Re-imagining Tibetan Buddhist pilgrimage culture in India

Abstract

This article explores how Tibetans have defined India, the birthplace of Buddhism, as a space for themselves and hence created, re-created and reinvented their ancient pilgrimage destinations and rituals there since the middle of 20th century. I begin this paper by introducing the historical development of pilgrimage in the Buddhist tradition and mapping the sacred Buddhist geography of India. In the second part, I explore the development of pilgrimage traditions in Tibetan Buddhism and the network of sacred sites used by pilgrims. In the third part, I introduce some of the Tibetan inventions and reinventions of the pilgrimage tradition over an extensive period of time, between the 12th and the mid-20th century. Finally, partly based on my fieldwork findings, I examine how the Tibetan diasporic community in India has maintained and reinvented its pilgrimage culture and what possible changes have occurred subsequently.