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 289-336 of 413 sites in this tradition guide
Rendai-ji
Kurashiki, Japan
Rendai-ji crowns Mt. Yuga (270 m) above Kurashiki and serves as Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage station #6....
Rinnō-ji
Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Rinnoji Temple stands as the Buddhist heart of Nikko's sacred landscape, founded in 766 CE by Shodo Shonin....
Rinpung Dzong
Hoongrel Gewog, Paro District, Bhutan
Rinpung Dzong commands the Paro valley from behind whitewashed walls that have stood since 1646, built entirely without nails or steel....
Rokuharamitsu-ji (六波羅蜜寺)
Higashiyama-ku, Higashiyama-ku, Kyoto, Japan
Rokuharamitsu-ji is station 17 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kūya nembutsu temple in Kyoto dedicated to Jūichimen Kannon....
Ruri-ji
Japan
Funakoshi-san Nankōbō Ruri-ji is the FINAL station of the New Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage....
Ruwanwelisaya
Anuradhapura, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka
Rising from the plains of Anuradhapura, Ruwanwelisaya was raised by King Dutugemunu in the 2nd century BCE to hold what tradition describes as one of the largest...
Ryoan-ji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
Ryoan-ji in Kyoto holds the world's most celebrated Zen rock garden. Fifteen stones rest on raked white gravel, arranged so that from any viewing point, one remains hidden....
Ryōzen-ji (霊山寺)
Naruto, Naruto, Tokushima, Japan
Ryōzen-ji is Temple 1 of the Shikoku 88-temple pilgrimage in Naruto, Tokushima. Pilgrims begin their 1,200-kilometer circuit here, buying white robes, conical hats, and...
Ryūseki-ji (龍石寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Ryūseki-ji is the nineteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, a Sōtō Zen temple whose hall sits not on a foundation but on a single mass of conglomerate...
Ryūshō-in
Narita, Japan
Ryūshō-in — known locally as Namegawa Kannon — is the 28th station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage, a Tendai temple set among rice fields outside Narita....
Ryuukou-ji (竜光寺)
Uwajima, Uwajima, Ehime, Japan
Ryūkō-ji is the forty-first temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and one of its most visible cases of shinbutsu-shūgō, the older Japanese practice of holding kami and Buddha...
Ryūzō-ji (龍蔵寺)
Yamaguchi, Japan
Ryūzō-ji — Takitōzan Ryūzō-ji — is regarded as the oldest temple in Yamaguchi City, traditionally founded in 698 by En no Gyōja and 741 by Gyōki....
Saidai-ji (Okayama)
Okayama, Japan
Saidai-ji Kannon-in opens the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage in eastern Okayama. Founded in the eighth century around a Senju Kannon image said to have chosen this spot by...
Saigoku-ji (Sōji-in)
Onomichi, Japan
Saigoku-ji — full name Maniyama Sōji-in Saigoku-ji — sits on Mt. Atago above Onomichi's old port, ascended by 108 stone steps....
Saihoin
Japan
Saihōin is a small Pure Land nunnery in Taishi-chō, founded in 622 CE by three of Prince Shōtoku's nurse-attendants who shaved their heads after his death and built the...
Saikō-ji (西光寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Saikō-ji, sixteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a Shingon Buzan-ha temple whose Senju (Thousand-Armed) Kannon is traditionally attributed to the Nara...
Saimyō-ji
Mashiko, Japan
Saimyō-ji, station 20 of the Bandō Kannon pilgrimage, sits on the wooded slopes of Mt. Tokkō east of Mashiko....
Sairin-ji (西林寺)
Matsuyama, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Sairin-ji is the forty-eighth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage and the Sekisho of Iyo, the spiritual checkpoint of the Iyo (Ehime) leg of the four-province circuit....
Saizen-ji (西善寺)
Yokoze, Japan
Saizen-ji is the eighth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama. The Rinzai Zen temple of the Nanzen-ji school sits at the northern foot of Mt....
Sakami-ji
Japan
Izumi-shōzan Sagami-ji in Kasai, Hyōgo, was founded by imperial command in 745 after the priest Gyōki received an oracle from Sagami Myōjin, a local kami in the Sumiyoshi...
Sakya
Tashigang, Tibet, China
Sakya Monastery is the seat of the Sakya school of Tibetan Buddhism, one of the four major schools, founded in 1073 by the Khon family, who trace their ancestry to...
Samye
Samye, Tibet, China
Samye is where Buddhism became institutionally rooted in Tibet, the place where a religion became a civilization....
Sanbutsu-ji
Misasa, Japan
Sanbutsu-ji, the 31st station of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage, sits on Mt. Mitoku in Misasa, Tottori....
Sankaku-ji (三角寺)
Shikokuchūō, Shikokuchūō, Ehime, Japan
Sankaku-ji sits at roughly 450 metres above the industrial coast of Shikokuchūō, the sixty-fifth temple of the Shikoku 88 and the last of twenty-six temples in Ehime....
Sanuki Kokubun-ji (讃岐国分寺)
Takamatsu, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan
Temple 80 Sanuki Kokubun-ji in Takamatsu is the working successor to one of the eighth-century kokubunji — the provincial protection-temples ordered by Emperor Shōmu in...
