Temples of Thought

I just want to talk a little more about why might the Tibetan Buddhist minimalist approach to temples make sense for them. If you accept the notion that Buddhism is a school of thought, or a philosophy as well as being a religion, then perhaps large grandiose temples are unnecessary. You either accept the philosophy or you don’t, and while logical or religious arguments might be convincing, no amount of bombastic architecture is going to get you to change your mind about what is being said. One might as well construct an altar to the fundamental theorem of calculus, or to Kant’s Categorical Imperative.