Finally I have arrived in Nara which is one of my most wanted historical places to visit in Japan besides Kyoto. To add the icing on the cake, this trip was during the New Year 2012. The most famous of all is the Tōdai-ji (東大寺, Great Eastern Temple), is a Buddhist temple complex located in the city of Nara, Japan. The Great Buddha Hall, Daibutsuden (大仏殿), which is the the largest wooden building in the world, houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Buddha. The temple is a listed UNESCO World Heritage Site as "Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara", together with seven other sites including temples, shrines and places in the city of Nara. Sika deer, regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, roam the grounds freely. I will be blogging about the Sika deer in the next posting.
The beginning this complex can be dated back to the year A.D.728, when Emperor Shōmu established Kinshōsen-ji (金鐘山寺) as an appeasement for Prince Motoi, his first son with his Fujiwara clan consort Kōmyōshi. Prince Motoi died a year after his birth. During the Tenpyō era, Japan suffered from a series of disasters and epidemics. It was after experiencing these problems that Emperor Shōmu issued an edict in 741 to promote the construction of provincial temples throughout the nation. Tōdai-ji (still Kinshōsen-ji at the time) was appointed as the Provincial temple of Yamato Province and the head of all the provincial temples. With the alleged coup d'état by Nagaya in 729, an outbreak of smallpox around 735–737, worsened by consecutive years of poor crops, then followed by a rebellion led by Fujiwara no Hirotsugu in 740, the country was in a chaotic position. Emperor Shōmu had been forced to move the capital four times, indicating the level of instability during this period.
(Source: Wikipedia, 2012)
Enough of history. Let’s move on to the photos.
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| The fees for entering this temple is at 500 yen per person. Upon entering, you will be able to see such a huge temple complex |
This is the main gate and as usual the main gate is guarded by Two Heavenly Kings called the Niomon
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| one of the niomon |
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| If you look carefully at the wooden structure you could see that the wooden structures are veryy old |
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| The infamous Bronze Buddha at the entrance of the temple |
The temple gives the following dimensions for the statue:
Height: 14.98 m (49.1 ft)
Face: 5.33 m (17.5 ft)
Eyes: 1.02 m (3.3 ft)
Nose: 0.5 m (1.6 ft)
Ears: 2.54 m (8.3 ft)
Face: 5.33 m (17.5 ft)
Eyes: 1.02 m (3.3 ft)
Nose: 0.5 m (1.6 ft)
Ears: 2.54 m (8.3 ft)
The statue weighs 500 tonnes (550 short tons).
With some Deity's statue in Buddhism folklore
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| That's me and my other 2 great buddy from Nara |
That's all about the Todai-ji. I will be back for more on the cute deers of Nara.
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