Nara's Todaiji Temple's Daibutsu (Great Buddha) statue and the Nandaimon Gate

Nara is a beautiful city, as I recalled it from 50 years ago when I had been there. We had planned on spending two full days but due to the sudden availability of a temple inn stay at Koyasan, we cut it to one day. 

We arrived from Koyasan via cable car to Gokurakubashi and train to Namba Nankai. The train journey was through a lot of wooded countryside. Very pretty

We were met by a Japanese friend of mine – Masahirosan - whom I had met a few years ago in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. He is a gentle soul who speaks excellent English. He wanted to ensure we did not get lost; hence he met us at Namba and we took the train to Nara and checked into the Nikko Nara which is right above the rail station. I thought it would be ideal for the next day’s train to Kyoto; unaware that the Anoyoshi Tourist Express left from another station quite faraway!! 

 At Kyoto and other stations, we saw many school groups – all the kids very orderly and disciplined. Well dressed

After a miserable pizza lunch in the worst possible Pizza Hut, we went to Todaiji Temple; also  known as the deer park temple as there are numerous herds of deer in the park premises often nudging tourists for food!! They are rather cute and the horns of the young deer are soft and fuzzy. The whole park was teeming with school children enjoying themselves. 

My son and one nephew were fascinated with the deer and could not resist touching their furry bodies – they had never seen deer up so close nor had they touched deer before. I wonder what they will feel when they touch a reindeer – its fur is soooo soft that you feel like cuddling the whole animal – as I experienced in the Arctic Circle near Rovaniemi, Finland.

The temple complex is huge. First you have the deer park and then you enter the Nandaimon Gate. Here there are two fierce looking massive statues  - facing each other; one on each side of the gate. 

They represent the Nio Guardian Kings. The statues are designated national treasures together with the gate itself. They tower over you and are really fierce. 

The temple was constructed in 752 as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan and grew so powerful that the capital was moved away from Nara in 784 to lower the temple's influence on government affairs. 

Daibutsuden Hall is Todaiji Temple's main hall. A large wooden building, which had two great fires before being rebuilt again in 1709. It was originally 88 meters in length, but was scaled down in the process of rebuilding and now stands at 57 meters.

Until recently, Todaiji's main hall, the Daibutsuden (Big Buddha Hall), held the record as the world's largest wooden building, despite the fact that the present reconstruction of 1692 is only two thirds of the original temple hall's size. The massive building houses one of Japan's largest bronze statues of Lord Buddha  (Daibutsu).

 

 

 

 

Nara's main attraction is its Daibutsu (Great Buddha), one of the largest bronze statues in the world. It was unveiled in 752, upon the completion of the Daibutsu-den Great Buddha Hall. Both have been damaged over the years; the present statue was recast in the Edo period.

 

The Daibutsu stands just over 16m high and consists of 437 tonnes of bronze and 130 kg of gold. It is an image of Dainichi Nyorai (also known as Vairocana Buddha), the cosmic Buddha believed to give rise to all worlds and their respective Buddhas. Historians believe that Emperor Shōmu ordered the building of the Buddha as a charm against smallpox, which ravaged Japan in preceding years. Over the centuries the statue took quite a beating from earthquakes and fires, losing its head a couple of times (note the slight difference in colour between the head and the body). 

Near the exit of the temple, there are souvenir and lucky charms shops. Japanese are big on good luck charms. Also as is usually the case in any tourist location, there is a counter where the artist does a chop for you on a sheet of paper or in your special chop book. 

These are very artistic. The book covers are beautifully designed and printed and I purchased one; which regrettably was used only once as I forgot to carry it. But I did get the chop made at various places and then affixed them in my book. It makes a wonderful memento even though I can’t read the writing!  

 

After leaving the temple and as you proceed from the garden towards the exit gate, you come across this display featuring the precautions taken for an earthquake.   

At Nara, we were actually staying at an hotel above the station. We did not know that the special new Aoniyoshi Tourist train left from another station. So, it was a real shock to maneuver our heavy suitcases across streets and large city squares. It was a good 15 - 20 minutes away and we could not find a single cab. We were really running at the end. Minutes to go. We found the station, the entry, then asking the station ticket inspector - we were told to buy platform tickets!! The inspector messaged the train staffer that some pax were running late! A lady staffer came with us, helped pour our loose change into the machine, get the tickets, ran downs the stairs to the platform at the next level. She indicated by hand signal to the door inspector that we were coming in. We literally threw our bags in and piled into the vestibule and the train left!! That was the closest I ever came to missing a train ! But it was due to the superb coordination and help of the Station staff that we caught it. 

The journey was regrettably too short to enjoy the luxury of our private saloon section. We had taken two sections – for the six of us. Next door was the café car and after that the standard cars.

We arrived into Kyoto for a few days more of sight seeing.  

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Shirakawa-go. Designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1995 it’s a peek into the Japanese countryside

Wanting to see some of the far off truly Japanese sights, we were recommended to see Shirakawa-go - a charming village located an hour by bus from Takayama (which in itself is a non-Indian tourist destination!). Japan has its ryokans, its famous walking trail which I can no longer do due to the uphill paths and then there are places like the glacier wall up north, the bridges and lakes which to me were like any other. So, choose some where you can see Japanese culture and history. That’s how we landed up at Shirakawa Go and Koyasan (see separate blog).  

