Temples Along the Way is a visual travel journal curated to share interesting stories about sacred places around the world. I love traveling, learning and sharing adventures with my family and friends. This blog is an excellent way to chronicle these journeys with images and brief explanations of Earth’s diverse spiritual sanctuaries.
Temples can inspire moods, ideas, perspectives, and they can provide a space for contemplation, concentration and mindfulness. They can be sacred places, yet allow one to just sit and rest with the ordinary mind. Most of us go through life without traveling to faraway places to visit such reservoirs of peace and wisdom. This blog seems like a good way to journal my travels and share with others.
It will be noticed that I have not been an expert photographer by any means, and a lot of my images lack creativity – or even downright stink. These were not taken for public consumption, it should be known, and were often just off-the-cuff. However, I am now aware of this situation, and as I intend to post future pics on this blog, I will do my best to produce a representative and interesting selection of images of temples I visit in the future.
Growing up in the Midwest United States, and staying mainly in my hometown through college, I developed a curiosity and passion for exploration. This blog will, in a sense, allow the author and reader to share the experience of a wide range of sacred spaces together. I traveled with my church group to various parish churches nearby our home. After college I enjoyed visiting historic religious houses such as, among others, the National Cathedral and St. Paul’s K Street in Washington, D.C.; Christ Church in Alexandria, Virginia; Christ Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and St. Paul’s Chapel in Manhattan, New York.
Once I started leaving the country for various reasons, I had the opportunity to see St. Basil’s Cathedral in the Red Square, Moscow, Russia; the Royal Chapel in Copenhagen, Denmark; Santa María la Blanca and the Museo Sefardí in Toledo, Spain; Notre Dame in Paris, France; Rosslyn Chapel in Midlothian, Scotland; Temple Church and Westminster Abbey in London, England; St. Alban’s Cathedral in Hertfordshire, England; and the cathedrals and several chapels at the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
In this blog I invite you to join me in the pleasure of visiting temples in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Indonesia. We will have the privilege of meditating at the Temple of Heaven in the Forbidden City, home of the Chinese emperors in Beijing. We will sit at the Daoist Louguan Terrace at Mount Zhongnan in Shaanxi Province, where Laozi is supposed to have written the Daode jing. Let’s see the White Cloud Temple in Beijing, the headquarters of the Chinese Daoist Association. We can stop at the prominent Daoist Tai Shan Monastery in Shandong and Confucius’ Tomb in Qufu City, Shandong.
Why not spend some time at the White Horse Temple, the first Buddhist temple in China, and the Shaolin Monastery, where Chan/Soen/Zen Buddhism, kung fu and tea drinking were born. Let’s go to Longshan Temple in Taipei, Taiwan. We will travel to Po Lin Monastery and the Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong and stop at the Daoist Wong Tai Sin temple in Hong Kong. We also have the opportunity to enjoy the Hindu Sri Krishnan Temple and the adjacent Chinese Buddhist Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple on Waterloo Street, Singapore.
As we continue, we will visit the ancient Buddhist temple ruin at Ayutthaya, the capital of Siam from 1350-1767, outside of Bangkok, and the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho in Bangkok, Thailand. We can enjoy the beautiful Shinto shrine Fushimi Inari-taisha in Kyoto and the Meiji Shrine in Tokyo, Japan. Come and explore Shitennō-ji in Kyoto, the first completed Buddhist temple in Japan, and Sensō-ji Buddhist temple in Asakusa, Tokyo’s oldest temple. We will get to see Hozenji Temple in Osaka and Kenninji in Kyoto, the main temple founded by Yousai, the Japanese monk who first brought Zen and green tea from China to Japan. Built in 1202, Kenninji is where Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen, trained to be a monk.
In Indonesia we will meditate at Borobudur in Yogyakarta, the 8th-9th century Buddhist temple with 72 stupas with buddha statues inside. We should see two special temples in Jakarta on the island of Java: the Chinese klenteng Kim Tek Ie Temple and the Buddhist Vihara Mahavira Graha Pusat. We can also explore the Hindu Pura Besaki temple complex on the slopes of Mount Agung in Bali, and visit the Tanah Lot temple in Bali.
There are some holy places and temples I have visited but do not plan to cover in this blog, from the Maharishi Peace Palace in Fairfield, Iowa, to the National City Christian Church in Washington, D. C., to a Sufi mosque in Virginia, to smaller churches and Masonic lodges around the world, to Shinto shrines in Japan. Perhaps when I find some contexts for these special places I will give them a suitable mention. Right now this blog is not such a serious project.
Of course, there are many important temples and monasteries I still want to see in the East and the West. I have yet to travel to India, Nepal, Tibet, Iran (Persia), Israel, Egypt, or Greece. I hope to travel to many more sacred spaces as I am able in the future. I intend on sharing each of these important sites on this blog and I hope you will join me on this journey.
Temples Along the Way 