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 337-384 of 413 sites in this tradition guide
Shōrin-ji (少林寺)
Chichibu, Japan
Shōrin-ji, fifteenth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage, is a Rinzai Zen temple of the Kenchō-ji branch on the historic Banba-machi neighbourhood of central...
Shōryū-ji (青竜寺)
Tosa, Tosa, Kōchi, Japan
Shōryū-ji is the thirty-sixth stop on the Shikoku 88, set on the Yokonami Peninsula above Uranouchi Bay in Tosa City....
Shōsan-ji (焼山寺)
Kamiyama, Kamiyama, Tokushima, Japan
Shōsan-ji stands at 706 metres on Mt. Shōsan-ji in Kamiyama, the second-highest temple of the Shikoku 88 and the first nansho or 'difficult place' on the route....
Shoushanyan Guanyin Temple
Guishan, Taoyuan City, Guishan, Taoyuan City, Taiwan
On Longevity Mountain in Taoyuan stands a Guanyin temple with an unusual image: the bodhisattva of compassion depicted in masculine form, crowned like an emperor....
Shusshakaji (出釈迦寺)
Zentsūji, Zentsūji, Kagawa, Japan
Temple 73 Shusshakaji sits at the foot of Mt Gahaishi in Zentsūji City, Kagawa. The legend here is intimate: a seven-year-old boy named Mao — later Kūkai — leapt from a...
Simtokha Dzong
Thimphu, Thimphu District, Bhutan
Simtokha Dzong is where the dzong concept began. Built in 1629 by Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal on a hill five kilometres south of Thimphu, it was the first structure in...
Sōji-ji (総持寺)
Ibaraki, Ibaraki, Osaka, Japan
Sōji-ji is station 22 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Kōyasan Shingon-shū temple in Osaka dedicated to Senju Kannon....
Sompur Mahavihara
Badalgachhi Upazila, Rajshahi Division, Bangladesh
In the Naogaon district of northwestern Bangladesh, the ruins of Somapura Mahavihara cover 27 acres — the footprint of what was once the largest Buddhist monastery south...
Songgwangsa
Suncheon, Suncheon, Jeollanam-do, South Korea
Songgwangsa is the 'Sangha Jewel' of Korea's Three Jewel Temples, refounded in 1190 by the reformer Bojo Jinul as the seat of a movement to revive Korean Buddhist practice....
Sōrin-ji (宗隣寺)
Ube, Japan
Sōrin-ji — Shōkō-zan Sōrin-ji — is a Tang-Chinese-founded temple (777 CE) re-established in 1670 as the bodhi-temple of the Fukuhara clan, chief retainers of the Mōri...
Sri Dalada Maligawa, Temple of the Tooth
Kandy, Central Province, Sri Lanka
Beside Kandy's lake stands the palace-temple that has held the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha since the seat of Sinhala kingship settled in these hills....
St Nicholas Monastery, Mesopotam, Albania
Brajlat, Shqipëria Jugore, Albania
Gangteng Monastery commands a spur above the Phobjikha Valley at 3,000 metres, fulfilling a prophecy made by the treasure revealer Pema Lingpa....
Sugimoto-dera (杉本寺)
Kamakura, Japan
Sugimoto-dera is the first station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho — Kamakura's oldest Buddhist temple, where three Eleven-Headed Kannon statues from successive Heian centuries...
Suisen-ji (水潜寺)
Minano, Japan
Suisen-ji — Nittaku-san Suisen-ji — is the 34th and final station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage and the kechigan-jo (結願所, 'place where the vow is fulfilled') of...
Suishō-ji (Daishō-in)
Miyajima, Japan
Daishō-in — full classical name Takizan Suiseiji Daishōin (also Suishō-ji), commonly called Miyajima Daishō-in — is the daihonzan (head temple) of the Omuro branch of...
Suma-dera
Japan
Suma-dera, formally Joya-san Fukushō-ji, is the head temple (daihonzan) of its own Shingon sub-school — the Shingon-shū Sumadera-ha — and the principal site of Heike...
Swayambhunath, Kathmandu
Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal
Swayambhunath rises from a forested hill four kilometers west of central Kathmandu, its gilded spire visible across the valley....
Tachibana-dera
Japan
Tachibana-dera is a Tendai temple set in the Asuka rice fields of Nara Prefecture, traditionally identified as the birthplace of Prince Shōtoku....
Tachiki-Kannon An’yō-ji
Japan
Tachiki Kannon An'yō-ji stands above the Seta River on a cliff that pilgrims reach by climbing roughly 800 stone steps....
Tadzong National Museum, Trongsa
Bagochen Boolingpang Ueling, Trongsa District, Bhutan
The Ta Dzong of Trongsa was built in 1652 as a watchtower to guard the largest dzong in Bhutan....
Taima-dera
Japan
Taima-dera is a major dual-administered temple at the foot of Mount Nijō — held jointly by Shingon (Buzan branch) and Jōdo-shū....
Tairyū-ji (太龍寺)
Anan, Anan, Tokushima, Japan
Tairyū-ji, Temple 21 of the Shikoku 88, is one of the few sites Kūkai names in his own writings as the place of his decisive ascetic practice....
Taisan-ji
Japan
Sanshinzan Taisan-ji in Kobe's Nishi Ward holds a 1293 wooden main hall registered as a National Treasure of Japan — one of only a few such structures in the entire Hyōgo...
Taisan-ji (太山寺)
Matsuyama, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan
Temple 52 of the Shikoku henro stands northwest of Matsuyama in cypress and bamboo forest....