Ogimachi is the main village / transport centre of the Shirakawa-go region, where the bus lines  from Takayama, Nagoya, Kanazawa, Toyama and Takaoka meet. The buses use the new Shirakawago Bus Terminal at the entrance to the village. Ogimachi is small and can be easily explored on foot.

From Takayama we took a coach to Shirakawa at 9.35 am. Booked online from Mumbai so we had excellent front seats. Bookings for coaches open a month before travel date. After a very pleasant journey through green forested mountainsides, and going through atleast ten long tunnels, we arrived at Ogimachi village bus station at 10.25 am. It was teeming with Japanese and European tourists. Ploughing through the crowd, I went to the tourist office whilst my family took our bags to the left luggage where we kept all the suitcases until our 3.10 pm departure which would leave us at Kanazawa by 4.35 pm. This meant that we arrived after the mandatory 3.00 pm check in time and did not have to wait in hotel receptions! It was here that we saw the famous sign telling us to take our garbage back with us. Unbelievable but true. There are no garbage bins in the town except one in each of the two toilets of the bus station. 

From the English speaking tourist official I got a map of the town. After a few minutes, I asked about guided tours and when I said that we were 6 pax, he immediately asked me to wait and got my tour reservation request sent from Mumbai – I had forgotten all about the form I had filled in. This was good news as we were our own group and as departure was at 1.00pm., we had time to go to the observatory and have a quick lunch. 

This town is famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old. These thatched huts are actually normal huts but the Japanese have created a tourist destination out of this village by promoting an interesting concept :         “Gassho-zukuri means "constructed like hands in prayer", as the farmhouses' steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer”. 

The architectural style was developed over many generations. Due to the steepness of the roof it can withstand heavy snowfalls during winter – upto 5.5 metres ! The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms. 

Leaving the bus station, the ideal way to the Shiroyama view point or Observatory bus stop is to cross the road right across the bus station. No; you take a long detour right along the perimeter of the bus station and then cross the road - you have to follow the yellow lines !! 

The shuttle bus takes around 12 pax and leaves promptly. Its a winding road along which no cars are allowed. From the top, you get a beautiful view of the village below. There is a walking trail which 4 of the family decided to take back to the tourist office. It turned out to be a real adventure as the trail was steep and very slippery. We took the bus back to return by 11.50 for a quick bite. 

The restaurant was Japanese style seating and there was no way that I could sit down. The others ordered their vegetarian lunch, I was not being given a chair to sit with them as it would “upset other guests” nor would they allow me to sit on a table by myself ! So, I sat on the platform with my legs hanging down and after a while went and got some snack from a shop. This was another example of Japanese rigidity in not being able to adjust to customer requests. 

We met Mr Ryu the tourist official who was our guide. An expert at his job. Passionate. He told us that there are 114 Gasso houses of which 59 are residential. There are two houses who permit guests to tour inside so you see the living accommodation, the equipment used for farming and the silkworm production which the families undertake in winter. They stop visitors by 5.00 pm so the house reverts to a living residence for the family !!  the main income is from silkworm production and potassium nitrate – yes, you read it right. 

The main activity in summer is rice planting and the whole area is full of rice fields. The canals have fish. 

Mr Ryu said that the roofs are changed every 10 - 15 years, the Govt pays 70-80% if owner has other income and 90% if house is for residential use only. The thatch thickness is about 2 feet. 

Ryusan showed us the shrine and nearby we saw the fire monitors. We did not understand how this triangular wooden small structure would put out fires. Then we saw the photograph...see below. Totally ingenious how under pressure, water is sprayed by these fire monitors across a wide area thereby stopping fire as well as preventing a new area catching fire. Brilliant idea. 

There are two temples. The East temple is gasso style. Ryusan explained something  very interesting. Japan has Shinto and Buddhism as its main religions. Every Japanese house will have a temple and a shrine --- For happy events, you go to the shrine. For sad events, you visit the temple.

Ryusan had taken us around the whole town. It was a long circuitous route and we had seen all the main landmarks. A very patient man who answered all our queries. Thank you, Ryusan for the whole experience. It was fascinating how the locals had adapted to the harsh winters and eked out a living growing rice and producing silk.

 

 

 

By 2.00 pm, we reached Nagase House. A large four storey building. The Nagase family were doctors for the Maeda lords in Ishikawa Prefecture before relocating to Ogimachi. Their farmhouse turned museum exhibits some medical tools and gifts from the Maeda family. The upper floors display many tools for farming and raising silkworms. 

I was by now tired of removing my shoes everywhere – shrines, restaurants etc so I stayed put outside and the family went in. this was another lesson – do not take shoes with laces to Japan – you will get fed up of taking these shoes off. 

We went back to the bus terminus, collected our bags and got into the queue for our journey to Kanazawa – it had been an interesting excursion to Shirakawa go.

 

Text and photographs copyright of the author. No part of this article or photographs maybe transmitted or reproduced by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission. Do contact the author on email -- helpthesun@gmail.com