Window to Courtyard, Zen Center

San Francisco Zen Center's temple in San Francisco (known by residents simply as "City Center") occupies a beautiful red brick building designed by the famed Bay Area architect, Julia Morgan, and was built in the 1920s. It was originally built as a residence for unmarried Jewish women. The original lounge for receiving guests was converted into the Buddha Hall, and the original ballroom downstairs is now the zendo. The main floor has this wonderful courtyard, overlooking Laguna Street.

Wat Suthat Cloisters

The old part of Bangkok is overflowing with Buddhist temple-monasteries, some of which are quite large. (In Thailand, a temple-monastery is called a "wat".) Even though they all resemble each other architecturally, some have very distinctive features. Wat Suthat has an immense, marble-paved courtyard, enclosed by long cloisters, which are lined with Buddha images.

Wat Ratchabophit (2011)

Wat Ratchabophit, a royal temple, has an interesting round Buddha Hall, the external walls of which are lined with colored ceramic tiles. With this photograph, I was attempting to exactly reproduce a B&W photograph that I had taken eight years earlier. Aside from the fact that the trees had changed, I mostly succeeded (see the next photograph). Minutes after taking this photo, an old monk welcomed me in broken English. I later learned that this was the abbot.

Wat Ratchabophit (2003)

Double Buddha

At Wat Bowonniwet, there is an impressive double Buddha, one in front of the other. I took refuge in this Buddha Hall during an intense rain storm.

Wat Suthat Monk and Soldier Guardian

At Wat Suthat, I snapped a photo of this saffron-clad monk rushing to a ceremony. Notice the British soldier "guardian" at the bottom left.

Nirvana Temple, Kushinagara

This is the temple in Kushinagara that commemorates the death of the Buddha. Although not nearly as large and impressive as the Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya, I actually found this temple to be more emotionally moving.

Dying Buddha

This is the reclining Buddha image inside the main shrine room of the Nirvana temple. It is the most moving of all the reclining Buddha images I have seen. Usually, the dying Buddha is portrayed with his head resting in his hand, and his arm propped up on the elbow. His visage is typically impassive. In this image, he is just lying there, more like an actual dying (or perhaps already deceased) man.

Deer Park with Dhamekh Stupa

This is the famous "Deer Park" in Sarnath, where the Buddha supposedly gave his first sermon, to the five ascetics who had abandoned him after he took a meager meal from a young girl on the banks of the Niranjana River. Weeks later, in this park, when they saw him approaching them from a distance, they were initially contemptuous and scornful, but when they noticed his serene demeanor, they were filled with wonder, and compelled to listen to what he had to say.

Nalanda Votive Stupas

The Buddhist monastic university of Nalanda, in Bihar, was probably the largest institution of learning in the world, before it was destroyed by Muslim invaders in the 11th Century. Many of history's most important Buddhist scholars and teachers are associated with Nalanda. People would come from long distances, including far off China, to study there.

Ceiling Mandala

This mandala is painted on the ceiling of the Bhutanese temple in Bodhgaya. It is a fine example of this kind of Tibetan Buddhist temple art. A mandala is a two-dimensional representation of a celestial temple or Buddha palace, with each side oriented towards one of the cardinal points, and each associated with a different Buddha. These images are filled with symbols; every detail has some significance. They are used to assist in visualizations.

Nipponji Altar through Incense Smoke

Next door to the Bhutanese temple in Bodhgaya is Nipponji, the "Japanese temple". Despite the mural behind the Buddha image, this temple is much more restrained in its decor. It provides an interesting contrast to the Tibetan and Thai Buddhist temples. Immediately beneath my camera was a censer. My flash gave the smoke an eerie blue tint.

Spituk Monastery

Spituk is a village across the river valley from Leh, in central Ladakh (a Tibetan Buddhist region in northern India). This is a photo of some of the monk's quarters in the gompa (monastery) there. This photo was taken in 1999 with a Nikon FG.

Prayer Flags at Mahakal Mandir

Mahakal Mandir is a Hindu-Buddhist shrine at the highest point in Darjeeling. Mahakala (or "Great Black") is a Buddhist guardian deity in the Tibetan tradition, but is regarded by Hindus to be a representation of Shiva.

Door at Tharpa Choling Gompa

Tharpa Choling Gompa is a small monastery in Kalimpong, a hill station near Darjeeling. This kind of richly painted interior is very typical of Tibetan Buddhist temples (though the painting is often more faded than is seen here).

Dancing Demon

At Druk Sangak Choling Gompa, outside of Darjeeling, I witnessed a special ceremony that commemorated Padmasambhava's (Guru Rinpoche's) victory over the native spirits of Tibet, thereby making that land safe for the transmission of the Dharma. The ceremony consisted of costumed monks, dancing to traditional music. Most of the Tibetan temples in this part of India are associated with the Nyingma sect, which holds a special reverence for Guru Rinpoche (considered the sect's founder).

Chortens in Sikkim

These votive stupas and prayer flags are in the temple complex of Sangachoeling Gompa, a small monastery near Pelling, in Sikkim (a small, mountainous province of India, which, on the map, juts up between Nepal and Bhutan).

Chortens at Durpin Gompa

Durpin Gompa is another Tibetan temple in Kalimpong, a hill station near Darjeeling. Looking to the left from where I stood to take this photograph is an impressive view of Mount Kangchenjunga, the third tallest mountain in the world (although the views of this mountain are better from Darjeeling... at least when the weather is clear).

Eiheiji Entrance

Eiheiji was founded in the 13th century by Zen Master Dogen, who brought Soto Zen from China to Japan. Located in the mountains of Echizen (now Fukui Prefecture), in western Japan, this temple is one of the two primary training monasteries for monks in the Soto Zen School (the other being Sojiji in Yokohama). The giant cryptomeria trees lining the stairs up to the temple gate are many hundreds of years old.

Jizo Bodhisattva

Jizo is one of the most beloved Buddhist bodhisattvas (or Awakening Beings) in Japan. His image is often found in gardens, and he is associated with children. In this image, his hand is to his ear, as he hears the cries of the world. This photo was taken in 2002, at Eiheiji in Fukui Prefecture, Japan. It was taken with a Nikon FG.