The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (1827 page)

(Heb., ‘regard for human life’). The Jewish obligation to save human life in situations of danger, if necessary overriding the law. According to the
Talmud
, pikku’a
nefesh supersedes even
Sabbath
law (
Yoma
85a). The principle is derived from the commandment in Leviticus 19. 16.

 
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Pi-ku
.

Taoist practice of abstaining from eating grain, in order to attain immortality: as the five types of grain are the staple diet of life, so they are the food of worms which threaten life and consume the body. Detachment from the former signals escape from the latter.

 
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Pilate, Pontius
.

The governor (‘prefect’) of Judaea under whom Jesus was crucified. The gospels may show him in an unduly favourable light in their insistence on blaming the Jewish mob for Jesus' death.
The apocryphal text known as the
Acts of Pilate
(4th cent. at the earliest) can hardly derive from any official records of Jesus' trial.

 
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Pilgrimage
.

The literal or metaphorical movement to a condition or place of holiness or healing. Pilgrimage may be interior or exterior. Interior pilgrimage is the movement of a life from a relatively abject condition to the goal (ultimate or proximate) in a particular religion: John
Bunyan's
The Pilgrim's Progress
is a classic Christian expression of this theme, particularly as expressed in its full title, …
from this World to That which is to Come: Delivered under the Similitude of a Dream
,
wherein is Discovered the Manner of his Setting Out
,
his Dangerous Journey
,
and Safe Arrival at the Desired Country
. Life becomes metaphorically a pilgrimage. Interior pilgrimage is stressed by Sikhs. Exterior pilgrimage is a journey to some place which is either itself associated with the resources or goals of a religion, or which is the location of objects which may assist the pilgrim—e.g.
relics
. The reasons for pilgrimage are extremely varied. They may, for example, be for healing, holiness, cleansing, penance, education, gratitude, in response to a vow, to recapitulate an event which occurred at the pilgrimage centre (as, for example, to see for oneself a reported vision; or, somewhat differently, to re-enact events in the past, as in the Muslim
ajj
, or in the Christian retracing of the
Via Dolorosa
in Jerusalem). Pilgrimage frequently, and not surprisingly, takes on the character of a
rite
of passage; and as such, the stage of liminality exhibits the inversion of values and status; pilgrimages may then take on the character of a holiday, in which everyday life and its values are suspended—as in Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales
.
Judaism
The major practice is that of making ‘
aliyah
to
Jerusalem
, as required in Deuteronomy 16. 16. According to the
Torah
, all male Jews should go up to Jerusalem three times a year, on
Passover
,
Shavu‘ot
, and
Sukkot
(Exodus 34. 23). Since the Six Day War and the reunification of the city, the remaining wall of the Temple (
Wailing Wall
) has become the centre of Jewish pilgrimage. The tradition of going up to Jerusalem for the pilgrim festivals has been, to some extent, resumed, particularly during the intermediate days of Sukkot. Because there is no temple, no sacrifices are performed.
Christianity
There is no record of the earliest Christian pilgrimages, but the practice of journeying to the Holy Land received much impetus from the visit of the empress Helena, mother of
Constantine
, in 326.
Peregrinatio Etheriae
(The Pilgrimage of Etheria) is a vivid account of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land at the end of the 4th cent. Rome became a centre of pilgrimage because of its connection with Sts
Peter
and
Paul
; and other centres proliferated through the connection with other saints. Notable was the supposed burial place of St
James
, Santiago at Compostela in NW Spain: it became the goal of the famous ‘pilgrims' route’ to Compostela (see J. S. Stone,
The Cult of Santiago
…, 1927). The association of pilgrimage with
indulgences
and credulity (especially in relation to relics) made pilgrimage highly suspect to the
Reformation
; but it has revived in the 20th cent., not least as a consequence of the lucrative tourist trade. Devotion to
Mary
has led to increasing claims of visions of Mary, with consequent pilgrimages, e.g. to
Lourdes
,
Fatima
, and Medjugorje.
Islam
See
AJJ
;
ZIYARA
.
Hinduism
See
T
RATH
;
T
RTHA
. Pilgrimage is supremely important in Hinduism, both in an interior and exterior sense. The interior pilgrimage is epitomized in the
yogi
who ‘visits’ the seven
sacred cities
while remaining motionless in a specific kind of meditation. The exterior pilgrimage is dramatically obvious in the constant movement of people in every part of India, but especially to the seven cities. Pray
ga (renamed by the Muslims Allah
bad), G
y
(i.e.
Bodhg
y