Temple Tales Newsletter and Podcast - podcast cover

Temple Tales Newsletter and Podcast

James Baquet AKA The Temple Guynewsletter.thetempleguy.org
Thrilling accounts of one man's journey to over 700 sites in Japan and China, with plenty of Buddhist teachings thrown in
Last refreshed:
Follow this podcast in the Metacast mobile app to refresh it and see new episodes.
Download Metacast podcast app
Podcasts are better in Metacast mobile app
Don't just listen to podcasts. Learn from them with transcripts, summaries, and chapters for every episode. Skim, search, and bookmark insights. Learn more

Episodes

Ep. 100: The Temple of the Sleeping Dragon (8:05 min)

In the splendor that is Xi'an, Wolong Temple barely registers on most itineraries. Yet, it's called "the oldest temple in Shaanxi Province"! Let's take a look in this landmark 100th episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Oct 20, 2020

Ep. 099: The Temple of the Warring Monks (11:47 min)

Let's look at a place that was once headquarters for an army of warring monks, Mii-dera on the shores of Lake Biwa and--more significantly--at the base of Mount Hiei, in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Oct 16, 2020

Ep. 098: A Touch of Tibet in Old Chang'an (14:45)

Four days after returning from the first leg of my "Chinese Pilgrimage," I was standing in front of the Terracotta Army, one of China's highest-rated tourist destinations. In just three days we would visit this as well as four temples from my list. Come visit the first one in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Oct 13, 2020

Ep. 097: Stone Mountain Temple (9:51 min)

I have been twice to beautiful Ishiyama-dera, Shiga Prefecture's "Stone Mountain Temple." Learn about both visits in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Oct 09, 2020

Ep. 096: The Temple of the Jade Buddha (5:38 min)

Jade Buddha Temple, the last temple I saw in Shanghai, is the home of several magnificent (you guessed it) jade Buddhas. Let's visit them in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Oct 06, 2020

Ep. 095: The Temple among the Rocks (7:58 min)

Another temple, another mountain. Iwama-dera (also called Shoho-ji, meaning "Correct Dharma Temple") is located at an altitude of 1280 feet, which accounts for the misty atmosphere on the January day in 2001 when I visited. Come and see in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Oct 02, 2020

Ep. 094: Shanghai's Temple of Tranquility and Peace (8:56 min)

Check out the changes wrought at Shanghai's Jing'an Temple--the Temple of Tranquility and Peace--in the two-and-a-half short years between my visits in August of 2009 and again in January of 2012, in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 29, 2020

Ep. 093: The Upper Ghee Temple (11:38 min)

When you visit Daigo-ji in Kyoto, you get two--or even three--temples for the effort of one. Find out what I'm talking about in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 25, 2020

Ep. 092: Yuanming Lecture Hall (7:43 min)

When is a temple not a temple? When it's an office building in the parking lot of a hotel! You'll see what I mean when we visit the Yuanming Lecture Hall in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 22, 2020

Ep. 091: Uji's Mimuroto-ji and Byodo-in (8:20 min)

Sometimes a pretty little temple leaves the visitor with pretty little to say. Nevertheless, for the sake of completeness, let's pay a quick visit to Mimuroto-ji in Uji--and one of its much more famous neighbors--in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 18, 2020

Ep. 089: A Small Hall and a BIG Buddha (7:46 min)

Number 9 on the Saigoku Pilgrimage is a single hall in a formerly-great but these-days-diminished temple in Nara. It also happens to be a fifteen-minute walk from Todai-ji, home of Japan's largest statue of the Buddha. We'll visit both--plus one more--in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 11, 2020

Ep. 088: Shanghai's "Incense Pavilion" (7:32 min)

Shoving off from my digs in Beilun, I at last moved from this trip's first base to its second and last, a hotel in the Jing'an district of Shanghai, where I visited one of the most precious little temples I saw in all of China, the "Incense Pavilion." Join me in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 08, 2020

Ep. 087: The Other Hase Kannon (6:18 min)

Do you remember the Great Kannon at Kamakura's Hase-dera from Episode 048? Well, let's visit the scene of the rest of the story, the original Hase-dera Temple down south, in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Sep 04, 2020

Ep. 084: The Temple of King Ashoka (12:28 min)

Let's continue our day trip in the eastern outskirts of Ningbo, and visit Ayuwang Temple, said to possess an authentic relic of the Buddha's skull! For reals? Come along and find out in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Aug 25, 2020

Ep. 081: Temple of the Kudzu Well (5:59 min)

Fujii-dera, named for the arrowroot or kudzu vine, is found at the end of a shopping street in a suburb of Osaka. Learn more about it in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack Audio version at Archive.org . Podcast on iTunes , GooglePlay , or Spotify ( raw feed here)...

Aug 14, 2020

Ep. 080: Dharma Rain Temple (5:51 min)

Let's pay a visit to the temple the name of which has impressed me more than any other. If my karma ever results in my being allowed to found a temple of my own, it, too, will probably be called Fayu--"Dharma Rain." I'll explain in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Aug 11, 2020

Ep. 076: The Temple of Aiding Wisdom on Putuo Shan (8:29 min)

Back in Episode 056 we visited the Nanhai Guanyin area of Putuoshan in Zhejiang Province. Let's continue that day's touring and drop in on Huiji Temple, the third of the 142 key temples I visited in China, in this episode of-- TEMPLE TALES! FULL Show Notes at Substack...

Jul 28, 2020
For the best experience, listen in Metacast app for iOS or Android