Remains of Majapahit

Candi Cetho looms out of the mist, remains of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Majapahit perched at the top of a steep hill in one of the few remaining Hindu towns in Central Java. Most Hindus fled to Bali as Islam spread through Java, but a few people made offerings to a shiva linggam as we walked through the mist.

Nirvana

After climbing a few sets of steep stone steps, you emerge blinking into the open top level of the temple of Borobudur - Nirvana.

Each of these stupas contains a Buddha statue, many missing parts of themselves after all these centuries but still majestic. The diamond shaped gaps represent the instability of human existence; the square ones, the perfect equilibirum of enlightenment. One stupa's statue is known as the Lucky Buddha, as my guide Aisyah tells me. When terrorists hid 10 bombs in the temple complex, only this one, tucked right into the stupa, failed to explode. She tells me to touch the Buddha and make a wish.

I feel a bit unsure about touching such an ancient monument, but I do anyway. I lean precariously on the rough lip of the stupa and reach my arm through the gap between the interlocking stones, wrap my fingers around the stone thumb, close my eyes and wish.

Offering

Temporary new year's shrine set up outside a restaurant on Intharakiri Road, Mae Sot.

Happy tigers for everyone

Murals depicting the Chinese astrological signs in the same Chinese temple in Mae Sot, Thailand.

Moment of enlightenment

I read that statues of the reclining Buddha depict him at the moment of his enlightenment. This, the famous reclining Buddha at Wat Pho, is possibly the most beautiful Buddha in all of Thailand - and that is saying something.

When I visited Wat Pho, I was still in that new-to-Thailand state of excitement everytime I saw an orange-robed monk (you do see quite a few of them here, so it wears off a little). So I was especially pleased to see several young monks in their orange robes and their orange shoulder bags, posing in turn for digital camera photos at Buddha's feet! (The surprise wears off at that too, after your thousandth glimpse of a monk on a mobile phone, or of very young boy monks in internet cafes with enormous headphones on.)

As if the giant golden Buddha were not enough, the walls of the temple are also covered in intricate paintings telling legends (jataka? but I thought I saw Ramayana-inspired paintings). And in the wider temple complex there are some beautiful mosaic-covered chedis (stupas), which I didn't see anywhere else.

It's not possible to convey the immensity and loveliness of Wat Pho or of this Buddha in a single photograph - just go, go, go see for yourselves.

Calling the earth to witness

Buddha is subduing Mara, temptation, illusion, in the old Thai city of Sukhothai.

There are so many distractions while travelling - so much for the senses to take in and discard, so much that is unfamiliar that it overwhelms.

It isn't a bad thing, then, to have so many reminders here of that still point, a way to be alive to the world without being overwhelmed by it.

Not that I'm exactly resisting all earthly temptations, myself...

The Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha

Temples in Thailand have tripartite roofs to represent the threefold refuge of the Buddha, the Dharma (teaching) and the Sangha (community of monks).

Some, like this one at Wat Pho in Bangkok, have threefold upon threefold roofs...stunning and quite different from the other temples I had seen.

Thai temple painting

Thai temples are full of life in so many ways. Not only are they full of worshippers at any time of day (especially around New Year's), but the walls are full of paintings, the paintings full of people dancing, walking, eating, gossiping, fighting, meditating.

Inner Sanctum

The head temple of the Cao Dai sect in Vietnam. They favour eyes, lotuses, and revere Victor Hugo as one of the three great spirits bringing us messages from the world beyond. In Tay Ninh province, Vietnam.

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Photo: Detail of the A-bomb dome in Hiroshima.

Probably an odd reading choice for South-East Asia, but I've always wanted to catch up on the classics I missed in my misspent youth...

After having read about the origins of Buddhism, it was interesting to turn to a book that deals so heavily with the development of Christianity, albeit in a way that was terribly controversial on publication in the 1780s.

The whole thing being a bit massive, this was an abridged version that only came to under 700 pages, but which had most of the first three volumes intact.

If being a tourist here in Bali makes me feel like a member of the idle rich, reading Decline and Fall while sitting on a patio drinking fresh papaya juice and local coffee felt incredibly decadent, as if I were one of those effete youths on Grand Tour so often described in novels about the decline and fall of the British empire.

I'm carrying on the classical theme with Ovid's Metamorphoses, which is a more obvious choice for transformative journeys...

Believe!

Boddhisattvas are all loving-kindness, but there are more forceful deities to help convert the masses. These fearsome statues are often placed at the entrance to temples to help instill a sense of urgency in the not-yet-devout.

The kawaii never stops

Instructions for how to purify yourself before entering the grounds of a temple or shrine in Japan.

Fushimi Inari

An endless flow of red torii gates at Fushimi Inari shrine.

This is the head shrine for about 40,000 others across Japan. If you see little fox statues just past the entrance torii, you know it's an inari shrine.

At Fushimi, just south of Kyoto, you can follow the gate-path all the way to the top of the mountain, with views out over the city and toward Osaka. I contemplated them with a kinako (toasted-soybean flour) ice cream in my hand.