Buddhist Pilgrimage; Taiwan Buddhist Monastic Pilgrimage Literature on India; Contemporary Spread of Buddhism; Globalization of Buddhism; Religious Travels
摘要
Pilgrimage marks the moving borders of a religion; flocking to the sacred center of a religion are followers from locations to which the religion has spread. On the other hand, the recognition of sacred sites, as well as the increase and decrease of their number, reflect the construction of the “homeland” of a religion in pilgrims’ minds. Chinese Buddhists since the Song Dynasty have mostly been making pilgrimages to sacred sites in China. In post-war Taiwan, however, there has been a trend among Buddhists to make pilgrimages to India. Quite a few well-known Buddhist masters made such trips and recorded their experiences, such as Hiuwan 曉雲, Xingyun 星雲, Daozheng 道證, Sheng Yen 聖嚴, Wuyin 悟因, Jingyao 淨耀, and Haitao 海濤. Drawing from their writings about their pilgrimages, I will analyze the implications of pilgrimages to India for Taiwanese Buddhists in the global context.
To understand the borders of the Buddha-land as drawn by pilgrimages and the position of Taiwanese Buddhism in it, this paper will be divided into four parts: (1) Buddhist concepts of pilgrimage and the construction of sacred sites; (2) the trend of pilgrimages to India in post-war Taiwan; (3) the motivations and narratives of Taiwanese Buddhists who made such pilgrimages; and (4) the new identity constructed among Taiwanese Buddhists after their pilgrimages.
