Shingon temple founded by imperial decree of Emperor Shōmu in the Nara period....
Mangan-ji (満願寺)
Tochigi, Japan
Izurusan Mangan-ji, station 17 of the Bandō Kannon pilgrimage, sits in a karst valley north of Tochigi City....
Mani-ji
Tottori, Japan
Mani-ji is a special temple (tokubetsu reijō) of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage on Mt. Mani north of Tottori City....
Matsunoo-dera (松尾寺)
Maizuru, Maizuru, Kyoto, Japan
Matsunoo-dera is station 29 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon-shū Daigo-ha temple in Kyoto dedicated to Batō Kannon....
Mebar tsho (Burning Lake)
Bezur_Kuenzangdrag, Bumthang District, Bhutan
Mebar Tsho — the Burning Lake — is a pool in a gorge in Bumthang's Tang Valley where the treasure revealer Pema Lingpa dived into the water holding a lit butter lamp in...
Meiseki-ji (明石寺)
Seiyo, Seiyo, Ehime, Japan
Meiseki-ji is the forty-third temple of the Shikoku 88 and one of the few stops not affiliated with Shingon....
Mii-dera
Otsu, Shiga Prefecture, Japan
Mii-dera has earned its nickname—the Phoenix Temple—through seven destructions and seven risings....
Mii-dera (三井寺)
Otsu, Otsu, Shiga, Japan
Mii-dera is station 14 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism, Saigoku Kannon devotion temple in Shiga dedicated to Nyoirin Kannon....
Mimuroto-ji (三室戸寺)
Uji, Uji, Kyoto, Japan
Mimuroto-ji is station 10 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Honzan Shugen-shū temple in Kyoto dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Minamihokke-ji (Tsubosaka-dera) (南法華寺)
Takatori, Takatori, Nara, Japan
Minamihokke-ji (Tsubosaka-dera) is station 6 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism — Tsubosaka temple in Nara dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Mitaki-dera (Mitaki-Kannon)
Hiroshima, Japan
Mitaki-dera — Ryūsen-zan Mitaki-ji — sits in a forested ravine 3 km from the hypocentre of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, with three named waterfalls flowing through the...
Mizuma-dera
Japan
Mizuma-dera, popularly called Mizuma Kannon, is among the most actively visited temples in southern Osaka....
Mizusawa-dera (水澤寺)
Shibukawa, Japan
Mizusawa-dera, the sixteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho Kannon pilgrimage, sits on the wooded slopes below Ikaho Onsen....
Monastery of St Mary, Zvërnec Island, Albania
Qendër Vlorë, Southern Albania, Albania
Gangteng Monastery commands a spur above the Phobjikha Valley at 3,000 metres, fulfilling a prophecy made by the treasure revealer Pema Lingpa....
Monastery of St. Mary, Apollonia, Pojan
Pojan, Qarku i Fierit, Albania
Gangteng Monastery commands a spur above the Phobjikha Valley at 3,000 metres, fulfilling a prophecy made by the treasure revealer Pema Lingpa....
Motoyama-ji (本山寺)
Mitoyo, Mitoyo, Kagawa, Japan
Motoyama-ji rises from the Mitoyo plain in Kagawa, its vermillion five-storied pagoda visible across rice fields....
Motoyamaji Temple, Motoyama
Mitoyo, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan
Motoyamaji Temple, the 70th station on Shikoku's 88-temple pilgrimage, guards the approach to spiritual completion....
Mount Gongga
Kangding, Sichuan, China
Mount Gongga rises 7,556 meters above the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau in Sichuan Province, the highest peak in the region by thousands of meters....
Mount Penanggungan, Java
Kedungudi, East Java, Indonesia
Old Javanese tradition holds that Mount Penanggungan, once called Pawitra, is the topmost section of the cosmic world-mountain Mahameru, broken off and carried from the...
Mount Putuo (Pǔtuó Shān)
Zhoushan, Putuo District, Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, China
Mount Putuo is an island monastery-city in the East China Sea, venerated for over a thousand years as the earthly dwelling place of Guanyin, the bodhisattva of compassion....
Mount Yudono
Tsuruoka, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan
At the culmination of the Dewa Sanzan pilgrimage, where seekers symbolically die and are reborn across three sacred mountains, Mount Yudono guards the final mystery....
Mt. Amnye Machen
Maqên, Qinghai, China
Amnye Machen rises to 6,282 meters from the grasslands of the Golok Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai Province, an entire mountain range wrapped in the great bend...
Mt. Bandai
Inawashiro, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Mount Bandai rises in Fukushima as a transformed sacred peak. Called 'rock ladder to the sky' in ancient times, the mountain was reshaped by an 1888 eruption that created...
Mt. Chokai
Yuza, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan
Rising 2,236 meters at the border of Yamagata and Akita Prefectures, Mount Chokai has drawn mountain worshippers since ancient times....
Mt. Dinghushan
Dinghu District, Guangdong Province, China
Dinghushan rises above the city of Zhaoqing in Guangdong Province, a mountain of ancient subtropical forest sheltering Qingyun Temple, one of the most important Buddhist...
Mt. Emei Shan
双水井, Sichuan, China
Mount Emei rises 3,099 meters from the Sichuan Basin, one of the Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains of China and the bodhimanda of Samantabhadra, the bodhisattva of universal...
Mt. Fanjing, Guizhou, China
Yinjiang Tujia and Miao Autonomous County, Guizhou, China
Fanjingshan rises 2,570 meters from the forests of northeastern Guizhou Province, a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognized for its extraordinary biodiversity and revered as...
Showing 193-240 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.