Ancient temples, monasteries, sacred caves and spiritual landmarks across Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Laos, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Russia, Malaysia and Nepal.
51 programs
Mountain fortresses, city walls, stone pyramids and burial chambers covered in murals: the archaeological legacy of the Koguryo kingdom in north-east China, inscribed on the World Heritage List.
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Fengguo Monastery preserves a great wooden hall whose row of colossal Buddha figures has been receiving worshippers for centuries. The film examines the carpentry, the sculpture and the painted surfaces.
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At Shenyang, the Fuling Mausoleum holds the tomb of Nurhaci, founder of the Qing house. Spirit way, stairways, gates and burial mound compose a funerary landscape inscribed on the World Heritage List.
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Before the Forbidden City, there was Shenyang. The Mukden Palace preserves the ceremonial architecture of the early Qing rulers, a blend of Manchu, Han and Mongol traditions listed as World Heritage.
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Moat, gates, marble terraces and the great ceremonial halls: the first part follows the Forbidden City along its imperial axis, from the outer defences to the throne of the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
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The second part moves past the ceremonial halls into the inner court, the residential palaces, the gardens and the collections, where the daily life of the imperial household comes into focus.
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Dedicated to Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion venerated across Buddhist Asia, this Indonesian pagoda rises in diminishing tiers. Incense, offerings and chanting mark the daily rhythm of the sanctuary.
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Excavated from the alluvial plain of West Java, Candi Blandongan and Candi Jiwa are brick structures counted among the oldest religious buildings known on the island, and a key site for the study of early Javanese Buddhism.
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Rising from open ground at Trowulan, Candi Brahu is one of the largest brick temples of East Java. It stands in the area long identified with the capital of the Majapahit kingdom.
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Near the north coast of East Java, Candi Jabung is unusual among Javanese temples: a cylindrical brick body raised on a square terraced base, finely moulded and remarkably well preserved.
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Candi Jabung, Candi Surowono and Candi Jawi belong to the same East Javanese tradition of brick temple building. Compared in a single programme, they reveal the range of forms, reliefs and functions of the period.
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Spread over a series of terraces on the slopes below a volcano near Blitar, Penataran is the most extensive temple complex in East Java, built and enlarged over a long period and carved with narrative reliefs.
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Modest in size and missing its upper structure, Candi Surowono is prized for the quality of its carving: dense narrative panels illustrating fables and epic tales, cut into stone with exceptional inventiveness.
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Excavated below ground level at Trowulan, Candi Tikus is a brick water structure with basins, channels and spouts. It documents the sophisticated hydraulic architecture of an East Javanese capital.
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Built in the ninth century in central Java, Prambanan is the largest Hindu temple compound in Indonesia. Its soaring shrines to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma are carved with a full narrative cycle of the Ramayana.
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Surrounded by a wide moat and formal gardens, Pura Taman Ayun was the state temple of the kingdom of Mengwi. Its rows of tiered meru towers belong to Bali's system of temples and irrigated rice terraces.
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In the highlands near Tampaksiring, the temple of Tirta Empul is built around a natural spring feeding long stone bathing pools. Worshippers move from spout to spout in the melukat purification rite, in a sanctuary Balinese tradition dates to the tenth century.
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On the shore of Lake Beratan, in the volcanic highlands of Bedugul, the pagoda-like shrines of Ulun Danu appear to float on the surface. The temple honours the goddess of the lakes, source of the water that irrigates the terraces below.
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Founded in Kamakura under the patronage of the Hojo regents and led by a Chinese Chan master, Kencho-ji was conceived as a full monastic training centre. First of the city's Five Mountains, it remains an active Rinzai monastery.
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Set on a peninsula where the Nam Khan meets the Mekong, Luang Prabang was the royal capital of Laos. Its inscription on the World Heritage List recognises a rare fusion of Lao monastic architecture and French colonial urbanism.
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In the historic heart of Luang Prabang, Wat Aham stands beside its larger neighbour under the shade of enormous banyans. The site is closely associated with the guardian spirits of the town, whose cult continues alongside Buddhist practice.
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Wat Choum Khong is a small, garden-filled monastery on the Luang Prabang peninsula. A short walk away, the morning market fills the streets at first light. Together they compose a portrait of how the town begins its day.
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In Luang Prabang, a monastery opens its courtyard, its ordination hall and its everyday routine to the camera. An unhurried observation of Lao Buddhist architecture and of the community that maintains it.
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On the main street of the Luang Prabang peninsula, Wat Sensoukaram presents a facade of deep red and gold that stops every passer-by. Behind it lies an active monastery in the heart of the World Heritage town.
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Set against the limestone karst near Ipoh, in Perak, Ling Sen Tong is one of the Chinese temples built where the cliffs meet the plain. Its garden of brightly painted figures brings the deities and legends of popular belief into the open air.
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On Malaysia's north-west coast, Penang and its historic capital George Town form a World Heritage site. Chinese clan houses, mosques, Hindu temples and British colonial buildings stand within minutes of one another.
