Pilgrimages in China

[onesp1ng]

So I have this friend who did a pilgrimage around one of the islands of Japan not long ago. He has since started to write of his experience in book form, but is also attempting to travel to China for another pilgimage. As I've mentioned the four sacred mountains to him, he would be both willing and interested to travel there, perhaps take a train from location to location, and bascially walk....climb...or do whatever it would take to get up them all.

Of course we know what the mountians are and where they are. In China it was said that a Buddhist should make a pilgimage to these locations at least one time thoughout his or her life.

Question: Does anyone have info on these mountains related to pilgrimages?

Here are some photos of his trip to Shikoku. Click view photos and then check out the Phot Album, cause that way it goes in cronological order. And he has commented on the pics.

Shikoku: http://www.ofoto.com/ShareLandingSig...de%3Dtrue&Ux=0

[LeiYunFat]

Well in China, they may say you should, but Buddhism is from India. It's not like the Hajj in which all Muslums are bound to it. But it could also be China just wants the tourism. Lol.

Those pictures are awesome. I always wanted to go to Japan.

[onesp1ng]

Leiyunfat,

Glad you liked the pics.

But, these mountians are highly significant to Chinese in general, and even more so
Buddhists. It's at least similar to the hajj, though you need not be Buddhist to enter, regardless of the origin of the religion it's self.

All the sacred mountains have very special significances. For example,


"Tai Shan is not merely the mountain home of the Gods such as Mt. Olympus or Mt. Sinai; it is considered a deity itself and has been venerated by the Chinese as their most sacred peak since at least the third millennium B.C. The emperors of ancient China regarded Tai Shan as the actual son of the Emperor of Heaven, from whom they received their own authority to rule the people. The mountain functioned as a God who looked after the affairs of humans and who also acted as a communication channel for humans to speak to God. Seventy-two legendary emperors are said to have come to Tai Shan, but the first known evidence dates from a rock carving left on the mountain in 219B.C. by Emperor Shih-huang who is remembered for having begun construction of the Great Wall. "

This is something which people do in China, as well as in India and else where, for devotional purposes.

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