Hinduism

Bharateswar Temple, Odisha

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha, India

In the old town of Bhubaneswar, the Bharateswar Temple stands at the centre of a trio of sixth-century Shiva shrines named for the Ramayana heroes....

Bhaskareswara Temple, Bhubaneswar, Odisha

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha, India

On Tankapani Road in Bhubaneswar, the Bhaskareswar Temple is an architectural anomaly — a two-tiered shrine without the usual assembly hall, built specifically to house a...

Bhimashankar Shiva Jyotir Linga temple, Bhimashankar, Maharashtra

Bhimashankar, Maharashtra, India

High in the Western Ghats of Maharashtra, Bhimashankar is one of the twelve Jyotirlingas of Shiva — places where the god is held to have manifested as a column of light....

Bhoga Nandeeshwara Temple, Nandi, Karnataka

Nandi, Karnataka, India

At the foot of the Nandi Hills near Bangalore, the Bhoga Nandishwara complex preserves over a thousand years of unbroken Shaiva worship....

Bhoramdev Temple, Kabirdham district, Chhattisgarh

Bodla Tahsil, Chhattisgarh, India

Rising from the forested foothills of the Maikal range, Bhoramdeo Temple has held Shiva in an embrace of stone for nearly a millennium....

Bhramaramba Ammavari Shakti Peetham Temple, Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh

Srisailam, Andhra Pradesh, India

High in the forested Nallamala Hills above the Krishna river, Srisailam holds something found nowhere else: a Maha Shakti Peetha and a Jyotirlinga together....

Bindabasini Temple, Pokhara

Pokhara, Gandaki Province, Nepal

On a hill overlooking the Annapurna range, Pokhara's oldest temple pulses with devotion....

Biraja Temple, Jajpur, Odisha

Jajpur, Odisha, India

At Jajpur in Odisha, Maa Biraja marks where, by tradition, the navel of Sati fell — making the town Viraja Kshetra and the temple Nabhi Gaya, a place for ancestral rites...

Brahma Sarovar, Kurukshetra, Haryana

Kurukshetra, Haryana, India

Brahma Sarovar is a vast sacred tank in Kurukshetra, Haryana, where tradition holds Brahma performed the first yajna and the universe began....

Brahma Temple, Pushkar, Rajasthan

Pushkar, Rajasthan, India

The Jagatpita Brahma Mandir in Pushkar is the most prominent of the very few temples in India dedicated to Brahma the creator....

Brahmeswara Temple, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha

Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, Odisha, India

Brahmeswara Temple is a Shiva shrine of 1058 CE in Bhubaneswar, built by Queen Kolavati Devi within the dense Shaiva landscape of Ekamra Kshetra....

Brihadeeswara Temple, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India

In 1010 CE, the Chola emperor Rajaraja I completed a temple so vast that its tower rises 216 feet and its capstone weighs 80 tons....

Budhanilkantha Temple

Kathmandu, Bagmati Province, Nepal

In a water-filled tank at the foot of Shivapuri Hill, Nepal's largest stone carving depicts Vishnu asleep on the cosmic serpent Shesha....

Candi Belahan, Java

Bulusari, East Java, Indonesia

On the wooded eastern slope of Mount Penanggungan in East Java lies Candi Belahan, an eleventh-century royal bathing place....

Candi Jolotundo, Java

Kedungudi, East Java, Indonesia

Carved into the western slope of Mount Penanggungan around 977 CE, Jolotundo is the oldest bathing temple in East Java....

Candi Sukuh

Berjo, Central Java, Indonesia

High on the western slope of Mount Lawu stands a temple unlike any other in Java: a truncated stone pyramid rising over terraces, carved with images of Bhima the divine...

Chamundeshwari Temple, Mysore, Karnataka

Chamundipuram, Karnataka, India

Atop Chamundi Hills above Mysuru stands the temple of Chamundeshwari, a fierce form of Durga said to have slain the demon Mahishasura here....

Chandramouleshwara Temple, Hubli, Karnataka

Hubli, Karnataka, India

At Unkal in Hubballi, the Chandramauleshwara Temple is a Kalyana Chalukya Shiva shrine with a rare four-faced linga and doors on all four sides....

Chandranath Shaktipeeth Temple

Sitakunda, Chattogram, Bangladesh

At 1,020 feet above the Chittagong coast, Chandranath Temple commands the highest point on the shoreline....

Changu Narayan Temple

Bhaktapur, Bagmati Province, Nepal

On a forested hilltop east of Kathmandu, Nepal's oldest Hindu temple has watched over the valley for over 1,600 years....

Chengannur Mahadeva Temple, Chengannur, Kerala

Chengannur, Kerala, India

Chengannur Mahadeva Temple, among Kerala's oldest, enshrines Shiva and Parvati facing each other in one complex....

Chennakeshava Temple, Somanathapur, Karnataka

Bevinahalli, Karnataka, India

The Chennakeshava Temple at Somanathapura, consecrated in 1258 CE, is the most complete surviving Hoysala temple, a three-shrined sanctuary to Vishnu on a star-shaped...

Chettikulangara Bhagavathy Temple, Mavelikkara, Kerala

Chettikulangara, Kerala, India

In a village west of Mavelikkara stands one of central Kerala's great goddess temples, where Bhadrakali is honoured at dawn as Saraswati, at midday as Lakshmi, and in the...

Chinnamasta

Chhinnamasta, Madhesh Province, Nepal

At the confluence of sacred rivers in Jharkhand, Chhinnamasta Temple honors the most radical form of the Divine Mother: a goddess who severs her own head to nourish her...

