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In religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a very long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a sacred area or shrine of importance to innate faith. Members of every major religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.
Unlike some other religions, Hindus are not required to undertake pilgrimages during their lifetime. [1] However, most Hindus go on such journeys to numerous iconic sites including those below: [2]
Char Dham (Famous Four Pilgrimage sites): The four holy sites Puri, Rameswaram, Dwarka, and Badrinath (or alternatively the Himalayan towns of Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri, and Yamunotri) compose the Chota Char Dham (four small abodes) pilgrimage circuit.
Kumbh Mela: The Kumbh Mela (the "pitcher festival") is one of the holiest of Hindu pilgrimages that is held every three years; the location is rotated among Prayagraj, Haridwar, Nashik, and Ujjain.
Old Holy cities as per Puranic Texts: Varanasi formerly known as Kashi, Prayagraj also known as Prayag, Haridwar-Rishikesh, Mathura-Vrindavan, Kurukshetra, the Land of Bhagavad Gita in Haryana and Ayodhya.
Old Temple cities: Puri, which hosts a major Vaishnava Jagannath temple and Rath Yatra celebration; Katra, home to the Vaishno Devi temple; Tirumala – Tirupati, home to the Tirumala Venkateswara Temple; Shirdi, home to the Sai Baba of Shirdi temple; Madurai Meenakshi and Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple in Sri Rangam; Dwarkadhish Temple – Dwarka, home to Dwarkadhish form of Sri Krishna; Radharani Temple – Barsana, dedicated to Sri Radha, Sabarimala, where Swami Ayyappan is worshipped; Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala; Guruvayur temple at Guruvayur. The oldest of these temple pilgrimages is the Pandharpur Wari which is said to be in tradition from the past 800 years.
New Pilgrimage Centres: Three comparatively recent temples of fame and huge pilgrimage are Belur Math, the hub of the worldwide Ramakrishna Movement in West Bengal, Dakshineswar Kali Temple, Kolkata West Bengal;Tarapith West Bengal ,Vivekananda Rock Memorial at Kanyakumari; Sri Ramana Ashram at Tiruvannamalai; and ISKCON temples in Ujjain, Bangalore, [3] Patna, Tirumala, Vishakapatnam, Delhi, Chennai, and Mumbai. Ramakrishna Mission Swami Vivekananda's Ancestral House and Cultural Centre, the birthplace of Swami Vivekananda is also another popular destination. Nandikeshwari Temple West Bengal,Kankalitala, Kiriteswari Temple, Nabadwip, Mayapur,
Shakti Pitha: An important set of pilgrimages are the Shakti Pitha , where the Mother Goddess is worshipped, the three principal ones being Kalighat, Tarapith and Kamakhya .
Jyotirlingas: Other set of important pilgrimages are the Jyotirlingas , where lord Shiva is worshipped in the form of Shiva Lingas. There are twelve Jyotirlingas in India. The twelve Jyotirlingas are:
Trimbakeshwar Shiva Temple is an ancient Hindu temple in the town of Trimbak, in the Trimbakeshwar tehsil in the Nashik District of Maharashtra, India, 28 km from the city of Nashik and 40 km from Nashik road. It is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva and is one of the twelve jyotirlingas where the Hindu genealogy registers at Trimbakeshwar, Maharashtra are kept. The origin of the sacred Godavari River is near Trimbak.
Dwarka is a town and municipality of Devbhumi Dwarka district in the state of Gujarat. It is located on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula on the right bank of the Gomti river at the mouth of the Gulf of Kutch facing the Arabian Sea.
Hinduism in Trinidad and Tobago is the second largest religion. Hindu culture arrived to Trinidad and Tobago in 1845, with the arrival of the first Indian indentured laborers, the overwhelming majority of which were Hindu. According to the 2011 census there were 240,100 declared Hindus in Trinidad and Tobago.
Kedarnath Temple is a Hindu temple, one of the twelve jyotirlinga of Shiva. The temple is located on the Garhwal Himalayan range near the Mandakini river, in the state of Uttarakhand, India. Due to extreme weather conditions, the temple is open to the general public only between the months of April and November. During the winters, the vigraha (deity) of the temple is carried down to Ukhimath to be worshipped for the next six months. Kedarnath is seen as a homogeneous form of Shiva, the 'Lord of Kedarkhand', the historical name of the region.
