First Century Buddhist temples in Northern India

Rachel Udin · Jun 23, 2012

Wikipedia says little survives since they were made of timber. So I need a little help making inferences--I've been to a Buddhist temple in Korea, but not in India.

And you can't enter stupas--I definitely need a temple. I need a short sentence on the visual.

Anyone know anything or can give me hints about temples built near that time? (I tried Google, but it's hard to sort and I read that some were converted to Hindu temples)

I'll also accept the major features of most Buddhist temples too from Buddhists--such as what they expect when entering.

Thanks.

TheRajinski · Jul 2, 2012

When I lived in Varanasi, India, I visited Sarnath on occasion. Cool place. I posted the wiki page below. It's got some pictures of the Buddhist temples.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarnath

Also do some research on Nepal... particularly Buddhist temples in the Kathmandu area. I spent a lot of time there. The Newar people have a special kind of Buddhism (read: not Tibetan buddhism, which is really the interloper of the valley). Some of the temples do double duty (Buddhist & Hindu). Yeah, a lot of them were built from carved wood, but for the most part, they have been preserved or restored. The original Newar architecture of the Kathmandu valley is super cool. Here's a general wiki on Kathmandu:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathmandu

On stupas.... mostly you are walking around them, but there are "stations" that are "indoors" as you're circumnavigating them... especially the giant ones like bodhanath and swayambhu. I didn't see many stupas in India (but then again, I wasn't really looking), but there are a TON in the Kathmandu valley.

This is probably not info you're looking for. I'm not a huge history or religion buff by any means, but I thought I'd give it a shot, seeing as I have some personal experiences in the region.

First Century Buddhist temples in Northern India

Rachel Udin

TheRajinski

Probationary Agent