Buddhist temples Buddhist temple

For most people, the sacral architecture of Buddhism is synonymous

with its most typical feature, the pagoda, a tiered structure with a bell like top. Pagoda pictures are most typically shown of remote mountain sites which seem particularly appropriate to the silent inner quest, the meditation and renunciation which are characteristic, plus in some inner cities such as the Shwedagon temple complex at Yangon and the Maha Muni at Mandalay, plus hundreds others all over Asia and this small temple near Mawlamyine in southern Myanmar. The beautiful temples and pagodas are real landmarks popping into the scenery in most part of Myanmar or Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. Buddhist temples in Nepal, Japan, China and elsewhere look a little bit different.

Buddhist temples are usually shared by monks who live there permanently and members of the lay community. It is also common that people join a monastery for a limited period. Many monasteries function as schools and also as orphanages, in particular in Myanmar or Burma where they have a broad social function.

This is different to Christianity where there always is a distinction between cathedrals and churches which are built in the center of a community and monasteries which are built elsewhere. A temple-monastery complex is the product of a long period of development and usually nurtured by donations.

In early Buddhism, the religious ideal was exclusively by communities of monks. It was in India, the cradle of Buddhism, that monks and public first began to share monastic precincts. Buddha temple and monastery were also raised in the Tang dynasty in China during the seventh and eighth centuries AD.

The first Buddhist temples were the burial mound housing the relics of the spiritual master, Gautama Buddha, the "Enlightened One", who lived in the fifth century BC in northern India. As a cosmic symbol, this stupa was a hemispherical construction surmounted by a mast and surrounded by a circular balustrade with a gateway at each of the four cardinal points.

Crowning the central temple axis were a number of discs corresponding to the celestial domains of other worlds. Later stupas and pagodas were conical or shaped like a four-sided pyramid. Later still tower-like stupas and temples were built also in China.

The first communities had neither meditation halls nor fixed abode. The monks lived as wandering preachers of the Buddha teaching who renounced possessions and begged for their food like the Buddha and the traditional holy men of India.

The first Buddhist temples of communal devotion date from the second and first centuries BC when monks in western India began to create cave pagodas for this purpose. This type of architecture was so useful and simple that this was the best choice. In some cases, as at Dunhuang in China's Gansu province, a wooden facade was placed in front of the entrance to the caves or the rock was carved in imitation of a wooden construction. In the religious architecture there were thus two types of building, the meditation hall, which was a development of the monk's cell, and the stupa or reliquary monument. At first these two types were distinct, but when the temples at Karli and Bhaja in western India were built some three or four centuries after the death of the Buddha, they merged into a single construction.

Two types of temple and pagoda architecture, cave pagodas hewn out of the rock and precincts containing temples, a monastery and a stupa, developed in the oases on the Silk Road in China which became focal points of Buddha oriented culture after the eclipse of Buddhism in India.

Rock-cut Buddhist shrines such as those at Yunkang in China's Shanxi province and Powintaung in Myanmar are often called "caves of a thousand Buddha's" (a term which distinguishes them from temples in the strict sense) owing to their rows of stone Buddha's carved from the cliff face or just Buddha statues placed into the cave pagoda.

In central and south east Asia some Buddha temples

are just a quadrangular pillar, each face of which may be adorned with a statue of the Buddha, who is often flanked by attendants. Pagodas of this kind express the ancient link, which originated in India, between the symbolic monument and the sacred image. At the same time, the cave walls were gradually covered with art paintings and murals illustrating scenes from the lives of the Buddha.

Some of the most exotic Buddha temples and pagodas have been built in Myanmar or Burma. There are two particular marvelous pagodas, among plenty of other, one at Yangon, that's the Shwedagon Pagoda and another at Bagan, that's the Shwezigon Pagoda, the interesting aura around is not only the sacral monument but also the whole pagoda precinct with dozens of smaller pagodas and temples having different legends and purposes.

A pagoda has a magical touch nobody can escape, its just great, I would say its one one the destinations everyone must see during his life, otherwise he or she missed something ! A Burma Buddha temple is always a impressive structure. It is really necessary to point out that its not the fault of the Myanmar peoples and their sacred world that they have a military regime. Unfortunately, as usual, the politicians in the the so called "west" impose all kind of silly sanctions which were very contra productive and hurt the Myanmar people since many people took this sanctions serious and have been boycotting the country, what they don't know is what they missed.

