If I need a bit of peace and quiet, I’ll sometimes head to Battersea Park. It’s a great place for all kinds of fun – but it also possesses something quite unusual, a Buddhist pagoda.

The pagoda was built in 1985, and donated to the city by the Japanese Buddhist order, Nipponzan Myohoji, which had a monastery close to the park. (They had already built a pagoda in Milton Keynes, where they had first settled.)

Four gilded Buddhas watch from their niches on the four faces of the pagoda. Each one holds his hands in a different ‘mudra’, with a different meaning.

The pagoda is usually a peaceful place to meditate or just chill out. Occasionally, it hosts demonstrations – last year, protesters against the Burmese dictatorship headed to the pagoda for a prayer meeting.

I like it best on a misty morning, just after sunrise, when the river seems at peace and the city is hardly awake. And at sunrise, you may find Buddhist worshippers here, chanting, and a moment of calm before you head in to work.

Photo credit – Phillie Casablanca on Flickr

Post from: The London Traveler