Nara is one of the two cities which I like most in Japan (the other one being Kamakura), Nara is located between Osaka and Kyoto to the east.
It houses the "Toudaiji" temple, the biggest wooden structure in the world.
Because of it's size the Toudaiji is listed by the UNESCO as a world cultural heritage.
The present size is one third smaller then the original one, and yes it is really really big..
The Toudaiji is nearly 1250 years old. And till today the buddhist school of Kegon Buddhism which roots in Mahayana Buddhism practices it's daily religious activities.
The Todaiji represents classical Chinese temple complex architecture from the Tang dynasty.
With a wall-like structure surrounding a big field whith a small pond and a garden some important buildings and the main building at the backside.
and usually a pagode in the middle of the field which mysteriously is nowhere to find!
In our case there are Two big gates incorporated into the wall-like structure which
breaks the field into two smaller fields. With One gate looks put into the natural scenery surrounding it.
And the other one incorporated into a second wall delimiting the inner courtyard of the complex. Replacing the Pagode.
With that small map I hope you can get some feeling of how the complex is built.
It's very basic Buddhist temple architecture, and gives a good example of Asian buddhist temple architecture.
This picture shows the first gate:
The Toudaiji itself looks like this:
The people you are seeing are (from the left): Bebs, whom you should know by now ;)
Jerome also one of my best friends in the dorm, and Jion a very nice and kind Korean Girl who is a freshman in Japan and who is doing her first travel outside of Korea!!
Well but let's return to Todaiji ;)
So as you can see that's the big Building which is housing the main Object of worship for the Kegon sect: The "daibutsu".
The building itself as said resembles buildings from the Chinese Tang dynasty.
With some differences already very apparent. For example the introduction of additional structure to the roof.
So if you look very carefully the first roof has this "hat"-shaped additional structure to it.
This breakage of symmetry is typical for Japanese architecture.
A very famous example is the Hiunkaku in Kyoto.
After entering the Building you see the Big Buddha.
Which will not be covered here, But some nice picture to let you wait for more ;)
In the front of the temple complex there is a shopping street. Selling all sorts of touristic stuff.
I could imagine the old atmosphere.. People coming from all over the country to see the big Buddha and get salvation and doing some shopping around as is the case in every religious gathering place.
The Back of Toudaiji is very calm and nearly empty of toursits. No one really goes there actually ;)
Concerning touristic spots, everyone expects something to see from going to that place, after that need is satisfied people go to the next place to enjoy the "next big thing"! This is the badside of Toursim today, it's the try to make a big Movieland of culture which is thousands of years old.
So very interesting was that at the back of Todaiji you had a big green field were local poeple (I suppose) were enjoying their time!
And a very very special old street seeded with old Japanese priest houses, leading to the temple.
I hope you enjoyed this entry! Please enjoy my stories from Japan ;)
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