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Project Overview

Variations in time and place are vitally significant to the practice of religion. During the 5,000 years of Chinese history, Daoism and indigenous practices flourished in every region of the realm. Foreign religions including Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, and Christianity, entered and spread throughout China. These religions are all associated with many locations: temples, pilgrimage routes, sacred spring and mountains, schools, and many more.

Research began on the Religious Atlas of China and the Himalayas in 2004. The Atlas aims to create interactive maps and timelines, indexes of named places (“gazetteers”), and links to images, websites, texts, and datasets. Collaborators on the project are specialists in Asian art, history and religion; and in geographic information systems and digital library development. The first phase of the Atlas will be completed in 2006.

Principal Investigator Lewis Lancaster, Director of the Electronic Cultural Atlas Initiative (ECAI), is a specialist in the transmission of Buddhist teachings through Eurasia. He spent 33 years on the faculty of the department of East Asian Languages at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Religious Atlas of China and the Himalayas is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation, the University of the West, and International and Area Studies at the University of California, Berkeley.