Temples and monuments in India

Temples and monuments in India

No one does temples like India. The country has a remarkable collection of historic and contemporary sacred architecture that draws inspiration from a variety of religious denominations. Many Hindu temples across the south – with their psychedelic Technicolor towers – are important places of pilgrimage, where daily puja (offering or prayer) rituals and colourful festivals will leave a deep impression on even the most temple-weary traveller. No less impressive are the silently grand Buddhist cave temples and monasteries – some of them more than 2000 years old – sprinkled across the country. India’s mosques, like Delhi’s majestic Jama Masjid, Sikh temples (the queen is Amritsar’s gold-plated fairy-tale shrine), and Rajasthan’s elegant, ornate Jain temples equally evoke the divine.