Tôdaiji
Tôdaiji is a monumental temple in the city of Nara and was opened in 752 following the Eye-Opening Ceremony to the Buddha housed within. Founded by Emperor Shômu, Tôdaiji was built to be the center of all Buddhism in Japan.
For the casual: 11. For the educated: 11.
If you're one of the few people to probably read through all of my posts (and thank you so much to those folks), you've probably noticed that only once before have I rated a location outside of my 1-10 scale, and there is a reason why this temple also has 11 out of 10 on my scale. In addition, you may have noticed that I didn't really write anything in the first section, and that's because I wanted to cover most of that information here in my "geek-out" section.
Tôdaiji essentially translates into "The Great Eastern Temple," and that title is no exaggeration. Tôdaiji is a wonder of the world, a feast of the senses, and a cathedral of the Buddhist world. Tôdaiji, like many old temple complexes, has lost many of its buildings to fires, earthquakes, and political struggles. However, the original size of the temple complex can be felt as you walk the long distance from the start of the main road, through the two gates, and then finally to the temple itself. At the first gate, the Great South Gate, visitors get to meet the two greatest Nio Guardians. These Nio Guardians embody and take the role of Agyô and Ungyô, the guardians of pilgrims. The Nio Guardians are 8.4 meters tall (27.5 ft.), and were constructed at the turn of the 13th century after being burned down in the war between the Taira and Minamoto samurai clans. The statues were cleaned up in 1988 and were found to have sutras concealed within. Buddhist piñata anyone?
The next gate represents the boundary to the Daibutsudô, the Hall of the Great Buddha, and it too has a pair of Nio Guardians although these two are far overshadowed by the prior. The Daibutsudô is hard to picture in size, especially when you consider that the Daibutsudô at Tôdaiji is the largest wooden structure IN THE WORLD!!! Then things get even harder to imagine when you learn that the current Daibutsudô was built in 1692 with funding from the Tokugawa Shogunate, but this Daibutsudô is only 2/3rds the size of the ORIGINAL Daibutsudô. So how big is that? That's 48.2 meters tall (158 ft.) and 57 meters (187 ft.) by 50.4 meters (167 ft.). That's a huge building, but if that's still too difficult to picture in your head, inside the Daibutsudô there are models of the various Daibutsudô that have stood.
Inside the Daibutsudô is a bronze statue of Vairocana, known as Dainichi Nyorai in Japanese, and The Universal Buddha in English. Vairocana is what Sakyamuni (the Historical Buddha) became once he passed on and attained true enlightenment. This statue of Vairocana is 15 meters (49 ft.) tall and made of bronze, making it one of the largest bronze Buddhist statues in the world. Surrounding the image of Vairocana in the mandarla (Buddhist halo) are smaller images of Vairocana, showing how as the Universal Buddha, he radiates his light to all worlds at all points in time. Like all images of the Buddha, Vairocana is flanked by two Bodhisattva who are equally massive. These Bodhisattva serve as aids and the final defense to protect the Buddha from evil spirits. Fun fact: when they clean the statue, one of the people actually sits in his palm as he cleans.
One of the two Nio Guardians at the Great South Gate. This one is Ungyô, representing the end of all things.
The second gate before Tôdaiji.
The Daibutsudô of Tôdaiji. The window directly above the entrance is opened to reveal the face of Vairocana. This is installed so that in the older ages, even commoners who were unable to enter the temple at the time could make a visual connection to the Buddha.
Vairocana!!!!
I would totally keep posting the multitude of photos that I have of the temple, but it's probably better if I stop now and let you take your own. Enjoy!!!
