Stunningly Gorgeous Pagoda Temples, From Bangkok to Pennsylvania

You ’ve probably jaw enough churches and cathedral to mark that over the preceding match thousand years , Westerners hone the domes , steeple , and elaborate facades of their spiritual buildings . But let your human foot take you much , much further eastern United States . While Europe was staining glass and smoothing Isidor Feinstein Stone , architect in India , Southeast Asia , China , and Japan were set up Buddhist and Taoist temples with their own trenchant flair : pagoda , which are just as welcoming , just as stunning , as their Western counterparts .

Some of the old date back to ancient times ; others keep popping up as shrine or monuments or curiosities – or , in the typeface of a Chinese watershed , one of the most technologically advanced construction in the macrocosm . The architectural feature article are decided : ornate eaves , pile pedestal , and – in places like Thailand and Myanmar – their own spectacular take on spires and covered stadium . Most are in Asia , but tour these and moderately presently you ’ll notice pagoda all over the world .

Gyeongbokgung Palace

Seoul , South KoreaThis bad son was work up in the 1300s to serve as the not - so - modest home of the king – complete with 7,700 room and ample closet blank space . ( Well , before it was destroyed and reconstruct in the 19th century , but it ’s still pretty all-fired decent . )

Cebu Taoist Temple

Cebu , PhilippinesIf Willy Wonka lived in a pagoda , this would in all likelihood be it . And not just because of its heavily unearthly community ( it is the essence of worship forTaoism ) , or because the entrance pathway to the temple is a replica of the Great Wall of China . But more because there ’s a very mythological - looking dragon swimming in the front chiliad .

Byodo-In Temple

Kaneohe , HawaiiIf you ca n’t make it all the way to Japan , break in near a hillside cemetery in Oahu to bring down this replica of a 900 - year - old Buddhist synagogue at Uji in Kyoto . Ring a bell , feed some koi , light a candle , go for poi .

Pagoda at Meidai Lamasery

Inner Mongolia , ChinaThis pagoda in a mountainside lamasery – progress during the Ming dynasty – is automatically a good time merely based off the fact that it looks like a thousand people bolt down confetti can all over it at the same clock time . ( That did n’t really happen but you may envisage . )

Shwedagon Paya Pagoda

Yangon , MyanmarGold middling much everywhere ? ascertain . A cap covered in almost 5,000 diamonds ? Yep . One of the largest structure in the creation ? You know it . Welcome to the P. Diddy of pagoda .

Chureito Pagoda

Fujiyoshida , JapanAny pagoda ( or cherry tree , or person , or object of any sort ) face all the grander set against a backcloth of Mount Fuji . This iconic Arakurayama Sengen Park pagoda , built as a peace monument in 1963 , is an light misstep by train from Tokyo , contributing to its status asan Instagram mecca .

Tran Quoc Pagoda

Hanoi , VietnamThat phrase " open up like a lotus flush " was actually the blueprint for this one . Completed in the class 545 – no , there ’re no fingerbreadth missing from that birthday – it was moved in the 1600s as a shifting river imperil it .

The Pagoda on Skyline Drive

meter reading , PennsylvaniaNo one know pagoda like the Keystone State , right ? It ’s not a berth of worship , but it is now more than a century old – vintage that definitely adds some genuineness to the cafe and gift shop .

Thambuddhei Paya Pagoda

Monywa , MyanmarThis complex body part reputedly holds – wait for it – more than 500,000 pic of Buddha , accumulated since it opened in 1303 .

Jokhang Temple

Lhasa , TibetThe most sacred temple to the Tibetans , Jokhang is literally twice the side of the other dozen in the sphere – which is probably why it have near 1,000 year to build it .

Taipei 101

Taipei , TaiwanThis 1,671ft - tall behemoth – the tallest building in the world for five geezerhood in the aughts – recalls a Chinese - fashion pagoda with its flared tier : eight of them , an auspicious number in Buddhism , which celebrates the Noble Eightfold Path . It ’s either not at all a pagoda , no way , no how , or it ’s the flat - out baddest pagoda in the account of the universe , ramp up to withstand the secure earthquake during a given 2,500 - year span . Like so many of the pagodas here , it ’ll be stand for a while .

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