The Journey

Representations of movement through sacred space pervade Buddhist imagery. Sacred mountains, water, and sights are detailed in a range of media. Narrative paintings and carvings not only tell the tale of the life of the Buddha but also describe why and how pilgrimage sites were established and the arduous journeys pilgrims endured to reach them. In these works, Buddhist pilgrims frequently appear circumambulating (walking clockwise around) the sacred sites or moving from one sacred site to another along pilgrimage routes.

Painted and sculpted icons are often concealed within temples at pilgrimage sites. A pilgrim may never see the actual image at the sacred site, just as he does not view a relic housed below or within a stupa. For the pilgrim, “meeting the sacred” is often virtual. The presence of images adds sacred power to a place, particularly in the case of East Asian and Himalayan pilgrimage sites, where relics such as incantations, sutras, and other Buddhist paraphernalia are sometimes concealed within sculptures of Buddhas and bodhisattvas (beings who have reached nirvana but choose to stay active in the world to help others along the path to enlightenment.) In these cases, the relics enhance the potency of both the images and the sacred sites. The wooden sculpture of the bodhisattva Kshitigarbha (Jizo in Japanese) in the center of this room was likely created for the Kofuku-ji temple in Japan. Originally, it contained one thousand tiny carved figures of Jizo as well as written prayers and invocations, which would have increased its spiritual power.