Haeinsa is a famous Buddhist temple which is located on the Gaya Mountain in the Gyeongsang province in South Korea. This temple literally means ‘reflections of a smooth sea’. This temple was founded in the ninth century and it was then rebuilt again in the nineteenth century.  This place is best known for its copy of the sacred Buddhist scripture, the Tripitaka Koreana. The suneung and the Ljeong monks first settled here in Haeinsa in the year eight hundred and two. These monks came here from china.  The name, ‘reflection of a smooth sea; was taken from the Buddhist sutra that compares Buddha’s wisdom to a calm sea. Hence when the mind is free from all the wants and worries of the world then you will be able to attain incomparable calmness. This is the ideal state in which the awareness of your existence is clearly reflected. The  [...]

Need to unwind and grow spiritually all at the same time ?Let us look at the happy people in Bangkok; where the locals here are quite superstitious and strikingly spiritual. Though almost the entire population here are Buddhists, yet the supernatural inclinations are rooted in Hinduism and Animism even. Therefore, most Thai people have many deeply rooted beliefs in ‘Nagas’ – water snakes, local spirits, tree nymphs, ghosts, land gods and many other deities ! Because of these beliefs, when a new house or a building is built here; people believe that the ghosts lose their homes or resting places and get angry. When this happens; the people involved get cursed and get accident prone. And keep experiencing bad events!Hence, to calm the spirits down, the Thais build spirit house so that the wandering angered spirits can  [...]

Jokhang Temple (‘Dazhao Si’ or ‘House of the Lord’) is the holiest site of Tibetan Buddhists and is located at Barkhor Square in Lhasa. It is also known as ‘Tsuklakang’. Every year, scores of Tibetan pilgrims and foreign tourists pay visit to this attractive tourism destination in Tibet. The temple is four-storied tall and is spread over an area of 25,000 square metres. Temple: The temple exterior is decorated with deer and wheel motifs, the early symbols of Buddhism representing Lord Buddha’s first sermon. The interior of the temple is dark and features labyrinth of chapels dedicated to various gods and bodhisattvas. Although the temple has been rebuilt at various junction of time, its original elements remain the same. The Newari door frames, columns and finials date back to the 7th and 8th centuries AD. History: Jokhang  [...]

Boudhanath Stupa (also called Boudha, Boudhanath, Bodhnath or the Khâsa Caitya) is one of the holiest Buddhist sites located on the eastern outskirts of Kathmandu, the capital of the Himalayan kingdom of Nepal. It is in fact the largest stupa in Nepal and the holiest Tibetan Buddhist temple outside Tibet. Boudhanath Stupa is called Khâsti by Newars and Bauddha or Bodh-nâth by the modern speakers of Nepali. The culture in and around the stupa  remains Himalayan with a strong presence of Tibetans and Sherpas, and this can be found from several restaurants selling Tibetan food like momos and thukpa. History: Some says Boudhanath was founded by the Nepalese Licchavi king Úivadeva while others opine its origin dating back to King Mânadeva (464-505 CE). Tibetan sources claim a mound on the site was excavated in the late 15th or  [...]

Wat Pho (official name: Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm Rajwaramahaviharn), Temple of Reclining Buddha, is the oldest and the biggest temple of Lord Buddha in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. It is located in Phra Nakhon district in Bangkok. It has great many number of Buddha images (more than any other temple in Bangkok) and also houses the largest statue of Buddha in Thailand. History: Wat Pho Bangkok was constructed as a restoration of an earlier temple on the same site called Wat Phodaram. The work began in 1788 and the temple was restored and extended during the reign of King Rama III of Chakri Dynasty. During this time, plaques inscribed with medical texts were set up around the temple. In 1962 a school for traditional Thai medicine and massage was established here (such a centre was there even before the founding of  [...]

Swayambhunath Stupa (also Money Temple) is a famous Buddhist shrine located on a hill top at the western edge of Kathmandu Valley in Nepal, the small Hindu nation on the lap of the Himalayas. The all-staring Buddha eyes staring out from the top of the stupa has become a quintessential symbol of Nepal throughout the world. Legend: Swayambhunath Temple was founded about 2,000 years ago. It is held that Kathmandu Valley was filled with a lake and a single lotus grew at its centre. When boddhisatva manjusri drained the lake with a slash of sword, the lotus settled on the hill top and magically transformed itself in to a stupa (hence the name Self-Created or Swayambhu Stupa). History: The earliest written record of the Swayambunath Stupa’s dates back to a 5th-century stone inscription, although historians are the view that there  [...]

The Great Buddha of Kamakura (in Japan) is a monumental outdoor seated bronze statue of Amida Buddha. The statue is located in Kotokuin, a Buddhist temple of the Pure Land sect and is one of the popular symbols of Japan. The Great Buddha of Kamakura (known as Daibutsu in Japanese) is 13.35 metres high and weighs 93 tons and is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan after the one at Todaiji in the city of Nara. The Great Buddha of Kamakura was originally housed inside a temple (the statue dates back to 1252), which was washed away by tsunami in the late 15th century during the Muromachi period. One-Goroemon and Tanji-Hisatomo were the sculptors of the statue. Statue: The Great Buddha is seated in a lotus position with his hands forming Dhyani Mudra, the gesture of meditation. The statute has a tranquil gesture on its face and  [...]

There is hardly any Kung Fu movie buff who has not heard about Shaolin and the world famous martial arts related with it. The Shaolin temples are a group of Chinese Buddhist monasteries located in Henan Province in Dengfeng in the People’s Republic of China (on Song Shan m ountain). The Shaolin temples are associated with Chán (Zen) Buddhism. History Shaolin temple was founded during the reign of Northern Wei dynasty in around 497 AD and it is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in China. History claims that the temple was used by an Indian monk named Batuo during the thirty years he spent in China while preaching Nikaya Buddhism. However, the name that is mostly associated with Shaolin is that of Bodhidharma or Tamo, an Indian monk who travelled to China in the 5th century to teach and peach Buddhism. Bodhidharma had introduced  [...]

Perched on a grassy hilltop at 27 m near the Tonle Sap River, Wat Phnom, meaning the Hill Temple, is the main Buddhist temple that is the only attraction in the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh. The legend says that a wealthy widow woman called Penh discovered a large koki tree in the Mekong River that she wanted to use to build a house. However, she found four bronze statues of Lord Buddha and a stone statue of Hindu Lord Vishnu in its hollow. Therefore, to safeguard them, the lady built a small shrine on the hill, which gradually became a holy sanctuary for wishes and prayers of luck and success whose fulfillment is thanked by the offering of a garland of jasmine or bananas liked by the spirits. Since then, the place is named as the Phnom Penh meaning the Penh’s Hill. Another legend says that King Ponhea Yat (1405-67) built  [...]

Angkor Thom, meaning the great city in Khmer, refers to majestic and ancient city of Buddhists holding many interesting sights for the tourists. It is mostly popular among the people across the globe for its great Bayon Temple. Discovered by the Angkor’s best king, Jayavarman VII during his reign from 1181 to 1219 A.D who came after the Chams conquered the former Khmer capital, the city might have hold around one million inhabitants. Ah! That’s a huge accommodation! The city of Angkor Thom was made in a four-equally sided squared wall whose each side run parallel to the corresponding four directions. This 12 km wall (jayagiri) formed the guard of the city that was 8 m in height along a 100 m moat that once was the home of wild crocodiles. Each side of the wall holds a gate in the middle via which a causeway passes across the  [...]