The atlas
Every temple we have written up
44 temples across 20 cities, chosen for the building and for the city around it.
All traditions
Thai Wat (10)
Zen Temple (8)
Hindu Temple (5)
Khmer Temple (4)
Balinese Pura (4)
Stupa (3)
Chinese Temple (2)
Shinto Shrine (2)
Pagoda (2)
Gurdwara (1)
Javanese Candi (1)
Lao Temple (1)
Cave Temple (1)
Cambodia 4 temples
Hong Kong 1 temples
Man Mo temples in Hong Kong
Giant incense coils hang from the ceiling and burn for weeks, so the whole hall sits in a permanent haze.
India 4 temples
Golden Temple
The holiest site in Sikhism, plated in real gold and floating in the middle of a lake.
Swaminarayan Akshardham (Delhi)
Finished in 2005 and carved entirely in the traditional way, with no structural steel.
Meenakshi Temple
Twelve gopuram towers covered in thousands of painted figures, stacked so densely it reads as one moving surface.
Kashi Vishwanath Temple
One of the twelve Jyotirlinga shrines and the spiritual centre of Varanasi, the city Hindus come to die in.
Indonesia 6 temples
Besakih Temple
Bali's mother temple, and not one building but a complex of 23 separate temples climbing the slope of Mount Agung.
Tirta Empul
A spring temple where Balinese Hindus queue at stone spouts for ritual purification, and you can join in.
Uluwatu Temple
A sea temple on a cliff seventy metres above the Indian Ocean, best at sunset when the kecak fire dance starts in the amphitheatre next to it.
Japan 8 temples
Fushimi Inari-taisha
Thousands of vermilion torii gates climbing a mountain, and the shrine is open all night.
Kinkaku-ji
Two upper floors in gold leaf, doubled in a still pond, and there is a reason it is on every poster.
Kiyomizu-dera
A vast wooden stage built out over the hillside on pillars, with no nails, and the whole of Kyoto laid out below it.
Meiji Shrine
A hundred thousand trees planted by hand in 1920, right next to Harajuku, so you step from the busiest crossing in Tokyo into deep forest in about...
Laos 2 temples
Wat Xieng Thong
The finest temple in Luang Prabang, built in 1560, with a roof that sweeps almost to the ground and a wall of glass mosaic showing a tree of life.
Pha That Luang
A gold covered stupa that is the national symbol of Laos, printed on the money and the state seal.
Malaysia 2 temples
Batu Caves
A steep climb up rainbow painted steps into a limestone cave temple, with a 43 m gold statue of Murugan standing at the foot of the stairs.
Thean Hou Temple
Six tiers of red columns, dragons and hundreds of lanterns, on a hill overlooking Kuala Lumpur.
Myanmar 2 temples
Shwedagon Pagoda
112 m of gold, topped with thousands of diamonds, and the most sacred site in Myanmar.
Sule Pagoda
A golden stupa sitting in the middle of a traffic roundabout in downtown Yangon, which sounds ridiculous and looks magnificent.
Nepal 3 temples
Boudha Stupa
One of the largest stupas in the world, with the Buddha's eyes painted on all four sides, and a constant slow tide of Tibetan pilgrims walking...
Pashupatinath Temple
The most important Hindu temple in Nepal, on the Bagmati river, where open air cremations happen continuously on the ghats.
Swayambhunath
The monkey temple, on a hill with the best view over the Kathmandu valley, reached by a long stone staircase.
South Korea 1 temples
Sri Lanka 1 temples
Temple of the Tooth
This is where a tooth of the Buddha is kept, which makes Kandy the most important Buddhist pilgrimage site in Sri Lanka.
Thailand 10 temples
Wat Benchamabophit
The Marble Temple, built in 1911 from Italian Carrara marble by a prince who was also an architect, which is why it looks like nothing else in...
Wat Phra Kaew
The most sacred temple in Thailand, holding a small jade Buddha whose robes the king changes with the seasons.
Wat Chedi Luang
A vast brick chedi in the middle of Chiang Mai, half collapsed by a 16th century earthquake and left that way, which is exactly why it is the most...
Wat Chiang Man
The oldest temple in Chiang Mai, founded when the city was, and it still feels like a working monastery rather than a sight.
Wat Phra Singh
The most revered temple in Chiang Mai and the centre of the city's Songkran celebrations.
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep
Up a mountain outside Chiang Mai, reached by 306 naga staircase steps or a funicular, with the city spread out below.
Wat Rong Khun
The White Temple, and not really a temple at all: a private art project by Chalermchai Kositpipat, still unfinished, all white and mirrored glass.