Most Famous Temples in Asia

No other continent on the planet contains so many temples as Asia. This is perhaps not surprising as Asia was the birthplace of most of the world’s mainstream religions as well as many other beliefs. A number of these, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism, Sikhism and Taoism, were the inspiration for some of the most famous temples in the world.

10. Lotus Temple, India
Known as the Lotus Temple due to its flowerlike shape, the Bahá’í House of Worship is the most famous temple of the Bahá’í Faith. The lotus shape of the temple is formed by 27 free-standing marble clad petals arranged in clusters of three to form nine sides. Since its opening in 1986 it has become one of Delhi’s most visited buildings. The lush park around is well landscaped but mostly off-limits.

9. Ranakpur Temple, India
Dedicated to Adinatha, the Jain Temple in Ranakpur rises majestically from the slope of a hill. The temple is supported by over 1444 marble pillars, carved in exquisite detail. The pillars are all differently carved and no two pillars are the same. The construction of the temple and quadrupled image symbolize the Tirthankara’s conquest of the four cardinal directions and hence the cosmos. The dating of this temple is controversial but it was probably built between the late 14th and mid-15th centuries.

8. Taktsang Dzong, Bhutan

Taksang Dzong, Bhutan

Situated on the edge of a 900 meter (3,000 feet) cliff, the Taktsang Monastery or Tiger’s Nest creates an impressive sight, and is the unofficial symbol of Bhutan. It is about 2-3 hour, totally up-hill hike from the parking lot to the temple. The original monastery was constructed in the 17th century but most of its buildings were destroyed in a tragic fire in 1998. Since then the temple has been painstakingly restored to its former glory.

7. Temple of the Emerald Buddha, Thailand
The Wat Phra Kaew or Temple of the Emerald Buddha is a famous temple in Bangkok, located within the grounds of the Grand Palace. The main building is the central ubosoth, which houses The Emerald Buddha. A jade statue adorned in gold clothing it is one of the oldest and most famous Buddha statues in the world.


6. Temple of Heaven, China
The Temple of Heaven in Beijing is regarded as a Taoist Temple although Chinese Heaven worship pre-dates Taoism. The temple was constructed from 1406 to 1420 during the reign of the Yongle Emperor, who was also responsible for the construction of the Forbidden City in Beijing. Not only a beautiful sight, the temple is also surrounded by a vast public park popular with local residents practicing tai chi in the mornings and on weekends.

5. Golden Pavilion, Japan
Kinkaku-ji or the Temple of the Golden Pavilion is the most popular tourist attraction in Kyoto. The pavilion was originally built as a retirement villa for Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu in the late 14th century, and converted into a Zen temple by his son. Unfortunately, the pavilion was burnt down in 1950 by a young monk who had become obsessed with it. Five years later, the temple was rebuilt as an exact copy of the original. The beautiful landscaping and the reflection of the famous temple on the face of the water make for a striking sight.

4. Harmandir Sahib, India
The Harmandir Sahib, better known as the Golden Temple is the main attraction in Amritsar, and the most important religious place to the Sikhs. Construction of the famous temple was begun by Guru Ram Dast in the 16th century and completed by his successor Guru Arjan. In the 19th century, Maharaja Ranjit Singh covered the upper floors of the temple with gold, which gives it its distinctive appearance and English name. It’s a stunning temple, and always full of thousands of pilgrims from all over India, excited to be at a place that they usually only see on television.

3. Baalbek, Lebanon
Baalbek is a spectacular archaeological site in northeastern Lebanon. From the 1st century BC and over a period of two centuries, the Romans built three temples here: Jupiter, Bacchus and Venus. Created to be the largest temple in the Roman empire, the temple of Jupiter was lined by 54 massive granite columns each of which were 21 meters (70 feet) tall. Only 6 of these colossal columns remain standing but even they are incredibly impressive. The best preserved temple at the site is the Temple of Bacchus built in 150 AD.


2. Borobudur, Indonesia

Borobudur,Indonesia

Located on the Indonesian island of Java, 40 km (25 miles) northwest of Yogyakarta, the Borobudur is the largest and most famous Buddhist temple in Indonesia. The Borobudur was built over a period of some 75 years in the 8th and 9th centuries by the kingdom of Sailendra, out of an estimated 2 million blocks of stone. It was abandoned in the 14th century for reasons that still remain a mystery and for centuries lay hidden in the jungle under layers of volcanic ash.

1. Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Angkor Wat (”City Temple”) is a vast temple complex at Angkor, built for king Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. The Angkor temple stands on a raised terrace above the rest of the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. It is the only temple at Angkor to have remained a religious centre since its construction, first as a Hindu temple then as a Buddhist temple.

Top 10 Spookiest Buildings Around The World

Let's Play With Em

Have you ever visited a building that gave you the creeps? These 10 buildings around the world are guaranteed to send a shiver down your spine.

1. Wat Rong Khun, Chang Rai, Thailand
Still under construction, Chiang Rai‘s controversial modern temple is part traditional Buddhist temple, part white-frosted wedding cake, and part avant-garde art with a disturbing penchant for pointiness. Visitors must cross a bridge to the temple over a field of fangs and hundreds of pleading white arms and suffering faces of statues reaching up from hell. While stark whiteness predominates, the inside and other parts of the temple compound (including the toilets) are sparkling gold.

