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For other uses of the word pilgrimage, see Pilgrimage (disambiguation).

Pilgrim at Mecca

In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a sacred place or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of every religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.

Buddhism offers four sites of pilgrimage: the Buddha's birthplace at Kapilavastu, the site where he first preached at Gaya, where the highest insight dawned on him at Benares, and where he achieved Nirvana at Kusinagara.

In the kingdoms of Israel and Judah the visitation of certain ancient cult-centers was repressed in the 7th century BC, when the worship was restricted to Jahweh at the temple in Jerusalem. In Syria, the shrine of Astarte at the headwater spring of the river Adonis survived until it was destroyed by order of Emperor Constantine in the 4th century AD.

In mainland Greece, a stream of individuals made their way to Delphi or the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, and once every four years, at the period of the Olympic games, the temple of Zeus at Olympia formed the goal of swarms of pilgrims from every part of the Hellenic world. When Alexander the Great reached Egypt, he put his whole vast enterprise on hold, while he made his way with a small band deep into the Libyan desert, to consult the oracle of Ammun. During the imperium of his Ptolemaic heirs, the shrine of Isis at Philae received many votive inscriptions from Greeks on behalf of their kindred far away at home.

Pilgrims are often considered lonely people.

Pilgrimage in the Middle Ages

In the Middle Ages, even as early as the 4th century AD, Christian pilgrimage was regarded as a sacred obligation and a trial of one's faith, since travel was dangerous, expensive and time-consuming. A returning pilgrim was called a palmer, as they would wear two crossed palm leaves to show they had made the pilgrimage.

The anonymous "Pilgrim of Bordeaux" has left an itinerary of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 333. Empress Helena's discovery of the True Cross outside Jerusalem was the result of a pilgrimage. The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus attracted pilgrims, who left their graffiti in the catacomb.

In the West, Saint Martin of Tours and Martial of Limoges inspired building projects and an industry catering to pilgrims' requirements, including, in Martial's case, elaborately faked pious documentation (see Adhemar of Chabannes). The shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain lay at the end of the Way of St. James and a long connected string of pilgrims' sites. The city of Rome was also the destination of pilgrimage, by routes such as the Via Francigena, as the center of the Western Church.

Popular destinations for pilgrimage in England included Bury St. Edmunds and Thomas Beckett's shrine at Canterbury, the destination of Chaucer's 14th century pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales. In the north, many pilgrims headed to the shrine of Saint Cuthbert of Lindisfarne.

Effects on trade

Pilgrims contributed an important element to long-distance trade before the modern era, and brought prosperity to successful pilgrimage sites, an economic phenomenon unequalled until the tourist trade of the 20th century. Encouraging pilgrims was a motivation for assembling (and sometimes fabricating) relics and for writing hagiographies of local saints, filled with inspiring accounts of miracle cures. Lourdes and other modern pilgrimage sites keep this spirit alive.

Modern pilgrimage

Pilgrimages are still made throughout the world: modern-day pilgrimages include the Way of St. James, the Hajj, and the pilgrimage to Mount Kailash.

In modern usage, the terms pilgrim and pilgrimage can also have a somewhat devalued meaning as they are often applied in a secular context. For example, fans of Elvis Presley may choose to visit his home, Graceland, in Memphis, Tennessee. Similarly one may refer to a cultural center such as Venice as a "tourists' Mecca".

Pilgrimage centres in various times and cultures

Antiquity

Many ancient religions had holy sites, temples and groves, where pilgrimages were made.

Ayyavazhi

The prilgrim centers of Ayyavazhi is Panchappathis. But nowadays in addition the Avatharappathi and Vakaippathi were also becoming important though not equal to Panchappathis. All of them but Avatharappathi is situated in Kanyakumari district, Tamil Nadu.

Bahá'í Faith

A Bahá'í pilgrimage currently consists of visiting the holy places in Haifa, Akká, and Bahjí in Northwest Israel. Bahá'ís do not have access to other places designated as sites for pilgrimage.

Bahá'u'lláh decreed pilgrimage in His Motherbook (Kitáb-i-Aqdas) to two places: the House of Bahá'u'lláh in Baghdad, Iraq, and the House of the Báb in Shiraz, Iran. In two separate Tablets, known as Suriy-i-Hajj, He prescribed specific rites for each of these pilgrimages (lifting the injunction regarding the shaving of one's head for pilgrimage in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas). It is obligatory to make the pilgrimage, "if one can afford it and is able to do so, and if no obstacle stands in one's way". Bahá'ís are free to choose between the two Houses, as either has been deemed sufficient. And although women are not bound to perform pilgrimage, they are certainly not prohibited to do so.

Later, `Abdu'l-Bahá designated the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh at Bahji (the Qiblih) as a site of visitation. No rites have been prescribed for this.

