Shrines are found in many religions. As distinguished from a
temple, a shrine usually houses a particular
relic or
cult image, which is the object of
worship or
veneration. A shrine may also be constructed to set apart a site which is thought to be particularly holy, as opposed to being placed for the convenience of worshipers. Shrines therefore attract the practice of
pilgrimage.
Christianity Shrines are found in many forms of Christianity, but not all.
Catholicism, the largest branch of Christianity, has many shrines, as do
Orthodox Christianity,
Anglicanism and some forms of
Lutheranism.
Catholicism The Catholic
1983 Code of Canon Law, canons 1230 and 1231 reads: "The term shrine means a church or other sacred place which, with the approval of the local Ordinary, is by reason of special devotion frequented by the faithful as pilgrims." In the Catholic Church, a local
diocesan bishop or
archbishop can designate a local (arch)diocesan shrine. For a shrine to be a
national shrine, the approval of the country's
Episcopal Conference is required. Similarly, the approval of the
Holy See at the Vatican in Rome is required for it to be international. reliquary shrine of Saint
Bridget of Sweden in
Vadstena In unofficial, colloquial Catholic use, the term "shrine" is a niche or alcove in churches, especially larger ones, used by parishioners when praying privately. Shrines are always centered on some image (for instance, a statue, painting, mural or mosaic) of
Jesus Christ, of
Mary, mother of Jesus, or of a saint, and may have had a
reredos behind them. They were formerly also called devotional altars, since before the
Second Vatican Council they contained small
side altars or bye-altars. Today,
Mass would not necessarily be celebrated at them, and they are simply used to aid or give a visual focus for prayers.
Islam Islam's holiest structure, the
Kaaba (within the
Al-Haram Mosque) in the city of
Mecca, though an ancient temple (in the sense of a "house of God"), may be seen as a shrine due to it housing a respected relic called the
Hajar al-Aswad and also being the partial focus of the world's largest pilgrimage practice, the
Hajj. A few yards away, the mosque also houses the
Maqam Ibrahim ("
Abraham's station") shrine containing a
petrosomatoglyph (of feet) associated with the patriarch and his son
Ishmael's building of the Kaaba in Islamic tradition. The
Green Dome sepulcher of the Islamic prophet
Muhammad (where his burial chamber also contains the tombs of his friend
Abu Bakr and close companion
Umar) in
Medina, housed in the
Masjid an-Nabawi ("The Mosque of the Prophet"), occurs as a greatly venerated place and is important as a site of pilgrimage among Muslims.
Sunni Islam ,
Lahore, Pakistan ,
Duthro Sharif Sindh, Pakistan Two of the oldest and notable Islamic shrines are the
Dome of the Rock and the smaller
Dome of the Chain built on the
Temple Mount in
Jerusalem. The former was built over the
rock that marked the site of the
Jewish Temple and according to Islamic tradition, was the point of departure of Muhammad's
legendary ascent heavenwards (''al-Mi'raj''). More than any other shrines in the Muslim world, the tomb of
Muhammad is considered a source of blessings for the visitor. Among
sayings attributed to Muhammad include one stated as: "He who visits my grave will be entitled to my intercession." Visiting Muhammad's tomb after the pilgrimage is considered by the majority of
Sunni legal scholars to be recommended. The early scholars of the
salaf,
Ahmad Ibn Hanbal (d. 241 AH),
Ishaq Ibn Rahwayh (d. 238 SH),
Abdullah ibn Mubarak (d. 189 AH) and
Imam Shafi'i (d. 204 AH) all permitted the practice of
ziyāra to Muhammad's tomb. The
hadith scholar
Qadi Ayyad (d. 554 AH) stated that visiting Muhammad was "a
Sunna of the Muslims on which there was consensus, and a good and desirable deed."
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH) explicitly stated that travelling to visit the tomb of Muhammad was "one of the best of actions and the noblest of pious deeds with which one draws near to God, and its legitimacy is a matter of consensus." Similarly,
Ibn Qudamah (d. 620 AH) considered
ziyāra of Muhammad to be recommended and also seeking intercession directly from Muhammad at his grave. The tombs of other Muslim religious figures are also respected. The son of
Ahmad ibn Hanbal, one of the primary jurists of Sunnism, reportedly stated that he would prefer to be buried near the mausoleum of a saintly person than his own father. While in some parts of the Muslim world the mausoleums of the tombs are seen as simply places of
ziyāra of a religious figure's gravesite (
Mazār/), in others (such as the
Indian subcontinent) they are treated as proper shrines (
Dargah).