 A typical Thai Buddha temple is Wat Chalong in Phuket Thailand.

or Chai Tararam temple, is the most famous temple at Phuket Island. The Chalong temple show a rather modern styling with a lot of beautiful decoration elements but the basic structure and overall architecture is very similar to Wat Benchamabopit (19 century) in Bangkok, it also show some structure elements from originally Khmer architecture.

Some other impressive buildings within the temple compound are a showcase of Thai workmanship. Thailand has also some other Buddhist temples in Lanna style, mainly at Chiang Mai and other places in northern Thailand. This are very decorative wooden structures who are a real optical pleasure, something different by any means but shine in real Buddhist art tradition of Thailand's northern region. This are masterpieces of Thai workmanship including Buddhist symbols and in particular Thai white elephants which are a very positive symbol in Thailand and Myanmar or Burma the pictures of Buddhist temples are telling more.

Cambodia Buddha temples are very similar to Thai temples,

they have the same origin, Khmer architecture. The Buddha temple Cambodia pictures at the right side below are seen from the ancient Khmer temple site of Phnom Chisor about 2 hours drive south of Phnom Penh. A couple of km to the north is the ancient Khmer temple site of Tonle Bati. Phnom Chisor and Tonle Bati are a excellent daytrip destination out of Phnom Penh. They are from the same time as Angkor Wat.

Many Buddha temples are only a few decades old but also impressive buildings. The area south of Phnom Penh is dominated by huge paddy fields and monasteries.

Buddha temples from Myanmar and Indonesia

Somehow different in architecture are the Buddhist temples of Borobudur in Indonesia, a ninth-century Mahayana temple, the Buddha temples at Mrauk U in north west Myanmar, the Thambuddhe Buddhism temple at Monywa in central Myanmar or Burma and some very unique Buddhist temples such as the Ananda temple at Bagan and the Mahamuni temple in Mandalay.

They all stand for a very special Buddha temple evolution where new architecture and ideas have been implemented aside of the usual pagodas and cave temples of the early days of Buddhism.

One of the most impressive Buddha temple is the Ananda temple at Bagan Myanmar or Burma.

The Ananda temple at Bagan Myanmar is one of the most impressive temple on the planet. Constructed in the years 1091-1105, a great centric Myanmar temple composition.

The Ananda temple is among the 11 biggest temple structures in Bagan, aside of the Ananda temple other huge temples at Bagan are the Dhammayangyi temple built in 1165th,

The structural center of the Ananda temple is the massive square center. In every side of the square center is a niche with a 12 m high Buddha Statue of the last four Buddha: Kakusanda in the north, Konaganama at east, Kassyapa at south and Gautama at the west.

The Ananda temple has a very expressive silhouette, which also can be seen from far away, rising in a pyramid form, a  sacred place where God live.The construction of the temple structure symbolizes the characteristic Buddhist cosmology,  the model of the world and the universe plus the interface between people and the gods. The temple is built for eternity.

Characteristic are also the colors of the Ananda temple, inside and outside. Also in the architecture of India, Cambodia, Java harmonizes the color of natural stone and the multicolor painting with the color of the environment - nature and human. The color of the building, as well as his silhouette, is in contrast to the environment.

Dhammayangyi temple at Bagan Myanmar. Built under Narathu who reigned form AD 1167-1170, this Buddha temple is hollow vaulted and the most massive of all Bagan temples. Its strong structure withstood even the serious 1975 earthquake. The temple has a similar plan to the Ananda temple and the brickwork and its enclosure walls is the best that can be found among Bagan's monuments.

Shwezigon Pagoda and Temple at Bagan

The Shwezigon Pagoda is a gigantic and majestic structure at Bagan within a typical Myanmar or Burma Pagoda precinct. This massive structure with several small towers indicate a Buddhist fortress. Visible already from far away, the real spectacular view is from the Irrawaddy river in the evening when the golden Shwezigon Pagoda is immersed in a golden aura. The sound of the gong comes from somewhere and someone bangs the bell after the prayer. Myanmar or Burma has several Buddhist temples and pagoda of this gigantic size at different locations in the country. Notably Bagan, Yangon or Rangoon, Bago Mandalay, Mrauk U and other places.