The earliest reference of pilgrimage in Buddhism came from the Buddha himself in his last discourse before passing away and preserved in the Mahaparinirvana Sutra. His chief attendant Ananda expressed concern that the community would find it a challenge to maintain their faith and urgency…

Everyone should be blessed with a place they can call their own—a place where they can feel intimately connected with the rest of life; a place where they can shed, like water off a salal leaf, the cares (most of them trivial, after all) of a busier, stressful…