Previously a huge private garden, Nara Park (奈良公園) is a public park located in the city of Nara, Japan, at the foot of Mount Wakakusa, established in 1880. The park is one of the "Places of Scenic Beauty" designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). There are over 1,200 wild sika deer (シカ or 鹿 shika) roaming freely around in the park classified as a "Natural Monument." Nara National Museum and Great Buddha of Todai-ji, is also part of the park compound.
According to local folklore, deer from this area were considered sacred due to a visit from one of the four gods of Kasuga Shrine, From that point onwards, the deer were considered divine and sacred. Killing one of these sacred deer was a capital offense punishable by death at least up until 1637. Post World War II the deer were officially stripped of their sacred/divine status and were instead designated as National Treasures and are protected as such. Of course, we are not allowed to kill or capture those deer but there are accident cases whereby deer are killed in road accident at night
 |
| Deer roaming around freely |
 |
| Bambi! |
 |
| One of the deer in which its horn has been cut to be used into types of household product..but it will always re-grow again.. |
The Sika Deer (name derived from shika (鹿), Cervus nippon, also known as the Spotted Deer or the Japanese Deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to various other parts of the world. It is now on the brink of extinction in all areas except in Japan, where the species is overabundant.
Source: Wikipedia, 2012
 | |
| Too hungry? or just trying its luck with the chain? Those chains are not to restrict the deer..they are just used a marker to show their main 'housing' space. The deers can just come out anytime |
|
| Laze around..ahh that's life..with free food for them without any worries |
 |
| or getting pat by tourists..this is what we want to see in any part of the world..animals and human can co-exist together |
 |
| That's me feeding the deer with rice crackers aka Shika senbei (鹿煎餅) |
0 comments:
Post a Comment