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 241-288 of 413 sites in this tradition guide
Mt. Fuji
Fujinomiya, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Mount Fuji rises 3,776 meters in nearly perfect symmetry—a form so iconic it has come to represent Japan itself....
Mt. Gu Shan
Gushan, Fujian, China
Gu Shan, Drum Mountain, rises from the eastern suburbs of Fuzhou in Fujian Province, its summit crowned by a rock that resonates like a drum in wind and rain....
Mt. Haku
Hakusan, Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
Blanketed in snow for much of the year, Mount Haku—the White Mountain—has drawn pilgrims for over thirteen centuries....
Mt. Ishizuchi
Saijo, Ehime Prefecture, Japan
Mount Ishizuchi stands as the highest peak in western Japan and one of the Seven Sacred Mountains....
Mt. Iwaki
Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
Rising 1,625 meters above Aomori Prefecture, Mount Iwaki dominates the Tsugaru region as its highest peak and spiritual guardian....
Mt. Jiuhua Shan
Chizhou, Anhui, China
Jiuhua Shan rises from the Anhui countryside as one of China's Four Sacred Buddhist Mountains, dedicated to Ksitigarbha — the bodhisattva who vowed not to achieve...
Mt. Kaimon
Ibusuki, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
At the southern tip of Kyushu, Mount Kaimon rises in such perfect conical form that locals call it 'Satsuma Fuji.' This 924-meter peak has drawn worshippers since ancient...
Mt. Katsuragi
Gose, Nara Prefecture, Japan
The Katsuragi Mountains are where Japanese mountain mysticism was born. In 634 CE, En no Gyoja—the legendary founder of Shugendo—entered the world at the foot of these...
Mt. Mai Ji Shan
Maiji, Gansu, China
Maijishan rises from the forests of Gansu Province as a solitary haystack-shaped cliff, its red sandstone face honeycombed with 194 caves containing approximately 7,800...
Mt. Meili Xue
Zogang County, Tibet, China
Kawagebo, the 6,740-meter summit of the Meili Snow Mountains on the Yunnan-Tibet border, is the highest unclimbed peak over 6,000 meters in the world....
Mt. Omine (Mount Sanjō)
Tenkawa, Nara Prefecture, Japan
Mount Omine is the headquarters of Shugendo—Japan's tradition of mountain asceticism—and perhaps its most intensely sacred site....
Mt. Ontake
Otaki, Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Japan's second highest volcano has drawn pilgrims for over a thousand years. White-robed devotees still purify under waterfalls before ascending Mount Ontake, following...
Mt. Pu Tuo Shan
Putuo District, Zhejiang, China
Putuo Shan is a small island in the East China Sea that serves as the earthly home of Guanyin — the Bodhisattva of Compassion and the most beloved figure in Chinese...
Mt. Qian Shan, Liaoning
Wenquan Subdistrict, Liaoning, China
Qian Shan — Thousand Mountain — rises from the Liaoning plain in northeastern China with 999 peaks, each said to resemble a lotus petal....
Mt. Song Shan
Gongyi, Henan, China
Songshan is the Central Peak of China's Five Sacred Mountains, the axis around which the cosmos turns in traditional Chinese cosmology....
Mt. Targo and Lake Dangra
Targo, Tibet, China
Dangra Yumco and Dargo Mountain form a sacred married couple in the Bon tradition, Tibet's pre-Buddhist indigenous religion....
Mt. Tiantai Shan
Tiantai County, Zhejiang, China
Mount Tiantai is the birthplace of Tiantai Buddhism, the first purely Chinese school of Buddhist philosophy....
Mt. Wu Tai Shan
Taihuai, Shanxi, China
Mount Wutai is the earthly home of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, identified in the Avatamsaka Sutra as residing on a Clear Cool Mountain in the northeast....
Mt. Yoshino
Yoshino, Nara Prefecture, Japan
Mount Yoshino is where Japanese mountain mysticism was born. In the 7th century, the ascetic En no Gyoja achieved spiritual awakening here and founded Shugendo—the path of...
Nagao-ji (長尾寺)
Sanuki, Sanuki, Kagawa, Japan
Nagao-ji is the eighty-seventh of the eighty-eight Shikoku temples — the second-to-last, set in the open Nagao district of Sanuki under an enormous camphor canopy....
Nago-ji (那古寺)
Tateyama, Japan
Nago-ji — Fudaraku-san Nago-ji — is the 33rd and final station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, set on a forested mid-slope of Mt. Nago in Tateyama, Chiba....
Nakayama-dera (中山寺)
Takarazuka, Takarazuka, Hyōgo, Japan
Nakayama-dera is station 24 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism — Nakayama branch temple in Hyogo dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....
Namo Buddha
Kavrepalanchok, Bagmati Province, Nepal
In the hills southeast of Kathmandu, a stupa marks where an early incarnation of the Buddha made the ultimate sacrifice....
Nan'endō (Kofuku-ji) (南円堂)
Nara, Nara, Nara, Japan
Nan'endō (Kōfuku-ji) is station 9 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Hossō school temple in Nara dedicated to Fukūkenjaku Kannon....