Chintamani Temple

Theur, Maharashtra, India

Chintamani Temple at Theur is one of Maharashtra's eight Ashtavinayak shrines, where Ganesha is worshipped as Chintamani Vinayaka....

Chottanikkara Bhagavathy Temple, Chottannikkara, Kerala

Kanayannur, Kerala, India

Near Thrippunithura outside Kochi, Chottanikkara honours the goddess Rajarajeswari in three forms across the day, and the fierce Bhadrakali at its lower Keezhkavu shrine....

Dakshineswar Kali temple, Kolkata, West Bengal

Kolkata, West Bengal, India

On the Hooghly in northern Kolkata stands the temple Rani Rashmoni built after a dream of the goddess....

Dakshinkali Temple

Pharping, Bagmati Province, Nepal

In a forested ravine where two sacred streams meet, Dakshinkali Temple draws thousands of devotees to worship the fierce goddess in her most primal form....

Danteshwari Temple, Chhattisgarh

Dondi Tahsil, Chhattisgarh, India

At the meeting of the Shankini and Dankini rivers in Dantewada stands a temple held to mark where Sati's tooth fell, one of the 52 Shakti Peethas....

Dhakeshwari Temple, Dhaka

Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

In Old Dhaka, the temple that may have given the capital its name continues to function as the spiritual center of Bangladesh's Hindu community....

East Mebon

Siem Reap, Siem Reap, Cambodia

East Mebon was built by Rajendravarman II as an island temple within the East Baray, with five brick towers rising above laterite and sandstone platforms....

Ellora caves, Maharashtra

Khuldabad, Maharashtra, India

Over four centuries, Buddhist monks, Hindu devotees, and Jain ascetics carved 34 temples and monasteries into a basalt cliff in western India—side by side, in the same...

Erawan Shrine

Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand

Erawan Shrine is a compact urban sanctuary dedicated to Thao Maha Phrom, the Thai form of four-faced Brahma....

Ganesha Shrine at CentralWorld

Bangkok, Bangkok, Thailand

The Ganesha Shrine beside CentralWorld is an active Bangkok place of Hindu and Thai popular devotion....

Gangotri Temple, Uttarakhand

Gangotri, Uttarakhand, India

Gangotri Temple stands beside the Bhagirathi river in the Garhwal Himalaya, at the place Hindu tradition holds Ganga first touched earth....

Girijatmaj Temple, Lenyadri

Lenyadri, Maharashtra, India

Girijatmaj Temple occupies Cave 7 at Lenyadri, a wider group of ancient Buddhist rock-cut spaces north of Junnar....

Grishneshwar Jyotirlinga

Verul, Maharashtra, India

Grishneshwar is the last of Shiva's twelve jyotirlingas, standing in Verul village barely a kilometre from the Ellora Caves but belonging to an entirely different order of...

Group of Monuments at Hampi

Hampi, Karnataka, India

Hampi sprawls across a boulder-strewn landscape in Karnataka, its sixteen hundred monuments testifying to the Vijayanagara Empire's golden age....

Hanuman Tok

Gangtok, Sikkim, India

High in the Himalayan state of Sikkim, at 7,200 feet, a Hindu temple marks the spot where Lord Hanuman is believed to have rested during his legendary flight bearing a...

Jagannath Vishnu Temple, Puri, Odisha

Puri (M), Odisha, India

Jagannath Temple is less a monument than a living order of worship, food, service, and pilgrimage....

Janaki Mandir

Janakpur, Madhesh Province, Nepal

Janaki Mandir rises from the plains of southeastern Nepal like a vision displaced from Rajasthan or Mughal India, its white marble facade and latticed turrets unlike...

Jeshoreshwari Kali Shaktipeeth Temple

Shyamnagar, Khulna, Bangladesh

Near the edge of the Sundarbans in southwestern Bangladesh, the Jeshoreshwari Kali Temple marks the spot where the palm of Goddess Sati's hand is believed to have fallen....

Kadalekalu Ganesha Temple, Hampi, Karnataka

Part of Group of Monuments at Hampi

Hampi, Karnataka, India

On the boulder-strewn slopes of Hemakuta Hill, the Vijayanagara sculptors carved their devotion into a single massive granite boulder....

Kakatiya Rudreshwara Ramappa Temple, Telangana

Palampet, Telangana, India

Rising from the Telangana countryside on a star-shaped platform, Ramappa Temple stands as the pinnacle of Kakatiya dynasty architecture....

Kalahasteeswarar Temple, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu

Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India

The Kalahasteeswarar Temple in Kumbakonam is considered equivalent to the renowned Srikalahasti Temple near Tirupati, earning it the name Then Kalahasti, Southern...

Kalinchowk Bhagwati Temple, Nepal

Dolakha, Bagmati Province, Nepal

At 3,842 meters, Kalinchowk Bhagwati Temple sits where the earth meets the sky, snow-dusted peaks stretching to the horizon....

Kalpeshwar temple, Uttarakhand

Urgam, Uttarakhand, India

Kalpeshwar is the fifth and final shrine of the Panch Kedar, a small stone temple built into a cave in Uttarakhand's Urgam Valley where Shiva's jata, his matted locks, are...

Kankalini Temple

Bhardaha, Madhesh Province, Nepal

Standing five stories tall beside the Mahendra Highway in Nepal's eastern Terai, Kankalini Temple is one of the most prominent Shakti shrines in the Saptari District....