People started to building the temples from ancient times onwards. These houses of worship not at all belong to a single religion, varies as Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Taoism. So different temples have different architectural styles and systems. Followings are 10 most amazing temples in the world.
10 Jetavanaramaya, Sri Lanka
This stupa located in the sacred city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka. This stupa have high significance in the country as it represents Buddhist monks of Theravada and Mahayana, oldest surviving branch of Buddhism.
Jetavanaramaya was third highest building of ancient world, have height of 400 feet. This stupa was built in 4th century by the king Mahasena, 93 million baked bricks were used for it’s construction. The entire compound covers an area of 5.6 hectares, contains 10000 Buddhist monks.
9 Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple, India
This temple is one of the most important vishnu temples in the world, located in Tamilnadu, India. This temple actually dedicated for one of form of lord Vishnu. It is the largest temple in the country, built across an area of 156 acres.
Dravidian style of architecture was used for it’s construction. There are 21 different towers are within the temple, main gopura, or tower is entirely made of gold. One of tower within temple have height of 236 feet, painted with different colors.
8 Temple of heaven, China
The temple of heaven in China actually built to honor the Sky, situated in the city of Beijing. This large complex of ancient temple covering an area of 2.7 million square meters, one of largest ancient temple in China. The temple have a circular wall to represent the heaven and also have rectangular wall for representing the Earth.
This design of temple shows the heaven is much higher than that of Earth. This temple complex wad built between 1406-1420 by Ming Dynasty. It is also listed on UNESCO’s world heritage sites.
7 Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar
Shwedagon pagoda one of most popular temples in Asia as it contains eight pieces of hairs from Buddha, situated in Yangon, Myanmar. The temple was constructed 2600 years ago, in the period of Buddha. Taphussa and Bhalika the builders of this temple got chance to met lord Buddha in BC 588, shortly after he got enlightenment.
Buddha gave them his eight hairs, they brought back the hairs to Yangon and built first part of Shwedagon pagoda. The temple was covered with many golden plates and top parts are decorated with thousands of diamonds. It also contains many stupas and statues that reflects architectural style from the era of Buddha.
6 Prambanan, Indonesia
Prambanan Hindu structure contains three main buildings dedicated for Trimurtis, to Gods of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The Shiva temple is the highest one among them and situated in the center. Each of those temples have numbers of rooms and main room contains statue of respective God.
It was built in 10th century and used typical Hindu architecture for the construction. There are 240 temples standing in the complex of Prambanan, 3 trimurtis temples, 3 Vahana temples, 2 Apit temples, 2 Kelir temples, 4 Patok temples and 224 Pervara temples.
5 Tigers Nest Monastery, Bhutan
Tigers nest monastery is one of most sacred places in Bhutan, situated in high cliffs of Paro valleys. the exact place where Guru Padmasambhava, second Buddha meditated for long time. This Sage Guru was one who introduced Buddhism in Tibet.
This cultural icon of Tibet built in 1692, 3000 meter above sea levels. Visitors have to make hours of trek to reach this place. There is also a festival known as Tsechu held in Paro valley to honor the second Buddha.
4 Borobudur, Indonesia
Borobudur is one of the biggest Buddhist monuments in the world, located in central Java of Indonesia. The temple have a lotus flower like structure, surrounded by an ancient lake, to representing the birth of lord Buddha. It was built in 8th century using 2 millions of volcanic stones.
This temple was abandoned for thousands of years by the eruption of Merapi volcano and rediscovered in the year 1814. Hundreds of Buddha statues also discovered from here. There are also 100 gutters in the shape of elephant headed fish known as ‘maraka’, one of finest attraction of Borobudur.
3 Golden Temple, India
It is found as most sacred place for worship for Sikhs, located in Punjab, India. This temple was mainly made of marble and plated with pure gold. The holiest text of Sikh religion the Guru Granth Sahib also kept inside of golden temple.
It was built in 1604 by Guru Ram Das Ji, the fourth Sikh Guru. The golden temple have entrances in all four sides, represents people from all parts of the world welcomed here. Everyday more than 35000 of people fed for free in Golden temple.
2 Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Angkor wat is the largest religious monument in the world. This most popular religious site situated in Angkor of Cambodia. It spread across an area of 401 acres and complex have height of 700 feet. It was built in 12th century by emperor Suryavarman II as a temple dedicated for lord Vishnu.
In following centuries temple faced many destruction and restored by Khmer empire and fix status as a Buddhist temple. The top of temples was beautifully designed through Khmer architecture. Unlike other temples Angkor Wat faces West, also have countless sculptural decorations.
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1 Wat Rong Khun, Thailand
It is also known as white temple located in Chiang Rai, Thailand. The white color of this temple represents purity of lord Buddha. The glittering glass design within the temple symbolizes infinite wisdom from Buddha. Both Buddhist and Hindu architecture used for the construction of this temple.
The inner part of temple decorated with paintings of Buddha. New paintings and designs also being added by the artist, still takes many years for the completion.
