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Pilgrimage, a journey to a sacred place undertaken as an act of devotion, penance, thanksgiving or petition, ties to six religions in this atlas, tied for the strongest open convergence candidate at this tier: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Shinto.

Two That Name It Outright

Islam names the practice in its own top-level record: the pilgrimage to Mecca is one of the five obligations that define the religion's practice, alongside the declaration of faith, prayer, almsgiving and the Ramadan fast. Christianity's tie is carried at the level of its own communions rather than as one uniform custom: Roman Catholicism records pilgrimage to Rome, to Marian shrines and to the tombs of the saints as a long-standing devotion rather than a private custom, and Eastern Orthodoxy records pilgrimage to Mount Athos, to Jerusalem and to the shrines of local saints the same way, a settled devotion of the church rather than an option within it.

Four Sites This Atlas Already Holds Its Own Entry For

The remaining four are not asserted in the abstract; each already anchors a specific place in this atlas's own record. Judaism's pilgrimage is carried through its Hasidic communities: Breslov Hasidism's pilgrimage to Uman for the New Year draws tens of thousands of men annually, recorded as the largest single gathering of this kind in the Jewish world, and Chabad-Lubavitch records pilgrimage to the Western Wall and to the graves of the righteous as standing in place of the three pilgrim festivals that once required attendance at a Temple that no longer stands. Buddhism's tie anchors at Bodh Gaya, the place under a fig tree in Bihar where Siddhartha Gautama is held to have become a Buddha, ringed by monasteries built by Tibet, Thailand, Japan, Myanmar and a dozen other countries, so that Theravada, East Asian Mahayana and Tibetan Vajrayana are all present and visibly practising differently in the same enclosure. Hinduism's tie anchors at Amarnath Cave, an ice formation in the Kashmir Himalaya venerated as a self-formed lingam of Shiva, reached only in high summer by a hard multi-day trek and drawing hundreds of thousands of registered pilgrims each year under heavy security. Shinto's tie anchors at Ise Grand Shrine, the shrine of the sun goddess Amaterasu and the most senior shrine in Shinto, where around nine million people come each year though almost nobody sees past the outer fences, the interiors reserved to the priesthood and the imperial family alone.

Where To Read More

• PilgrimageDevotional PracticesThe practice itself, tied for the strongest open convergence candidate at six religions
• IslamAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Names the pilgrimage to Mecca directly in its own top-level record
• ChristianityAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Carried at the level of its own communions: Rome, Marian shrines, Mount Athos
• JudaismAbrahamic (Monotheistic)Carried through Hasidic pilgrimage to Uman and to the Western Wall
• BuddhismDharmic (Nontheistic)Anchors at Bodh Gaya, where three streams of Buddhism practise side by side
• Bodh GayaBuddhist SitesThe atlas's own anchor for the Buddhism tie: the enlightenment site itself
• HinduismDharmic (Polytheistic)Anchors at Amarnath Cave, one of the most heavily guarded pilgrimages anywhere
• Amarnath CaveHindu SitesThe atlas's own anchor for the Hinduism tie: the cave itself
• ShintoPolytheistic (Animist)Anchors at Ise Grand Shrine; nine million visitors reach only the outer fences
• Ise Grand ShrineShinto SitesThe atlas's own anchor for the Shinto tie: the shrine itself