Wat Buddhapadipa

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Situated in Wimbledon, the Buddhapadipa temple was the first Buddha temple to be built in the UK. It is home to monks and nuns, but welcomes visitors of any faith to view the grounds and temple as long as they are respectful.

Its white exterior walls are put into contrast by the red and gold colours of the roof and decorations of the frames of the windows and doors.

Inside the temple hall though, the walls are covered with paintings showing the life of the Buddha—from his birth to his death. There are pictures of his birth in Lumbini (Nepal), his renunciation, his enlightenment, and finally his death. The main doorway leading out from the shine room has a grand painting of the Buddha meditating to reach enlightenment, directly above it. On the right side of the Buddha are angry Mara, trying to disrupt the Buddha, and distract him from reaching enlightenment. On the left side of the Buddha are the Mara looking more subdued, and respectful. Mara means the evil one. They are like this because the Buddha has reached enlightenment, and they could not distract him. There are two sides of the Mara shown, and this is reflected below, where on the left side of the doorway an angry eye can be seen, with a mouth that looks evil. On the right side of the doorway, there is an eye that looks more gentle and not so mad, and the mouth does not curve in such a way that it looks angry. It symbolises that when you go out into the world, you are entering a world full of evil, and you are leaving a spiritual world.

Also in the room, is a great shine built for the Buddha. There are three statues of the Buddha in it; the back one is black, the middle statue is gold, and the front statue is green and smaller than the other two. The green statue is only a copy of a much more valuable statue—the Jade Buddha. The gold statue is not real gold, because that would prevent the Buddhists from touching it; if they did it would break the tenth precept of refraining from touching gold; this is 20 to 30 years old. Lastly, the black statue is the most valuable of the three; it is 800 to 900 years old. These statues are surrounded by candles and other decorations.

Also within the grounds are a house, pond, and several bridges. In the gardens signs are stood, each sign giving a message of wisdom to those who stop to read them.