Since main goal of this trip is Buddhist pilgrimage maybe it would be helpful to explain briefly just what is Buddhism. This way also some of the terminology might make bit more sense. Mind you I'm not an expert so there could be errors in what follows. Sooo...From the start brief overview of the historical Buddha.
About 2500 years ago or so(though there's some disagreements on exact timing) prince was born to ruler of city state in what would be now northern India/southern Nepal and was named Siddhārtha Gautama. As a child of a ruler he lived quite wealthy life(it's claimed he had 3 palaces, one for each season(guess they counted seasons differently to us) though how accurate that claim I cannot tell). When he had been born there bad been prophecy that he would either be great leader or great spiritual leader and his father had decided to make sure son would follow his footsteps.
Then on his late 20's he is said to have made first contact with old, sick and dead persons. Having lived life of luxury realization that everyone would face this(and having been taught from the childhood idea of eternal rebirth made it even harder. Eternal birth to suffering didn't feel appealing) he was distraught.
Then he met penniless wandering ascetic monk who seemed to be happiest person he had yet met. This led eventually to Gautama deciding to do become wandering monk himself. In middle of night(some claim without seeing anybody before leaving, some claim he went once more to see his wife and recently born son) and accompanied only by lone servant who refused to abandon him he cut his hair, took orange robes and left.
Incidentally around this time in India there was quite a few wandering monks and indeed it was considered socially appropriate for elderly people to start seeking spiritual happiness by becoming wandering monks when they were too old for productive work. Younger men like Gautama were presumably bit more rare.
Anyway for next 6 years he studied under other monks and meditated searching for way for happiness. He tried extreme ascetic lifestyle(in most extreme case 1 rice a week for food...) which only got himself nearly killed. Then one day he is said to have remembered one day in his youth(when he was still rich) when he had been watching farmers working and he had fell into meditative state and felt extreme peace of mind. Realizing then happiness does not require such an extreme ascetism(nor extreme abundance that he had had in his youth and which had left him dissatisfied) he started feeding normally again(angering bunch of other ascetics who felt he betrayed their ideal. They would be Buddha's first converts later).
Eventually under tree(whose variety is now considered sacred in Buddhism and one is almost certainly in every Buddhist temple ground. And why tree? Why it's ALWAYS a tree under which something is archieved? Well...Shade of a tree is pleasant place to sit so guess there is logical reason!) he archieved enlightment and got name Buddha(which means basically 'enlightened one').
He eventually started to wander and teach what he had learned. Most famous ones being the four noble truths:
1) All life and experiences are ultimately dissatisfying. This is often translated as "suffering".
2) There is reason for the suffering.
3) It is possible to remove the suffering.
4) Finally that by following eightfold path, behaving decently and cultivating discipline you can archieve cessation of suffering.
Since suffering is so at core of Buddhism it is sometimes considered negative viewpoint(all life is suffering) but then again since it's teaching it's possible to be free of suffering isn't it ultimately positive viewpoint?
At it's core Buddhism says that the root of suffering is _inside_ you and therefore way out of suffering is ALSO inside you. Happiness does not come from external thing, experience or person. And ultimately source of this suffering comes from ignorance. One of his teachings covers the idea that everything is ultimately empty.
Empty? What he means by empty? I have glass full of water yet Buddha argues the glass is empty? The word "empty" is bit odd choice in my opinion but damned if I can think of better simple word for it! In either case question isn't how everything can be empty but from what they are empty? And again another misconception about Buddhism is that Buddhism is nihilistic belief in that nothing exists and nothing means anything. That's not what Buddha meant by being empty. It's empty of independent existence. Everything is dependant of everything. How deep you dig you do not find the ultimate IT that is what it is regardless of others. There is no "me" that is "me" without others.
Simply put. Tree is dependant of water, sunlight, seed it grew from. Remove one of them and tree does not exists. Car is dependant on tyres, engine, shape, designer etc. Remove one and it's not same car. I'm dependant on my body and mind. My mind is dependant on my experiences. I would not be same me as I am if my parents had been different or if one of them had died when I was but a child.
Humans not fully realizing this put in self-centric assumptions how life should go and suffer when things don't go as it is. They put in values to something that isn't part of the object thinking it will lead to happiness but ultimately fail to get it so they latch on to the next thing thinking THEN I will be happy. I will be happy when I get thing A. I will be happy when I archieve Y. On and on and on.
Anyway back to the history. For next 40-50 years or so Buddha wandered around India and his teachings spread wildly. Eventually it spread to Tibet, China and from China also to Korea and Japan. Every country it spread to it changed a bit assimilating parts of the culture it spreads to. For example when it came to Japan it incorporated Japan's love of nature and worship of mountains(Kuukai, one famous Japanese monk for who is spiritual father of Shikoku pilgrimage was once asked why he kept staying in the Mount Koya rather than capital and answered to effect that the sound of trees and water are also voice of Buddha).
Phew what more? Buddha's teachings were for a long time spread in oral form taught from one person to another. Maybe that's why generally suttras(teachings of Buddha's in written form) tend to begin with "this is what I was told". There's tons of those from short ones to long ones. Some of the more famous ones are Heart Suttra(which is said to consist core of Buddhism and deals with the emptiness), Diamond Suttra and Lotus Suttra. And lots more. Those 3 are only ones I can remember by name and only Heart Suttra I have actually read yet(plus bits and pieces of Lotus Suttra). About 600 years later or so they were put in written so there's definitely room for changes that have accumulated during that time so how accurately they are what he said are bit dubious. There's also extra difficulty in that what is considered original language(Pali) has it's versions actually translated from _chinese_ versions. Originally Buddhism started in India and spread to Chinese. Then it was translated to Chinese. Later Buddhism was pretty much wiped from India when it was conquered by Mongols(I think). This resulted in large parts of literature being burned so when they were reintroduced...They were translated from the Chinese version.
Japanese Buddhism has obviously been heavily influenced by Chinese Buddhism from which it came and so differs somewhat from Tibetan Buddhism. And around 1200-1300 there was growing movement of abandoning Chinese roots so there's some Japanese origin styles as well. These days of course Buddhism is also spreading to western worlds and again just as it did in Asia in past so it's adopting itself to suit more for western people.
Goal of Buddhist people is archieve state of liberation from suffering(mind you this does not mean freedom from say pain. You would stab even the Buddha and he would feel physical pain. Just not the suffering which is more of mental thing). This is called archieving enlightenment.
Think this is long enough for now! More follows as time allows. Finally map showing the pilgrimage places I'll be trying to walk next week.
As can be seen the first 2 dozen or so are very close to each other. First 29 temples cover mere 45 kilometers out of 104 km or so...Temple 34 is missing. That's somewhat north of map edge.
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