The Geography of Buddhism
Good maps of places significant to the history of Buddhism are a joy!
A perfect example is this Google map of Buddha’s India. Click on any individual Icon to read about it. To appreciate the level of detail (especially if you have a large screen on which to view it), maximize the window and scroll in to see the incredible level of detail that is possible. A wonderful way to plan a pilgrimage, eh?
Ānandajoti Bhikkhu (of Ancient Buddhist Texts) has very informative Maps of Ancient Buddhist Asia (Ancient Buddhist Texts). They supplement his 7 part, YouTube discussion of (among other things) the Geography of Buddhism:
- The Background to the Buddha’s Teaching (52:24)
The Geographical, Social, Political, and Religious Factors - 1. The Early Life of the Buddha (1:15:31)
Based on Mahākhandhaka (Vin. Mv. 14) - 2. The Last Year of the Buddha’s Life (1:21:02)
- 3. Asoka and the Missions (1:06:21)
- 4. The Spread of Buddhist Civilisation through Asia (1:08:26)
- The Planes of Existence (1:17:43)
- Buddhist Cosmology: Devolution and Evolution (50:12)
Bimala Churn Law 1932 – The Geography of Early Buddhism (Ancient Buddhist Texts) is an early text that tried to fill in the many geographical blanks.
Buddha.net’s listing of Buddhist pilgrimage sites, The Places to go . . . is part of Ven. S. Dammika‘s A Pilgrim’s Guide to India.
Photo Dharma has a wonderful interactive Google map tied to a vast collection of images significant to Buddhism. It features
Around 10,000 photographs of Buddhist archeological sites, pilgrimage centres, and temples in SE Asia, as well as Videos, Maps, Posters, etc. Please feel free to use the photographs to make more works with them, in accordance with the Creative Commons license on the page where you find them.
For students having completed at least three 10-day Vipassana courses as taught by S. N. Goenka, Pariyatti helps arrange Pilgrimages to many of the places sacred to Buddhism.
Finally, for a global map of Theravada Dhammayut temples with addresses and contact information, see templemap.org. It has a massive collection of data; however, browse there at your own risk as Google Safe Browsing once issued the following report regarding the Web page for the Asoka Buddhavihar Temple:
The site http://templemap.org/index.php/article/145-asoka-buddhavihar-temple contains harmful content, including pages that send visitors to harmful websites.