Sacred Buddhist sites of Nepal

Nepal is a small country but on there are four important Buddhist sites on its territory. First of all, the Buddha himself was born here. The place is called Lumbini and it is situated 250 km from the capital. There are many monasteries, temples and stupas in Lumbini built by Buddhists from different countries.
Lumbini was "lost" for centuries. Only in 1895 a massive stone pillar was discovered which now is believed to have been erected by the Indian Emperor Ashoka in 250 BC. There is an inscription on the pillar in Sanskrit “Buddha Sakyamuni, the blessed one was born here".

White Temple, the damaged beauty of Thailand

The White Temple (Wat Rong Khun) used to be one of the most beautiful and unique temples of Thailand. Surprisingly, it was not built hundreds of years ago, the construction of this miracle temple started in 1998 and was completed in 2008. The idea of the temple belonged to a well known Thai painter-turned-architect who wanted to create something elegant to honour Buddha's purity. Perhaps, that's why the building of Wat Rong Khun was all white, unlike most Thai temples. With glass and mirrors embedded into the outside shining and sparkling in the sunlight, the temple really looked like being made of ice. However, according to the designer's idea the White Temple was created to be viewed in moonlight when it would appear particularly ghostly and otherworldly.

Tortures at the temple of a benevolent god

There is a temple in Patan, Nepal, with difficult-to-pronounce name Rato Machhendranath. The temple is dedicated to Machhendra, the god of rain and harvest who for unknown to me reason happened to have a red skin ("Rato" meaning "red"). Interestingly, this Hindu Machhendra revered by Buddhists as Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara so the temple looks like Hindu-Buddhist - with many-armed demons on the friezes of the temple and with Buddhist rotating prayer drums around the perimeter of the building.
The temple is a typical example of Nepalese architecture, it is three-storied pagoda. It was built back in 1673.

Dilwara temples, a dream in marble

The Dilwara temples at Mount Abu, Rajasthan, India stand in a beautiful green valley surrounded by forested hills. These Jain  temples have rather plain exteriors that give no hint of the magnificent world being hidden inside. This symbolizes the Jain belief in the insignificance of outward forms and the importance of a rich inner life. A dazzling interior of pure white marble is carved with such amazing virtuosity that it is hard to believe that such perfection and beauty could be created out of stone by human hands.

Temple of the fish-eyed goddess

photo courtesy Delphinidaesy

Every day thousands of piligrims from all over India flock to Madurai, the third largest city in the state of Tamil Nadu. They want to see the famous Meenakshi-Sundareshwara temple, one of the most beautiful temples in India and one of the most sacred places.
Meenakshi means the fish-eyed goddess, she was a Pandyan princess born out of the fire with three breasts. The astrologers predicted that the third breast would disappear when the princess would meet her husband. And it happened so when Meenakshi met Shiva who married her as Sundareshwara. The two ruled Madurai as king and queen. The temple is dedicated to both of them and though Sundareshwara has a larger shrine, Meenakshi is always worshiped first.

Buddhas of Sri Lanka

Buddha at the entrance to the Kandy museum

The majority of population in Sri Lanka is Buddhists (69%). But even without knowing this statistics one can guess it just after arriving in this country: a seated Buddha sculpture of an impressive size greets you at the airport, and numerous figures of smaller size, enclosed in glass boxes , flash with regularity at roadsides and crossroads on your way from the airport to the city. I've never seen so many images of Buddha before: of different sizes - from huge to small, in various poses - sitting, standing, reclining; with different facial expressions and hand positions; made of different materials.

Qufu, the place of birth and death of Confucius

photo source 

Famous Chinese teacher and philosopher Confucius was born, grew up and died near present day Qufu city. Just two years after his death his house was declared a temple. Over the centuries it was destroyed and rebuilt several times, each time on the grander scale. Today's temple dates from the early 16th century, when it was rebuilt following the 1499 fire sparked by lightning. Since it was built almost at the same time as the Forbidden City in Beijing, there are many design similarities between the two complexes.