Taisan-ji (泰山寺)
Imabari, Imabari, Ehime, Japan
Temple 56 of the Shikoku henro is one of the few personally founded by Kūkai. In 815 he led local villagers in flood-control work along the Sosha River, performed the...
Taiyū-ji
Japan
Founded by Kūkai in the early 9th century at the heart of what is now Osaka's Umeda entertainment district, Taiyū-ji is a Kōyasan Shingon temple whose principal Senju...
Taktsang Monastery (Tiger’s Nest)
Nyechhu_Shar-ri, Paro District, Bhutan
Taktsang clings to a cliff face 900 metres above the Paro valley floor. In the 8th century, Guru Padmasambhava is said to have arrived here on the back of a tigress — his...
Tamshing Monastery
Pedtsheling_Tamzhing, Bumthang District, Bhutan
Tamshing Monastery was founded in 1501 by Pema Lingpa, one of the five great treasure revealers of Vajrayana Buddhism....
Tanema-ji (種間寺)
Haruno, Haruno, Kōchi, Japan
The thirty-fourth temple of the Shikoku 88 sits among rice paddies in Haruno, Kōchi....
Tango Monastery
Boegarna_Dodennang, Thimphu District, Bhutan
Tango Monastery stands on a forested hillside north of Thimphu, where the cliff face was once perceived as the flaming form of Hayagriva — the wrathful, horse-headed...
Tanjō-ji (Okayama)
Kumenan, Japan
Tanjō-ji marks the literal birthplace of Hōnen Shōnin (1133–1212), founder of Jōdo-shū Pure Land Buddhism....
Tashiding Monastery
Ravongla, Sikkim, India
Perched on a heart-shaped hill at the confluence of two sacred rivers in Sikkim, Tashiding Monastery is considered the most sacred Buddhist site in the former Himalayan...
Tashilhunpo
城西街道, Tibet, China
Tashilhunpo Monastery rises from the slopes of Niseri Hill in Shigatse, a 37-acre compound of gilded rooftops and whitewashed walls that has served as the seat of the...
Tatsue-ji (立江寺)
Komatsushima, Komatsushima, Tokushima, Japan
Tatsue-ji is the Sōsekisho, the chief barrier temple of the Shikoku 88. Folk belief holds that pilgrims of unresolved sin or insincere intent cannot pass beyond this gate....
Tenjōji
Japan
Mayasan Tenjō-ji sits near the summit of Mt. Maya, the Kobe-area mountain named for Mayadevi (Lady Maya, mother of the Buddha) — the temple's distinctive secondary focus...
Tennō-ji (天皇寺)
Sakaide, Sakaide, Kagawa, Japan
Temple 79 Tennō-ji in Sakaide is named for the body of an emperor — Sutoku, exiled after the Hōgen Disturbance of 1156 and dead in Sanuki in 1164....
Tenryu-ji Temple
Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan
At the foot of the Arashiyama mountains in western Kyoto, Tenryu-ji preserves a garden designed by Zen master Musō Soseki for a single purpose: meditation....
That Ing Hang
Savannakhet, Savannakhet Province, Laos
Outside Savannakhet stands That Ing Hang, a three-terraced golden stupa marking the spot where, by legend, the ailing Buddha leaned against a hang tree to rest....
That Sikhottabong
Thakhek, Khammouane, Laos
On the Mekong's left bank a few kilometers south of Thakhek, That Sikhottabong rises nearly thirty meters in gold and white....
The Temple of Haeinsa, Gaya-san
Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang, South Korea
Haeinsa is one of Korea's Three Jewel Temples, representing the Dharma itself. High on Mount Gayasan, this active monastery safeguards the Tripitaka Koreana, the world's...
Todaiji
Nara, Nara Prefecture, Japan
In 752 CE, Emperor Shōmu consecrated a bronze Buddha of unprecedented scale—15 meters tall, cast from nearly all the copper in Japan—to bring peace to a nation wracked by...
Toji
Kyoto, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan
For over 1,200 years, Tō-ji has been the beating heart of Shingon Buddhism—the esoteric tradition that Kūkai brought from China in the 9th century....
Tokoin Hagino-tera
Japan
Tōkō-in — known by the affectionate name Hagi-no-tera, Bush Clover Temple — is a Sōtō Zen temple in suburban Toyonaka, Osaka....
Toling
Tsamda County, Tibet, China
Toling Monastery stands in the surreal Zanda Earth Forest of western Tibet, nearly 1,200 kilometers from Lhasa....
Tongdosa
Yangsan, Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea
Tongdosa is Korea's largest monastic complex and the 'Buddha Jewel' of the country's Three Jewel Temples, built in 646 CE to enshrine relics of the historical Buddha....
Tosa Kokubun-ji (土佐国分寺)
Nankoku, Nankoku, Kōchi, Japan
Tosa Kokubun-ji holds dual identity: imperial provincial temple of ancient Tosa Province and Temple 29 of the Shikoku Pilgrimage....
Tōshun-ji (洞春寺)
Yamaguchi, Japan
Tōshun-ji — Shōshū-zan Tōshun-ji — was founded in 1572 by Mōri Terumoto as the bodhi-temple of his grandfather, the warlord Mōri Motonari....
Trashigang Dzong
Chagzam_Pam, Trashigang District, Bhutan
Trashigang Dzong stands on a cliff ledge with sheer drops on three sides, overlooking the confluence of the Drangme Chhu and Gamri Chhu rivers in eastern Bhutan....
Showing 337-384 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.