The Ramanathaswamy Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva located on Rameswaram island in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the twelve Jyotirlinga temples. It is one of the 275 Paadal Petra Sthalams, the sacred sites glorified by the Nayanars, Appar, Sundarar, and Sambandar, with their songs. According to tradition, the lingam of the Ramanathaswamy Temple was established and worshipped by Lord Ram before he crossed the bridge called Rama Setu to the island kingdom of Lanka, identified with Sri Lanka. It is one of the Char Dham pilgrimage sites. The temple was expanded during the 12th century by the Pandya Dynasty, and its principal shrine’s sanctum was renovated by Jeyaveera Cinkaiariyan and his successor Gunaveera Cinkaiariyan, monarchs of the Jaffna kingdom. The temple has the longest corridor among all the Hindu temples of India. It was built by King Muthuramalinga Sethupathy. The temple is considered a pilgrimage site for Shaivites, Vaishnavites, and Smartas.
Baidyanath Temple, also known as Baba Baidyanath Dham, is a Hindu temple dedicated to Shiva. It is located in Deoghar, in the Santhal Parganas division of the Indian state of Jharkhand. The temple complex comprises the central shrine of Baba Baidyanath along with 21 additional temples. It is significant to the Hindu sects of Shaivism as this temple is referred to as one of the twelve Jyotirlingas.
Dow Village is a village located within the borders of California, Couva in the region of Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo in Trinidad and Tobago. It is famous for its annual play based on the Ramayana called Ramleela. This live play chronicles the activity of Lord Rama as he rescues his wife, Sita, from the clutches of Ravana. Dow Village is also known for the lighting of clay pots called deyas on Divali day. The diyas are lit along the street in bamboo arches. There is also a very old masjid and several churches, in addition to a mandir. It borders Esperanza Village.
In Hinduism, the yatra (pilgrimage) to the tirthas has special significance for earning the punya needed to attain the moksha (salvation) by performing the darśana, the parikrama (circumambulation), the yajna, the Dhyana, the puja (worship), the prarthana, the dakshina, the seva, the bhandara, etc. These sacred places are usually located on the banks of sacred waters, such as sacred rivers or their tributaries, the kundas, the ghats, or the stepwells, or the temple tanks.
Yatra, in Indian-origin religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, generally means a pilgrimage to holy places such as confluences of sacred rivers, sacred mountains, places associated with Hindu epics such as the Mahabharata and Ramayana, and other sacred pilgrimage sites. Visiting a sacred place is believed by the pilgrim to purify the self and bring one closer to the divine. The journey itself is as important as the destination, and the hardships of travel serve as an act of devotion in themselves.
Nageshwar Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva located on Dwarka, Gujarat, India. one of the legendary temples mentioned in the Shiva Purana and is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas. Nageshvara jyotirlinga is situated in a forest called Daarukavanam In Gujarat
Sri Bhramaramba Mallikarjuna Temple or Srisailam Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to the deities Shiva and Parvati, located at Srisailam in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is significant to the Hindu sects of both Shaivism and Shaktism as this temple is referred to as one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva and as one of the eighteen Shakti pithas, centres of the Hindu goddess. Shiva is worshiped as Mallikarjuna and is represented by the lingam. His consort Parvati is depicted as Bhramaramba.
Religion and spirituality, a pilgrimage is a long journey or search of great moral significance. Sometimes, it is a journey to a sacred place or shrine of importance to a person's beliefs and faith. Members of every major religion participate in pilgrimages. A person who makes such a journey is called a pilgrim.
Shiv Mandir may refer to the following temples:
The Temple in the Sea, officially known as the Sewdass Sadhu Shiva Mandir, is a Hindu mandir in Waterloo, Carapichaima, Couva–Tabaquite–Talparo, Trinidad and Tobago. Sewdass Sadhu, an indentured laborer from India, constructed the original temple in the Gulf of Paria in 1952. The temple was reconstructed by Randolph Rampersad and reopened in 1995.
Caribbean Shaktism, also known as Kalimai Dharma or Madras Religion in Guyana, refers to the syncretic Shakti Kali/Mariamman worship that has evolved within the Indo-Caribbean Tamil community in countries such as Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Jamaica and Suriname. It can be found across the Caribbean and any South American country with an Indo-Caribbean community. It is a syncretic blend of Dravidian folk religion and Hinduism and has also been influenced by other cultural and religious traditions found in the Caribbean such as Catholicism, Trinidad Orisha, Comfa and Obeah. It is considered to be a form of Folk Tamil Hinduism and many attend services of Vedic Origin, more Orthodox Tamil Origin, and Madrasi origin.