Opposition to tomb shrines by the Salafi and Wahhabi groups Many modern Islamic reformers oppose the building (and sometimes the
visitation of) tomb shrines, viewing it as a deviation from true Islam. This mainly includes followers of the
Wahhabi and
Salafi movements, which believe that shrines over graves encourage
idolatry/
polytheism (
shirk) and that there is a risk of worshipping other than
God (the dead). Additionally, he commanded leveling of the graves (
taswiyat al-qubur), which the scholar
Imam Al-Shafi'i supported. The Wahhabi movement was heavily influenced by the works of the medieval
Hanbali theologian
Ibn Taymiyyah who was considered by them to be the "ultimate authority on a great number of issues". One of these issues was the position on the visitation of Muhammad's tomb. According to Ibn Taymiyyah all the
ahadith encouraging the visitation of the tomb are fabricated (
mawdu‘), are not contained in the
six main collections of hadith or
Musnad Ahmad ibn Hanbal, and violate
tawhid al-uluhiya. This view of Ibn Taymiyyah was rejected by some mainstream Sunni scholars both during his life and after his death. The
Shafi'i hadith master
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani stated that "This is one of the ugliest positions that has been reported of Ibn Taymiyya". The
Hanafi hadith scholar
Ali al-Qari stated that, "Amongst the Hanbalis, Ibn Taymiyya has gone to an extreme by prohibiting travelling to visit the Prophet – may God bless him and grant him peace"
Qastallani stated that "The Shaykh Taqi al-Din Ibn Taymiyya has abominable and odd statements on this issue to the effect that travelling to visit the Prophet is prohibited and is not a pious deed."
Shia in
Najaf, Iraq
Shias have several
mazars dedicated to various religious figures important in their history, and several elaborate shrines (
Marqad/
Maqam) are dedicated to Shia religious figures, most notably in
Iraq (such as in the cities of
Karbala,
Najaf,
Samarra) and in
Iran (such as in the cities of
Qom and
Mashad). Specific examples of Shia shrines include the
Al-Askari Shrine, and
Imam Hussein Shrine. Other Shia shrines are located in the eponymous cities of
Mazar-e Sharif ("The Noble
Mausoleum") in
Afghanistan, and
Mashhad (al-Rida) ("
Martyrium [of
Ali al-Rida ]") in Iran. The
Mausoleum of Ruhollah Khomeini in
Tehran houses the tombs of
Ruhollah Khomenei, the leader of
Iran's 1978–79 revolution,
his wife, and a few other related people.
Sufi Sharif In popular
Sufism, one common practice is to
visit or make pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, renowned scholars, and righteous people. This is a particularly common practice in the
Indian subcontinent, where famous tombs include of saints such as
Sayyid Ali Hamadani in
Kulob, Tajikistan;
Afāq Khoja, near
Kashgar, China;
Lal Shahbaz Qalandar in
Sindh;
Ali Hujwiri in
Lahore, Pakistan;
Bahauddin Zakariya in
Multan Pakistan;
Moinuddin Chishti in
Ajmer, India;
Nizamuddin Auliya in
Delhi, India; and
Shah Jalal in
Sylhet, Bangladesh. Likewise, in
Fez, Morocco, a popular destination for pious visitation is the
Zaouia Moulay Idriss II. The area around
Timbuktu in Mali also has many historic Sufi shrines which were destroyed by Islamist in recent years. Many of these have since been rebuilt. A saint's tomb is a site of great veneration where blessings or
baraka continue to reach the deceased holy person and are deemed (by some) to benefit visiting devotees and pilgrims according to Sufi beliefs. In order to show reverence to Sufi saints, kings, and nobles provided large donations or
waqf to preserve the tombs and renovate them architecturally. Over time, these donation, rituals, annual commemorations formed into an elaborate system of accepted norms. These forms of Sufi practise created an aura of spiritual and religious traditions around prescribed dates. Many orthodox or Islamic purists denounce these visiting grave rituals, especially the expectation of receiving blessings from the venerated saints.
