.    ANCEINT AND CLASSICAL INDIA    .

 The faith of reincarnation and karma has inspired some of the grandest structures ever built

India's great Hindu temple of Benares on the Ganges River

The faithful swim in the Ganges during their pilgrimage to Benares, now called Varanasai

The Amritsar Palace of India, with its famous golden building and bridge

The largest Hindu temple in the world is this, where millions visit every year

The Jagannath Hindu Temple in India

The stunningly detailed Hindu shrine at

Greatest of all India's buildings, the Taj Mahal of Agra- built as a tomb and shrine

BUDDHIST SHRINES: SOUTHEAST ASIA

The famous faces of Angkor Wat, in Cambodia

Buddhist Temples in Bali, Indonesia

Grand scenery of Buddhist shrines in Burma

A closer look at the shrines in Burma, one of the great religious centers of all Asia

The Burmese shrine of Bagan, one of Buddhisms holy places

The Mahabodi Buddhist Shrine in India and Nepal's equivalent, high in the Hemalaya Mts.

Afghanistan's greatest relic was this huge sculpture of Buddha, sewn into the side of a cliff.

It reminded all of a time when there was peace in the world thanks to the way of the Buddha.

Before the USA moved into Afghanistan in 2002 and dismantled its government,

the great statues were destroyed by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban on purpose

The most famous of Buddha's sculptures, at Kamakura in Japan, has withstood many earthquakes

The great Buddhist Temple of Saigon, Vietnam (Ho Chi Min City)

A young Buddhist monk inside the Temple in Saigon

The stunning Buddhist shrine in Bangkok, Thailand almost seems from another world

Hindu temple painted in white in Calcutta, India

Famous Buddhist statue from Ceylon (Sri Lanka)- at peace and in focus

This Temple of Codai in Vietnam almost seems like an oriental cathedral!

Mandalay in Burma has a complex temple guarded by these creatures

Recently, the Cambodian Gov't and UNESCO have cleared the foliage for tourism

The great temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia has lain in the jungle untouched for centuries

In Thailand's countryside lies this Buddhist temple, part ruin and part solitary shrine

Inner Peace is the key concept in Buddhist philosophy, and here in Bangkok, Thailand

This temple in Vietnam is famous for its detail as well

At the top of the world lies Tibet, and the Buddhist shrine of the Dalai Lama at Lhasa

This is one of the world's most isolated

 Site Design: David Tamm