Buddhism

Abhayagiri Vihara

Anuradhapura, Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka

Founded around 89 BCE by a king fulfilling a vow of vengeance and restoration, Abhayagiri grew into one of the ancient world's most cosmopolitan Buddhist institutions — a...

Adam's Peak (Sri Pada)

Dalhousie, Ratnapura, Sri Lanka

Sri Pada is the sacred mountain in Sri Lanka's Sabaragamuwa highlands whose summit footprint is venerated through several religious traditions....

Ajanta caves, Maharashtra

Phardapur, Maharashtra, India

In a horseshoe gorge of the Deccan Plateau, Buddhist monks spent seven centuries carving thirty caves from the basalt cliffs....

Ajina-Tepa Buddhist Monastery

Kizilsoy / Vakhsh District, Khatlon Region, Tajikistan

Ajina-Tepa Buddhist Monastery is a documented monastery in Kizilsoy / Vakhsh District, Khatlon Region, Tajikistan, connected with Buddhism....

Akechi-ji

Yokoze, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Akechi-ji is the ninth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama....

Alchi Gompa, Ladakh

Alchi, Ladakh, India

On the valley floor by the Indus in western Ladakh, Alchi preserves the finest surviving early western-Himalayan Buddhist art....

An'yō-in

Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

An'yō-in is the third station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho — a small Jōdo-shū temple in Kamakura founded as Hōjō Masako's grief-prayer for her husband Minamoto no Yoritomo,...

Anao-ji

Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan

Anao-ji is station 21 on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Tendai Buddhism temple in Kyoto dedicated to Shō Kannon....

Âng Pagoda

Nguyệt Hóa, Vĩnh Long, Vietnam

Âng Pagoda is one of Trà Vinh's principal Khmer Theravada monasteries, joined physically and culturally to Ao Bà Om....

Angkor Thom

Siem Reap, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor Thom is the roughly 900-hectare fortified capital associated with Jayavarman VII, entered through five monumental gates and centered on Bayon....

Angkor Wat

Siem Reap, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure on earth—a stone representation of Mount Meru, the cosmic mountain at the center of the universe....

Anko-ji

Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Ankō-ji is an independent Tendai temple founded in 775 CE by Prince Kaisei on a wooded hillside north of Takatsuki....

Anraku-ji

Kamiita, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Anraku-ji is Temple 6 of the Shikoku 88, in Kamiita, Tokushima. Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing, presides here, and Anraku-ji is the only fudasho with its own onsen....

Anraku-ji

Yoshimi, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Anraku-ji, the Yoshimi Kannon, is the eleventh station of the Bandō Sanjūsankasho pilgrimage....

Araiyakushi Baishouin

Nakano City, Tokyo, Japan

Araiyakushi Baishouin (薬王寺) is an active Shingon Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....

Asuka-dera

Asuka, Nara Prefecture, Japan

In a quiet valley surrounded by rice fields, Japan's oldest surviving Buddha statue has watched from the same location for over 1,400 years....

Awa Kokubun-ji

Tokushima, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan

Awa Kokubun-ji is the official kokubunji—provincial Buddhist temple—of Awa Province, founded by imperial edict of Emperor Shōmu in 741 to pray for the welfare of the...

Azabusan Zenpukuji

Minato City, Tokyo, Japan

Azabusan Zenpukuji (麻布山 善福寺) is an active Jodo Shinshu Buddhism sacred place in Tokyo....

Ba Chúc Tomb and Phi Lai Pagoda

Ba Chúc, An Giang, Vietnam

Ba Chúc Tomb and Phi Lai Pagoda are two named components within the officially protected Tam Bửu–Phi Lai–Ba Chúc Tomb national historical complex....

Bà Đen Mountain

Tây Ninh, Tây Ninh, Vietnam

Bà Đen Mountain is southern Vietnam's most prominent mountain pilgrimage landscape....

Baegyangsa Temple

Jangseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, South Korea

Baegyangsa’s public image often begins with Ssanggyeru Pavilion mirrored in a pond beneath Baegamsan cliffs....

Bagan

Nyaung-U, Mandalay, Myanmar

Bagan spreads across the central plain of Myanmar: over two thousand Buddhist temples, stupas, and monasteries surviving from a time when more than ten thousand were built....

Bangka Longshan Temple

Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan

Founded in 1738 by Fujian settlers in Taipei's oldest quarter, Longshan Temple holds more than a hundred deities beneath one roof....

Bangkok City Pillar Shrine

Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok City Pillar Shrine marks the capital's ritual foundation beside the Grand Palace....

Basgo Gompa, Ladakh

Nimo, Ladakh, India

On a hill above the Indus, the eroded ramparts of the Namgyal kings' citadel hold three temples to Maitreya, the future Buddha....

