Resources

Websites

http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha
Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art is organized in conjunction with a companion two-hour documentary film biography The Buddha, narrated by Richard Gere, and directed by the award-winning filmmaker David Grubin for PBS. The documentary and the exhibition jointly received a Chairman’s Special Award from the National Endowment for the Humanities. This site provides further information on the documentary and on the life of the Buddha.

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/budd/hd_budd.htm
Noted scholar Vidja Dehejia, Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University, contributes an essay on Buddhism and Buddhist Art to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Links to the Timeline and other relavent articles are also accessible.

http://www.asiasocietymuseum.org/buddhist_trade/intro.html
The Asia Society site on Buddhist Art and the Trade Routes provides an extensive introduction to Buddhist art throughout Asia, and the crucial role of trade in its formation.

http://www.himalayanart.org/
Himalayan Art Resources was founded by the Shelley and Donald Rubin foundation, and aims to create a virtual museum of the art of the Himalayan region. The site exhibits images from museum and private collections and aims to document all known Himalayan art objects.

http://www.thlib.org/
The Tibetan and Himalayan Library, supported by the University of Virginia, is a technological infrastructure for creating and publishing content from a wide variety of projects relating to the Tibetan region. The site includes interactive maps of some of the most important Tibetan monasteries.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/
Sacred Destinations is a privately established site with thorough, well-organized information about religious sites around the world, including many Buddhist sites.

http://www.buddhanet.net/index.html
Buddhanet aims to use new information technology to support the global Buddhist community. The site contains extensive information on the history and practice of Buddhism. On pilgrimage specifically, please see:
http://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhistworld/pilgrimage.htm

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list
The UNESCO World Heritage website has short descriptions of the many Buddhist pilgrimage destinations that are also World Heritage Sites.  

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php
This site gathers news reports relating to Buddhism from around the world. The site is committed to non-sectarian news reporting, but aims to serve the global Buddhist community.

http://idp.bl.uk/
The International Dunhuang Project is a collaboration that aims to make information and images of manuscripts, paintings, textiles, and artifacts from Dunhuang and other sites along the Eastern Silk Road available on the Internet.

http://asi.nic.in/index.asp
The home site of the Archeological Survey of India includes information about national monuments, excavations, and museums.

Selected Bibliography

Bartholomew, Terese Tse, and John Johnston, eds. The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan. Chicago: Serindia, 2008.

Izu, Kenro and Clark Worswick. Kenro Izu: Sacred Places. Arena Editions, 2001.

Huber, Toni. The Cult of the Pure Crystal Mountain: Popular Pilgrimage and Visionary Landscape in Southeast Tibet. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Huntington, John C. “Sowing the Seeds of the Lotus: A Journey to the Great Pilgrimage Sites of Buddhism,” Orientations 16, no. 11 (November 1985): 46-61; 17, no. 2 (February 1986): 28-43; 17, no. 3 (March 1986): 32-46; 17, no. 7 (July 1986): 28-40; and 17, no. 9 (September 1986):46-58.

Huntington, Susan L. and John C. Huntington. Leaves from the Bodhi Tree. The Art of Pala India (8th-12th centuries) and Its International Legacy. Seattle: The Dayton Art Institute in Association with the University of Washington Press, 1990.

Leidy, Denise Patry. Treasure of Asian Art. The Asia Society's Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection. New York: The Asia Society Galleries, 1994.

Leoshko, Janice, ed. Bodhgaya: The Site of Enlightenment. Bombay: Marg, 1988.

Moerman, D. Max. Localizing Paradise: Kumano Pilgrimage and the Religious Landscape of Premodern Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2005.

Naquin, Susan, and Chün-fang Yü, eds. Pilgrims and Sacred Sites in China. Studies on China, no. 15. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992.

Proser, Adriana. Pilgrimage and Buddhist Art. New York: Asia Society; New Haven: Yale University press, 2010.

Reader, Ian. Making Pilgrimages: Meaning and Practice in Shikoku. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2005.

Rhie, Marylin M., and Robert A. F. Thurman. Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum of San Francisco; New York: Tibet House and Harry N. Abrams, 1991.

Stoddard, R. H., and Alan Morinis, eds. Sacred Places, Sacred Spaces: The Geography of Pilgrimages. Baton Rouge: Lousiana State University, 1997.

Strong, John S. Relics of the Buddha. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.

Swearer, Donald K. Becoming the Buddha. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2004.

ten Grotenhuis, Elizabeth. Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1999.