Satake-ji
Hitachiōta, Japan
Satake-ji is the 22nd Bandō station and the spiritual ward of the medieval Satake clan....
Sefuku-ji (施福寺)
Izumi, Izumi, Osaka, Japan
Sefuku-ji is station 4 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism, Katsuragi Shugendō / Mountain ascetic tradition temple in Osaka dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Seigan-ji
Japan
Seigan-ji is the head temple (sōhonzan) of the Jōdo Seizan Fukakusa branch, founded in Nara in 667 CE and relocated in 1591 to Kyoto's Shinkyōgoku entertainment district....
Seiganto-ji (青岸渡寺)
Nachikatsuura, Nachikatsuura, Wakayama, Japan
Seiganto-ji stands at the head of the Saigoku 33-temple pilgrimage and at the foot of Nachi Falls, Japan's tallest single-drop cascade....
Seigantoji (Seiganto Temple)
Nachikatsuura, Wakayama Prefecture, Japan
High on Mt. Nachi in Wakayama Prefecture, the three-story vermillion pagoda of Seigantoji frames one of the most iconic views in Japan: the 133-meter Nachi Falls cascading...
Sekkei-ji (雪蹊寺)
Kōchi, Kōchi, Kōchi, Japan
Sekkei-ji is the thirty-third stop on the Shikoku 88, founded by Kūkai in the early ninth century and later converted to Rinzai Zen as the bodaiji of the Chōsokabe warlord...
Senkō-ji
Onomichi, Japan
Senkō-ji — full name Daihōzan Gongen-in Senkō-ji — clings to the mid-slope of Mt. Senkō above Onomichi harbor....
Sensō-ji (浅草寺)
Asakusa, Japan
Sensō-ji, the Asakusa Kannon, is the thirteenth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage and Tokyo's oldest temple....
Senyū-ji (仙遊寺)
Imabari, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
Senyū-ji crowns Mt. Sakurei south of Imabari, the 58th temple of the Shikoku 88....
Shanti Stupa, Pokhara
Pokhara, Gandaki Province, Nepal
On a ridge above Phewa Lake, the brilliant white World Peace Pagoda commands views that span from Pokhara's lakeside to the Annapurna massif....
Shey Gompa (Shey Palace)
Shey, Karnali Province, Nepal
At 4,200 meters in Nepal's Upper Dolpo, Shey Gompa sits beneath Crystal Mountain—known as the Kailash of Dolpo....
Shido-ji (志度寺)
Sanuki, Sanuki, Kagawa, Japan
Shido-ji stands beside Shido Bay on the Sanuki coast as the eighty-sixth temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Shimabu-ji (四萬部寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Shimabu-ji is the first temple of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Saitama, Japan....
Shimpuku-ji (真福寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Shinpuku-ji is the second station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage and the temple whose late-Muromachi addition raised the Chichibu count to 34....
Shinshō-ji (津照寺)
Muroto, Muroto, Kōchi, Japan
Shinshō-ji rises directly above the working harbour of Murotsu, reached by a steep stone staircase that climbs through a Niōmon gate set unusually mid-flight....
Shiromine-ji (白峯寺)
Sakaide, Sakaide, Kagawa, Japan
Shiromine-ji sits at 280 metres on a forested ridge of the Goshikidai plateau in Kagawa, the eighty-first temple of the Shikoku circuit....
Shitennō-ji
Japan
Shitennō-ji stands at the institutional headwaters of Japanese Buddhism. Founded in 593 CE by Prince Shōtoku after his clan's victory secured Buddhism a place in the new...
Shōbō-ji (正法寺)
Higashimatsuyama, Japan
Shōbō-ji on Mount Iwadono, known for thirteen centuries as Iwadono Kannon, began as a single rock-cave hermitage where the shugendō ascetic Itsumi enshrined a Senju Kannon...
Shōfuku-ji (勝福寺)
Odawara, Japan
Shōfuku-ji — popularly known as Iizumi Kannon — is the fifth station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho and one of the most active Shingon Kannon temples in Kanagawa....
Shōfuku-ji (正福寺)
Kasama, Japan
Sashiro-san Shōfuku-ji is the 23rd Bandō station, a temple whose continuity has survived two complete physical destructions. The founding legend tells of a hunter on Mt....
Shōhō-ji (Iwama-dera) (正法寺)
Otsu, Otsu, Shiga, Japan
Shōhō-ji (Iwama-dera) is station 12 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon-shū Daigoji-ha temple in Shiga dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Shōkoku-ji (星谷寺)
Zama, Japan
Shōkoku-ji at Mount Myōhō — known for over a millennium as Hoshi-no-ya Kannon, the Valley of Stars Kannon — gathers folk-mystical phenomena around a Sacred Kannon honzon....
Shōraku-ji (Senjū-in)
Bizen, Japan
Shōraku-ji, also known as Senju-in, sits on a low hill in Bizen and serves as Temple #3 of the Chūgoku 33 Kannon Pilgrimage. The honzon is a hibutsu Eleven-Faced Kannon....
Showing 289-336 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.