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Gandantegchinlen is the principal monastery of Mongolian Buddhism and the spiritual centre of Ulaanbaatar. Its great hall shelters a colossal gilded statue of the Bodhisattva of Compassion, rebuilt after the destruction of the socialist era.
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South of Ulaanbaatar, in a forested valley of the Bogd Khan mountain, Manzushir Monastery was destroyed during the political purges of the socialist era. Foundations and rock inscriptions remain, with a single restored temple.
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One of the largest stupas in the world, Boudhanath is the centre of Tibetan Buddhist life in Kathmandu. Pilgrims circle its white dome day and night beneath the painted eyes of the tower, in a World Heritage valley.
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Crowning a hill west of Kathmandu, Swayambhunath is among the oldest and most venerated sanctuaries in Nepal. Reached by a long stairway, its stupa is a place of Buddhist and Hindu worship alike, within a World Heritage valley.
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Jongmyo is the Confucian royal ancestral shrine of the Joseon dynasty. Its austere main hall, extended over generations into an immense colonnade, still hosts the ancestral rite with its music and dance.
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In the crowded Pettah district of Colombo stands one of the city's principal Hindu temples, dedicated to Shiva. Its sculpted gopuram and daily rituals bring South Indian temple tradition into a Sri Lankan port city.
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Founded as the capital of the Lan Na kingdom, Chiang Mai's old city remains a perfect square defined by moat and brick walls. Inside, dozens of temples share the grid with markets, workshops and daily life.
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Seated on a small island linked to Koh Samui by a causeway, the temple's colossal gilded Buddha is the island's best-known landmark, and a working place of worship as much as a viewpoint.
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Wat Tham Suea is a forest monastery set among the limestone karst of Krabi, with meditation caves at its base and a summit shrine reached by a punishing staircase carved into the rock.
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Once the tallest structure in Chiang Mai and briefly home to the Emerald Buddha, the great chedi of Wat Chedi Luang stands partly ruined at the heart of the old city, beside the shrine of the city pillar.
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A short walk north of Chiang Mai's moat, Wat Lok Molee combines a massive brick chedi with a dark teak assembly hall. Long linked to the Lan Na ruling house, it remains a quiet, deeply atmospheric temple.
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On the ridge overlooking Mae Hong Son, this hilltop temple's two whitewashed chedis in Shan style command the valley. At dawn the town below often disappears entirely beneath cloud.
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Built out over a man-made lake on the north-east coast of Koh Samui, Wat Plai Laem is among the most striking contemporary temples in Thailand. Its towering white Guanyin and saturated colour palette draw worshippers and visitors in equal measure.
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Wat Prasat belongs to the everyday religious landscape of Thailand: a walled compound where the working life of a monastic community and the vocabulary of Thai temple architecture meet. The film observes rather than explains.
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Known locally as the red temple, Wat Ratchathammaram stands apart from the gilded sanctuaries of southern Thailand. Its deep red stonework, covered in carved narrative relief, faces the sea on the south-eastern coast of Koh Samui.
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Wat Samret is one of the modest monastic compounds that carry religious life in Thailand outside the great pilgrimage centres. The film approaches it patiently, through its enclosure, its images and the people who come to sit with them.
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On the western edge of Chiang Mai's old city, Wat Suan Dok combines a great gilded stupa, an open-sided assembly hall and a field of white funerary chedis holding the ashes of the city's royal line. It remains a major centre of monastic study.
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On a wooded hill on the eastern edge of Ho Chi Minh City, Buu Long Pagoda rises above a jade-green pond. Its gilded stupa and white galleries follow a Theravada idiom rarely seen in a country of Mahayana temples.
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Dai Tong Lam is one of the largest Mahayana monastic complexes in southern Vietnam: a place of formation for monks and nuns, with wide open courtyards, great halls and long ranks of statuary set out under the sky.
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At the northern end of Hanoi's Old Quarter stands Dong Xuan, the city's largest covered market. Founded in the French colonial period and rebuilt after fire, it remains the wholesale heart of the capital's street trade.
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This programme pairs two Vietnamese pagodas in a single film, moving between their courtyards, halls and daily observances to show how the same devotional tradition takes on distinct forms from one community to another.
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This short film observes a Vietnamese place of worship without commentary, following the light across its thresholds, altars and courtyards and the quiet succession of people who come to make an offering.
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Viet Nam Quoc Tu, the National Pagoda, is one of the principal Buddhist institutions of Ho Chi Minh City. Its tiered tower rises above District 10 and serves as a centre of administration, teaching and large-scale ceremony.
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Near My Tho in the Mekong Delta, Vinh Trang Temple is celebrated for its eclectic architecture. Its gateway and facade combine Khmer, Chinese, Vietnamese and European motifs, while monumental Buddha figures stand in the surrounding gardens.
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Xa Loi, whose name means relic, is one of the principal pagodas of Ho Chi Minh City. Modern in design, with a tall bell tower and a spacious upper hall, it became the epicentre of the Buddhist protest movement of 1963.
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