2. Sedlec Ossuary, Kutná Hora, Czech Republic
By the mid-1800s, the crypt at the Sedlec monastery had been a popular burial site for centuries, with plague outbreaks and Hussite Wars contributing thousands of remains. In the 1870s a local woodcarver was hired to make creative use of the bones that had been piling up in the crypt. This was no minor task: the ossuary contains the remains of over 40,000 people, many of which were used to decorate the chapel. The effect is as beautiful as it is macabre: elaborate light fixtures, arrays of bells, furnishings, splashy wall treatments and coats of arms are all loving recreated from skulls and bones of all sizes. Is that chandelier staring back at you?

3. Ryugyong Hotel, Pyongyang, North Korea
Under construction since 1987, the massive and still unfinished 105-story Ryugyong Hotel in Pyongyang looks like a luxury hotel designed for Mordor. Nicknamed the ‘Hotel of Doom’ and described as ‘the worst building in the history of mankind’ by Esquire, construction halted due to lack of funding, and the partially completed building stood windowless and looming ominously over the city for 16 years before work resumed in 2008. Strikingly modern when first designed, time has not been kind to the building, which now looks simultaneously menacing, dated, and unconscionably extravagant relative to the impoverished populace.

4. Dongyue Temple, Běijīng, China
Běijīng’s most morbid shrine, the operating Taoist shrine of Dongyue Temple is an unsettling but fascinating place to visit. Stepping through the entrance you find yourself in Taoist Hades, where tormented spirits reflect on their wrongdoings. The ‘Life and Death Department’ is a spiritual place to ponder your eventual demise, the ‘Department for Wandering Ghosts’ and the ‘Department for Implementing 15 Kinds of Violent Death’ have slightly less inviting names, while the ill might seek out the ‘Deep-Rooted Disease Department’. Other halls are less morbid, but no less interesting. Visit during the Chinese New Year or the Mid-Autumn Festival to see the temple at its most vibrant.

5. Lemp Mansion, St Louis, USA
Reputed to be one of the USA’s most haunted houses (if there are degrees of hauntedness), St Louis’ Lemp Mansion has a long history of odd occurrences. Charles Lemp committed suicide in the house in 1949 and, ever since, strange things have taken place at the house, including doors that swing open spontaneously, glasses that leap off tables and break, and a tragically short-lived reality TV show. Today, the mansion operates as a restaurant and inn that capitalises on the morbid fame through murder mystery dinner theatre, Halloween parties and weekly tours by a noted ‘paranormal investigator’. Stay the night if you dare.

6. Scott Monument, Edinburgh, Scotland
A spiky Gothic fantasy with more than a passing resemblance to a Thai temple, the monument to Sir Walter Scott is a beloved fixture of the Edinburgh skyline. Just 61m high, the climb to the top doesn’t sound daunting until you find yourself wedged into the preposterously tiny spiral staircase. The final curve is so notoriously tight that squeezing yourself out the final doorway requires the flexibility of a spelunker. Edinburgh mystery writer Ian Rankin once set the scene of the crime at the top of the Scott Monument, with much of the story focusing on the physics of getting a stiff cadaver down the twisty staircase. Not a claustrophobe? This might make you think otherwise.

7. Catacombe dei Cappuccini, Palermo, Italy
All of the inhabitants of the catacombs below Palermo’s Capuchin Monastery are decked out in their Sunday best. Unfortunately, that Sunday was several hundred years ago, and the outfits have fared significantly better that the wearers. The mummified bodies and skeletons of some 8000 Palermitans from the 1600s through to the 1800s are kept in the catacombs for all to see, some so well preserved that they look eerily lifelike. Men and women occupy separate corridors, and within the women’s area there’s a special virgin-only section. Spooky for adults, probably terrifying for the kiddies – be warned.

8. Chornobyl Reactor #4, Ukraine
Famously the site of the world’s biggest nuclear disaster in 1986, the 30km-radius exclusion zone is mostly uninhabited today, but limited tours have been available since 2002 for travellers who are curious enough to get a glimpse of the industrial ghost town and aren’t put off by the ominous click of a Geiger counter. Factories, homes, schools, and a particularly creepy abandoned amusement park stand decaying and choked with weeds, but remain much as they looked at the time of disaster. The Ukrainian government has indicated that the exclusion zone will be increasingly open to travellers in the coming years. Just don’t step on the radioactive moss.

9. Ottawa Jail Hostel, Canada
Want to spend the night in the slammer? Why not make it a jail haunted by the spirits of former inmates and deemed unsuitable for prisoners in the early1970s due to appalling conditions? Opened in 1862, the Carleton County Gaol was in operation for over a century, but it was hardly a hit with the prisoners who complained of cramped conditions and sanitation problems. It might not have been suitable for prisoners at the time, but if you’re a traveller on a tight budget and don’t mind that your room happens to be a prison cell and your bunkmate might be spectral, it’s perfect. As a ‘prisoner’ today, your punishment includes parking, wifi, and a games lounge.

10. White Alice, Alaska, USA
A gold-rush town a century ago and the finishing line for the Iditarod dog-sled race today, Nome is the perfect example of a honky-tonk, almost-at-the-Arctic-Circle frontier town. Overlooking the town and the Bering Straits from the top of Anvil Mountain is White Alice, a weird Cold War relic. From down in the town it looks like a bizarre space-age Stonehenge, closer up it could be a film set for a shoot of the Victorian-era War of the Worlds. The four strange corrugated-iron sound reflector structures were intended for listening to suspicious Soviet activity.

For a real Alaskan experience visit White Alice during the midnight sun: Nome and the Bering Straits at your feet, the Arctic Circle just to the north and Siberia not far west.