Buddhism

Main article: Buddhist pilgrimage

Gautama Buddha spoke of the four sites most worthy of pilgrimage for his followers to visit:

Other pilgrimage places in India and Nepal connected to the life of Gautama Buddha are: Savatthi, Pataliputta, Nalanda, Gaya, Vesali, Sankasia, Kapilavastu, Kosambi, Rajagaha, Varanasi.

Other famous places for buddhist pilgrimage in various countries include:

Christianity

Some European pilgrims on the road to Santiago de Compostela in 2005

Pilgrimages were first made to sites connected with the birth, life, crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Surviving descriptions of Christian pilgrimages to the Holy Land date from the 4th century, when pilgrimage was encouraged by church fathers like Saint Jerome. Pilgrimages also began to be made to Rome and other sites associated with the Apostles, Saints and Christian martyrs, as well as to places where there have been apparitions of the Virgin Mary. The crusades to the holy land are also considered to be mass armed pilgrimages.

The second largest single pilgrimage in the history of Christendom was to the Funeral of Pope John Paul II after his death on April 2, 2005. An estimated four million people travelled to Vatican City, in addition to the almost three million people already living in Rome, to see the body of Pope John Paul II lie in state.

World Youth Day is a major Catholic Pilgrimage, specifically for people aged 16-35. It is held internationally every 2-3 years. In 2005, young Roman Catholics visited Cologne, Germany. In 1995, the largest gathering of all time was to World Youth Day in Manila, Philippines, where four million people from all over the world attended.

The major Christian pilgrimages are to:

Other important Christian pilgrimage sites include:

Hinduism

The first four sites in the list above together comprise the Chardham, or four holy pilgrimage destinations. It is believed that travelling to these places leads to moksha, the release from samsara (cycle of rebirths). Vrindavan is most important place of pilgrimage for every Vaishnava, especially for the followers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism who regard Krishna as the original Personality of Godhead (God). Here one can attain love of God (prema).

Islam

Hajj

Pilgrimage to Mecca – the hajj – is one of the Five Pillars of Islam. It should be attempted at least once in the lifetime of all able-bodied Muslims.

In addition to that most of the Shiite Muslims undertake a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern part of Iran.

The Hajj is an inward journey to the Kab'ah of heart and soul.

Ziarah

Local Pilgrimage traditions - those undertaken as ziarah visits to local graves, are found throughout Muslim countries. In some countries, the graves of saints and heroes have very strong ziarah traditions as visiting the graves at auspicious times is a display of national and community identity.

Some traditions within Islam have negative attitudes towards grave visiting.

Judaism

See related article Three pilgrim festivals.

Within Judaism, the Temple in Jerusalem was the center of the Jewish religion, until its destruction in 70 AD, and all who were able were under obligation to visit and offer sacrifices known as the korbanot, particularly during the Jewish holidays in Jerusalem.

Following the destruction of the Second Temple and the onset of the diaspora, the centrality of pilgrimage to Jerusalem in Judaism was discontinued. In its place came prayers and rituals hoping for a return to Zion and the accompanying restoration of regular pilgrimages (see Jerusalem, Jews and Judaism).

Until recent centuries, pilgrimage has been a fairly difficult and arduous adventure. But now, Jews from many countries make periodic pilgrimages to the holy sites of their religion.

The western retaining wall of the original temple, known as the Wailing Wall, or Western Wall remains in the Old City of Jerusalem and this has been the most sacred site for Zionist Jews. Pilgrimage to this area was off-limits from 1948 to 1967, when East Jerusalem was controlled by Jordan.

Some Reform and Conservative Jews who no longer consider themselves exiles, still enjoy visiting Israel even if it is not an official "pilgrimage."

See also

Notes

  1. The Buddha mentions these four pilgrimage sites in the Mahaparinibbana Sutta. See, for instance, Thanissaro (1998) and Vajira & Story (1998).

Further reading

  • al-Naqar, Umar. 1972. The Pilgrimage Tradition in West Africa. Khartoum: Khartoum University Press.
  • Coleman, Simon and John Elsner. Pilgrimage: Past and Present in the World Religions. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995.
  • Jackowski, Antoni. 1998. Pielgrzymowanie . Wroclaw: Wydawnictwo Dolnoslaskie.
  • Wolfe, Michael (ed.). 1997. One Thousands Roads to Mecca. New York: Grove Press
  • Sumption, Jonathan. 2002. Pilgrimage: An Image of Mediaeval Religion. London: Faber and Faber Ltd.
  • Zarnecki, George. 1985. The Monastic World: The Contributions of The Orders. pp. 36-66, in Evans, Joan (ed.). 1985. The Flowering of the Middle Ages. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

External links

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