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Tipiṭaka Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage" in the Pāḷi language is "cārika". This word was recorded in the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka more than 2,500 years ago. The reference in the Tipiṭaka mentions that the Buddha had permitted his first sixty enlightened disciples, who had been ordained in the initial group of Bhikkhus, to make journeys of pilgrimage to different places in order to spread Buddhasāsana for the benefit of all divine and human beings.

Today, Buddhasāsana continues to pass on the teaching of the Buddha recorded in the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka, and Buddhist monks continue to make journeys to propagate Dhamma as they did in pilgrimages in the past. Thus "cārika" is a word that people tend to reserve mostly for Buddhist monks. But actually cārika is a meritorious act that can be and should be undertaken by everybody, because the propagation of Dhamma brings wisdom and peace to the propagators as well as the receivers. Thus, the M.L. Maniratana Bunnag Dhamma Society Fund under the patronage of the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand has initiated this Tipiṭaka Pilgrimage, which is a pilgrimage in the new electronic era of Dhamma Technology allowing laity to join in the study of the Pāḷi Tipiṭaka combined with a journey more valuable than common travel...

From the Tipiṭaka Pligrimage Oreintation

Devaves Palace, Bank of Thailand
Sunday, 27 February B.E. 2548 (2005)