Baylangdra Temple

Lengbi, Wangdue Phodrang, Bhutan

Hidden for centuries and revealed only in 1988, Baylangdra is one of the three holiest pilgrimage sites of Guru Rinpoche in Bhutan....

Bayon

Inside Angkor Thom

Siem Reap, Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bayon is Jayavarman VII's state temple at the center of Angkor Thom, known for its face towers, layered building history, and extensive bas-reliefs....

Beopjusa Temple

Boeun-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea

Beopjusa Temple occupies a broad monastic precinct beneath Songnisan's peaks. Its living Buddhist community, Maitreya devotion, Palsangjeon wooden pagoda, and protected...

Beppu Hells (Jigoku)

Beppu, Oita Prefecture, Japan

The Hells of Beppu have inspired awe and terror for over a millennium. These boiling, steaming pools of vivid color gave physical form to Buddhist visions of the suffering...

Big Buddha of Phuket

Karon, Phuket, Thailand

Phuket's forty-five-metre white-marble Buddha, formally Phra Phuttha Ming Mongkol Akenakiri, is a modern island landmark and place of worship....

Biyun Temple, Baihe

Baihe, Tainan City, Tainan, Taiwan

Halfway up Pillow Mountain in the volcanic Guanziling hills, Biyun Temple has sheltered a Guanyin statue carried from Fujian since the turn of the eighteenth century....

Bodai-ji

Sanda, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan

Bodai-ji is station bangai-bodai-ji on the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage, a Shingon Buddhism, Kazan-in branch temple in Hyogo dedicated to Kannon....

Boku'un-ji

Yokoze, Saitama Prefecture, Japan

Boku'un-ji is the sixth station of the Chichibu 34 Kannon Pilgrimage in Yokoze, Saitama....

Bomdila Monastery, Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh

Bomdila, Arunachal Pradesh, India

High in the West Kameng hills of Arunachal Pradesh, Bomdila Monastery is a Gelugpa Buddhist centre built as a faithful replica of the Tsona Gontse monastery of southern...

Bongamsa Temple, Mungyeong

Mungyeong, Mungyeong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

Access is restricted: Bongamsa is normally closed to visitors and, according to Mungyeong's official information, opens to the public only on Buddha's Birthday....

Bongeunsa Temple

Seoul, Seoul, South Korea

Bongeunsa faces one of Seoul’s most intensely commercial districts, but its identity is not simply “calm beside skyscrapers.” The temple preserves worship, a major...

Bongjeongsa Temple

Andong, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

Bongjeongsa rests below Mount Cheondeung near Andong, its compact courts holding both monastic life and some of Korea’s earliest surviving wooden architecture....

Bongnimsa Temple Site, Changwon

Changwon, Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea

Bongnimsa Temple Site, Changwon is a protected archaeological temple site with relocated monuments in Changwon, South Korea....

Bongwonsa Temple

Seoul, Seoul, South Korea

Bongwonsa rests on Ansan’s slope above western Seoul and serves as a center of the Taego Order....

Boriam Hermitage

Namhae, Gyeongsangnam-do, South Korea

Boriam clings high on Geumsan above the islands and channels of Namhae. Its sacred identity is specific: Korean sources place it among the country’s foremost Gwaneum...

Borimsa Temple, Jangheung

Jangheung, Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, South Korea

Borimsa Temple, Jangheung is treated here as the exact whole-site entity in Jangheung, Jangheung, Jeollanam-do, South Korea, not as a route label or nearby point of...

Borobudur

Desa Borobudur, Central Java, Indonesia

Rising from the Kedu Plain of Central Java, Borobudur is the world's largest Buddhist monument—a three-dimensional mandala carved in volcanic stone....

Boudhnath (Boudha)

Gokarneshwar Municipality, Bagmati Province, Nepal

Rising 36 meters above Kathmandu's northeastern sprawl, Boudhanath Stupa is one of the largest Buddhist stupas in the world and the most sacred Tibetan Buddhist site...

Buddha Dhatu Jadi

Bandarban, Chattogram, Bangladesh

On a sixty-metre hill above Bandarban, a golden temple rises from the green canopy of the Chittagong Hill Tracts....

Buddhapadipa Temple

London, England, United Kingdom

Buddhapadipa Temple belongs among the significant multi-faith places of England. The sacred frame at Buddhapadipa Temple comes from Buddhism....

Buddhist Monuments at Sanchi

Amkhera, Madhya Pradesh, India

The Great Stupa at Sanchi rises from a hilltop in central India—a hemisphere of stone that has held sacred meaning for over 2,300 years....

Bulguksa Temple

Gyeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

Bulguksa Temple rises on the slopes of Mount Tohamsan as a physical theology—Korean Buddhism made visible in stone....

Buseoksa Temple

Yeongju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea

Buseoksa Temple rises in measured terraces on Bonghwangsan above Yeongju. Founded in the Silla period and closely associated with the monk Uisang, the active monastery...