Baháʼí Faith and its
Terraces on
Mount Carmel,
Haifa. The two most well-known
Baháʼí Faith shrines serve as the resting places for the respective remains of the two central figures of the Baháʼí Faith, the
Báb and
Bahá'u'lláh. They are the focal points of a
Baháʼí pilgrimage: • The
Shrine of the Báb in
Haifa,
Israel. • The
Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh in
Acre, Israel. Other sites have been designated as Baháʼí Shrines, the most notable being the home of
William Sutherland Maxwell and
May Maxwell in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Buddhism , Ladkah, 2010 In
Buddhism, a shrine refers to a place where veneration is focused on
Lord Buddha or one of the
bodhisattvas or
arahants. Monks, nuns and
laity will
pay homage with the aide of
Buddhist iconography at these shrines which are also used for
Buddhist meditation. Typically, Buddhist shrines contain a statue of either Gautama Buddha, or (in the
Mahayana and
Vajrayana forms of Buddhism), one of the various Buddhas or bodhisattvas. They also commonly contain candles, along with offerings such as flowers, purified water, food, and incense. Many shrines also contain
sacred relics, such as the famous
sacred tooth of Lord Buddha installed at a shrine in
Sri Lanka. Site-specific shrines in Buddhism, particularly those that contain relics of past Buddhas and revered enlightened monks, are often
designed in the traditional form known as the
Stupa or
Cetiya.
Philippine folk religions Ancient Filipinos, and Filipinos today who continue to adhere to the
indigenous Philippine folk religions generally do not have so-called "temples" of worship under the context known to foreign cultures. However, they do have sacred
shrines, which are also called as
spirit houses. These shrines were known in various indigenous terms, which depend on the ethnic group association. They can also be used as places to store
taotao and caskets of ancestors. Among Bicolanos,
taotao were also kept inside sacred caves called
moog. During certain ceremonies,
anito are venerated through temporary altars near sacred places. These were called
latangan or
lantayan in Visayan and
dambana or
lambana in Tagalog. These bamboo or
rattan altars are identical in basic construction throughout most of the Philippines. They were either small roof-less platforms or standing poles split at the tip (similar to a
tiki torch). They held halved coconut shells, metal plates, or
martaban jars as receptacles for offerings.
Taotao may sometimes also be placed on these platforms.
Germanic paganism In
Germanic paganism, types of shrines were employed, but terms for the shrines show some level of ambiguity: •
Hörgrs, which may have originally exclusively referred to "holy places", whereas its Old English cognate
hearg could mean "
holy grove" and/or "temple, idol" •
Vés (Old Norse) or
wēohs (Old English), referring to either a types of shrines or
sacred enclosures. The term appears in
skaldic poetry and in place names in
Scandinavia (with the exception of
Iceland), often in connection with a
Norse deity or a geographic feature. The name of the Norse god
Vé, refers to the practice.
Hinduism In
Hinduism, a shrine is a place where gods or goddesses are worshipped. Shrines are typically located inside a
Hindu temple of various forms. Most Hindu families have a household shrine as well. For example, according to memoirs of Stephen Huyler of his visits to some Hindu homes, a part of home was dedicated to the household shrine. Here, image of a deity was placed and offered prayers, instead of visits to a temple. Among Tamil Hindu homes, according to Pintchman, a shrine in Kitchen is more common. If the family is wealthy, it may locate the household shrine in a separate room.
Taoism in Hong Kong The line between a temple and a shrine in
Taoism is not fully defined; shrines are usually smaller versions of larger Taoist temples or small places in a
home where a
yin-yang emblem is placed among peaceful settings to encourage meditation and study of Taoist texts and principles. Taoists place less emphasis on formalized attendance but include ritualized worship than other
Asian religions; formal temples and structures of worship came about in Taoism with the influence from
Buddhism. Frequent features of Taoist shrines include the same features as full temples, often including any or all of the following features:
gardens, running water or fountains, small burning
braziers or candles (with or without
incense), and copies of Taoist texts such as the
Tao Te Ching,
Zhuangzi or other texts by
Lao Tzu,
Chuang Tzu or other Taoist sages.
Confucianism A number of
Confucian temples and shrines exist across the sinophone world, it is a temple for the veneration of
Confucius,
great sages,
eminent philosophers of
Confucianism and also the
Disciples of Confucius. These temples are known as "Temples of Confucius" (孔廟) or "Temples of Literature" (文廟). Unlike Taoist temples, Confucian temples usually do not installed the images of Confucius but the tablets. It is argued that the temple was to honour Confucius's teachings, not Confucius himself. The temples consist of gardens and then a large pavilion where incense is burnt. The
tablet or sometime an image of
Confucius is usually placed in the main shrine. Confucian shrines exist outside of China too, mainly in Japan, Korea and Vietnam. There are also quite a number of Confucian shrines in Taiwan like
Tainan Confucian Temple and
Taipei Confucius Temple, they are well-maintained by the government. However, many Taoist temples dedicated a shrine for the worship of Confucius or
Wen Chang Di Jun (God of Literature). ==Secular shrines==