Circumambulation, and traveling over ancient traces are two of the oldest extant ritual acts, characteristic of Buddhist and Hindu pilgrimages since antiquity. The adventurous Chinese scholar-monk Xuanzang in the seventh century did just that: he followed the sacred traces of former masters back to India, and then onward throughout India, sometimes staying, living with monks, sometimes revitalizing interest in forgotten sacred sites and discovering texts, usually circumambulating where he visited.

Even doctrinaire Buddhists like Xuanzang, who were not inclined to art or artistic ritualization, obediently followed these ancient traces and circumambulated relics, uniting devotion, ritual action, sacred geometry, and continental landscapes. Indeed, elemental archetypical actions tempered and tested by the harsh climates and topographies revealed the character of these devout men and women.

Where the Buddha was born, where he lived, where he taught, where he spread his metaphysical presence—all these trace out a devotional map for an unforgiving path through India and the Himalaya to China and back again. Circumambulating mountains, relics, bones, teeth; and finally stupas, mummies, treasures, and whole monasteries, was part of a geomantic ritualized lifestyle of Bon and Vajrayana monks and the communities they served. This behavior of circumambulating mountains and lakes is prehistoric; as old as the worship of these landmarks that were revered as deities. Vajrayana Buddhism adopted many archaic Tibetan ritual features, as well as Vedic traditions from India. Much of the ritual basis of Buddhism is far older than Buddhism itself, calling to mind the adage, “Inside every religion is another religion.”

These ancient rituals were conceived on a vast scale. Weeks of ritual action involving sand mandalas, thangka paintings, empowerments, butter sculptures, and ritual dance were performed in private before any public ritual transformed the local landscape, essentially bringing the deity forth for all. Forming circles of protection is archaic and tribal. Demarcations on a landscape define territory by spiritual energy and sacred geometry as much as by topographical configuration and military strategy

A circle is a kora. The Chorten Kora in Bhutan is a famous three-day circumambulation of a great chorten at Trashiyangtse. The Khilkor Kora is a four-hour monastic circling ritual around a large sand mandala in Tashichho Dzong. The Bon Kora of Wenjia Bonya monastery in Qinghai is a great processional circumambulation along the mountainside by the monks and villagers of Bonya. It is not for the fainthearted. Please enjoy here a series of photographs of the Bon Kora at Bonya Monastery in 2018 by Joe Tymczyszyn.

For a sense of the scale, please note the large Maitreya Buddha sculpture on the mountain above the monastery in the second photograph. The kora, popularly called the Maitreya Kora, moves from the monastery as the center of the circle. The entire monastic body comprises lamas, musicians, drummers, chanting monks, and monks with banners, flags, standards, and incense. At first breaking their circle in the courtyard that marks the center of the kora, their procession traces a design of multiple inverted semi-circles in the courtyard before heading down a precarious rocky slope and embarking to trace a great counter-clockwise circle on their stony homeland.