The Making of a Pilgrimage

I just came back from an interesting talk,The Making of a Pilgrimage: Marking the Sites of Buddha's Life, at the Asian Civilization Museum.

In the talk, Professor Frederick M. Asher highlighted some of the uncertainties about the exact locations of the sites which the Buddha admonished his followers to visit: the site of his birth, his enlightenment, his first sermon and his death.

It was interesting to discover that the sites were as certain as I thought they were.

Even though the sites may not be authentic, Professor Asher did explain, during the question and answer session, that the authenticity of the site do not necessary undermine the sanctity of the site: as long as the faithful hold it to be true, the site has its sanctity.

However, what really captured my attention, was what the professor said about the way we relate to a pilgrimage site. He said (to the best of my memory) that we relate to a pilgrimage site in 4 ways. We sense them through how they were recorded in the scriptures. We visualize them through the accounts of the early Asian pilgrims. We understand them through the recent archaeological findings and studies. And finally we experience them through the fabrications and presentations of the sites' management.

Recently, I had been thinking about what is a pilgrimage and its significance. What the professor said gave me much insight and thoughts about my experiences to sites of pilgrimage significance. That is a topic for another day.

On a side note, I must say that it great that the ACM is conducting such free public talks.