Nankōbō (南光坊)
Imabari, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
Temple 55 of the Shikoku henro is the only one of the 88 whose name ends in 'bō' — priest's lodging — a vestige of its origin as a sub-temple of the great Bekku Ōyamazumi...
Nariai-ji (成相寺)
Miyazu, Miyazu, Kyoto, Japan
Nariai-ji is station 28 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Hashidate Shingon-shū temple in Kyoto dedicated to Shō Kannon....
Negoro-ji (根香寺)
Takamatsu, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Negoro-ji stands at 365 metres on the slopes of Mt. Aomine, deep in the cedar forest of the Goshikidai plateau....
Nichirin-ji
Daigo, Japan
Nichirin-ji sits on the eighth station of Mt. Yamizo, the highest peak in Ibaraki....
Nofuku-ji
Japan
Nōfuku-ji, founded by Saichō in 805 CE on his return from Tang China, is one of the oldest Tendai temples in the Hyōgo region....
Nosaka-ji (野坂寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Nosaka-ji, twelfth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Nanzen-ji branch formed by the 1741 merger of an older Kannon-dō with...
Oka-dera (岡寺)
Asuka, Asuka, Nara, Japan
Oka-dera is station 7 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon-shū Buzan-ha temple in Nara dedicated to Nyoirin Kannon....
Okadera Buddhist Temple, Asuka
Asuka, Nara Prefecture, Japan
In the ancient village of Asuka, Okadera Temple shelters Japan's largest clay statue—an 8th-century Nyoirin Kannon standing 4.85 meters tall....
Ōkubo-ji (大窪寺)
Sanuki, Sanuki, Kagawa, Japan
Ōkubo-ji is the eighty-eighth and final temple of the Shikoku circuit, set in a deep valley at 450 metres between Mt. Yahazu and Mt. Nyotai near the Tokushima border....
Ōmi-dō (大御堂)
Tsukuba, Japan
Ōmi-dō is the 25th Bandō station and the sole institutional Buddhist successor of Tsukuba Daigongen — the syncretic Shinto-Buddhist complex that fused Kannon devotion with...
Ongaku-ji (音楽寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Ongaku-ji is the twenty-third station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage — a Rinzai Zen temple of the Nanzen-ji branch whose name means 'music.' Founded by tradition...
Onzan-ji (恩山寺)
Komatsushima, Komatsushima, Tokushima, Japan
Onzan-ji, Temple 18 of the Shikoku 88, is the 'Temple of Gratitude.' It stands at the place where Kūkai's mother, Tamayori Gozen, became one of the first women admitted to...
Osore-zan Boto-ji
Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan
Osorezan, the mountain of fear, rises as one of Japan's three most sacred mountains....
Ōya-ji (大谷寺)
Utsunomiya, Japan
Ōya-ji, station 19 of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho, sits inside a natural rock-shelter overhang of Ōya tuff in Utsunomiya....
Paro National Museum
Hoongrel Gewog, Paro District, Bhutan
The Paro National Museum occupies a seventeenth-century watchtower shaped like a conch shell, perched above Rinpung Dzong....
Penghu Guanyin Temple
Magong, Penghu County, Magong, Penghu County, Taiwan
Penghu Guanyin Temple has watched over Magong Harbor since 1696, when a Qing naval officer expanded a small waterside pavilion into the archipelago's first Buddhist temple....
Pha That Luang
Vientiane Capital, Vientiane Prefecture, Laos
Pha That Luang, the great gold-covered stupa of Vientiane, is the holiest Buddhist monument in Laos and its national symbol....
Pharping
Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
Twenty-three kilometers south of Kathmandu, the village of Pharping preserves caves where Guru Padmasambhava—the 'Second Buddha'—attained supreme enlightenment in the 8th...
Phnum Kulen
Svay Leu District, Siem Reap, Cambodia
Phnom Kulen is the most sacred mountain in Cambodia, the place where Jayavarman II declared the founding of the Khmer Empire in 802 CE....
Potala Palace
Chengguan District, Tibet, China
The Potala Palace rises 117 meters above the Lhasa Valley on the Red Hill, named for Avalokiteshvara's mythical abode, Mount Potalaka....
Prasat Phnom Chisor
Srok Samraong, Takeo, Cambodia
Prasat Phnom Chisor rises 133 meters above the flat Takeo Province plain, a Khmer hilltop temple built in the early eleventh century by King Suryavarman I and originally...
Prasat Preah Vihear
Choam Ksant, Preah Vihear, Cambodia
Prasat Preah Vihear stretches 800 meters along the Dangrek escarpment at 525 meters elevation, a Khmer temple built across three centuries by successive kings who placed...
Punakha Dzong
Yebisa, Punakha District, Bhutan
Punakha Dzong stands at the confluence of the Mo Chhu and Pho Chhu rivers, where Guru Rinpoche once prophesied a fortress would rise....
Rakuhō-ji (楽法寺)
Sakuragawa, Japan
Rakuhō-ji is the 24th Bandō station, popularly known as Amabiki Kannon — the Rain-Drawing Kannon....
Showing 241-288 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.