Pilgrimage and sacred journeys

A Hindu holy place is a tirtha, a ‘crossing place’ where the boundary between the human and the divine is thin; many lie on riverbanks. Pilgrims bathe to wash away sin, make offerings and seek darshan of the deity. Varanasi on the Ganges, where many hope to die or to have their ashes immersed, is especially sacred. Popular circuits include the four abodes (Char Dham) at the edges of India and the Himalayan shrines of Kedarnath and Badrinath. The Kumbh Mela, held in turn at Prayagraj, Haridwar, Ujjain and Nashik, brings tens of millions to bathe at auspicious moments – among the largest gatherings on earth.

Before his death, according to the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, the Buddha named four places worth visiting with reverence: Lumbini, where he was born; Bodh Gaya, where he attained enlightenment; Sarnath, where he first taught; and Kushinagar, where he died. Pilgrims from across Asia and beyond still travel to these sites to meditate, chant and make offerings. Walking clockwise around a stupa or sacred site is a basic act of devotion; in Tibet, pilgrims make the kora around Mount Kailash, some prostrating along the whole route. In Japan, the Shikoku pilgrimage visits eighty-eight temples linked to the monk Kūkai.

Jain pilgrimage is an act of devotion and austerity, often made barefoot and while fasting. The hill of Shatrunjaya near Palitana in Gujarat is crowned by hundreds of temples, reached by a climb of more than three thousand steps; by custom, no one eats on the summit or stays there overnight. Sammed Shikharji in Jharkhand is revered as the place where twenty of the twenty-four tirthankaras attained liberation. At Shravanabelagola in Karnataka, the colossal statue of Bahubali is anointed with milk, saffron and other substances in the Mahamastakabhisheka, held about every twelve years and drawing vast crowds.

Guru Nanak taught that bathing at holy places earns no merit without inner devotion, so Sikhism has no obligatory pilgrimage. Even so, Sikhs from across the world travel to the Harmandir Sahib, the Golden Temple, in Amritsar. Pilgrims walk around its sacred pool, bathe in the water and listen to the continuous singing of hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib, before eating in a langar that feeds tens of thousands of people every day. Other destinations include the five takhts, seats of Sikh authority, and gurdwaras linked to the Gurus’ lives, such as Nankana Sahib and Kartarpur in Pakistan.

The Torah commands Israelites to appear before God three times a year, at Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot, and in Temple times crowds went up to Jerusalem with offerings; these are still called the pilgrimage festivals (shalosh regalim). After the Temple’s destruction in 70 CE, Jews prayed towards Jerusalem and longed for its restoration. Today the Western Wall, a remnant of the Temple Mount’s retaining wall, is the most visited Jewish holy site, where many tuck written prayers between the stones. Pilgrimages are also made to the graves of biblical figures and revered rabbis, such as Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai at Meron.

Christian pilgrimage grew in the fourth century, when travellers such as Egeria visited the places of Jesus’ life and death in the Holy Land. Medieval pilgrims also went to Rome, to the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, to Santiago de Compostela, shrine of Saint James, and to Canterbury, made famous by Chaucer. They sought forgiveness, healing or the help of a saint. Though Protestant reformers criticised the practice, pilgrimage thrives today: hundreds of thousands walk the Camino de Santiago each year, and millions visit Marian shrines such as Lourdes, Fátima and Guadalupe.

The Hajj to Mecca, the fifth Pillar of Islam, is required once in a lifetime of every adult Muslim who is physically and financially able. It takes place in the month of Dhu al-Hijjah. Pilgrims enter a state of consecration (ihram), men wearing two plain white cloths, so that all appear equal before God. They circle the Kaaba seven times, walk between the hills of Safa and Marwa, and stand in prayer on the plain of Arafat – the climax of the Hajj. They then stone pillars at Mina and sacrifice an animal, as Muslims everywhere celebrate Eid al-Adha. The lesser pilgrimage, Umrah, may be made at any time.

The holiest places of the Bahá’í Faith lie in northern Israel, where Bahá’u’lláh spent his final years as an exile and prisoner. Bahá’ís apply to join a nine-day pilgrimage, visiting the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh at Bahjí near Akka – the holiest spot on earth for Bahá’ís and the direction of their daily prayer – and the golden-domed Shrine of the Báb amid the garden terraces of Mount Carmel in Haifa. Pilgrims pray and meditate in the shrines and visit places associated with Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The houses in Baghdad and Shiraz named in scripture as places of pilgrimage are at present inaccessible.

The Grand Shrine of Ise, dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu, is Shinto’s holiest site, and its main sanctuaries are rebuilt every twenty years in an ancient renewal rite. In the Edo period, millions of ordinary people made mass pilgrimages there, sometimes leaving home without permission. The mountain routes of the Kumano Kodō, where Shinto and Buddhist devotion meet, have drawn pilgrims for a thousand years. The most widespread pilgrimage, though, is hatsumōde, the first shrine visit of the New Year, when tens of millions of people in Japan pray for good fortune and buy fresh amulets.

Ancient Greeks travelled, privately or in official delegations (theoriai), to great sanctuaries shared by the whole Greek world. At Delphi, pilgrims consulted Apollo’s oracle through his priestess, the Pythia. Olympia hosted games in honour of Zeus every four years, protected by a sacred truce. The sick journeyed to Epidaurus, where they slept in the sanctuary of Asclepius hoping for a healing dream. Each autumn, initiates walked the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis for the Mysteries of Demeter and Persephone. Under Roman rule these sanctuaries continued to flourish, until the suppression of pagan cults in late antiquity.

Every August, devotees gather at the Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove in south-western Nigeria, a forest of shrines and sculptures along the Osun River and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The festival honours Osun, orisha of the river, fertility and love, and the town’s founding covenant with her. At its climax, a procession led by the Arugba, a young maiden carrying a sacred calabash of offerings on her head, moves to the river, where people pray for children, health and prosperity and collect its water. Pilgrims come from across Nigeria and the diaspora, including Brazil, Cuba and the United States.