Tōdai-ji

The Tōdai-ji (, Tōdai-ji , complete name, kegonshūdaihonzantōdaiji ) is a Buddhist Temple of rite Shingon located at Nara, with the Japan. Built a such " district général" of a network of temples through the various provinces, Tôdai-ji is the most ambitious religious complex set up during the first centuries of Buddhist worship in Japan

In the enclosure of the temple largest construction is timber in the world, Daibutsuden (, Salle of the Buddha), which shelters a giant statue of the Bouddha Vairocana called daibutsu (). The current building which shelters it is smaller than the original temple with 56 m length.

Carried out between 745 and 752, this temple is according to the Légende the result of the collaboration of 2.600.000 people. This figure appears nevertheless exaggerated, almost representing half of the population of Japan at the time. The eyelids of the Buddha are symbolically open the December 3rd 752 by the emperor Shômu itself, which him " the vie" insufflated; by painting the pupils to him.

Many secondary buildings were grouped all around Daibutsuden on a slightly tilted hillside. Among them, the Kaidanin (, room of ordination), the Shôsô-in (), old attic which was transformed into warehouse of Asia and objets d'art of Japan as of the 8th century and, in the North-East, the Hokkedô (), currently museum of sculptures.

Daibutsu

Dimensions of the statue of the Buddha:

total height: 30 Meter S
height sitted: 14,98 meters
face: 5,33 meters
eyes: 1,02 measure
nostrils: 0,5 measure
ears: 2,54 meters

The statue is made of Or and Cuivre. The hair is constituted of 966 balls of eighteen centimetres Diamètre for a thirty centimetres height. A hole in a pillar of the building makes it possible to carry out the vastness of the sculpture. Indeed, this hole, through which the children, and sometimes from the adults, have fun to pass, is same dimension as a nostril of the Buddha.

Inheritance

The temple, part contiguous of Nara, is, since 1998, world heritage of UNESCO.

See too

List of Buddhist temples in the world.
Japanese Architecture
Japanese Art
Nanto Shichi Daiji

Sources

Japan: Dictionary and civilization , Louis Frederic, Editions Robert Laffont, Collection Books, 1470 p, (1999) ISBN 2-221-06764-9
the art of Japan , Miyeko Murase, Editions LGF - Book of Pocket, Collection Pochothèque, 414 p. (1996) ISBN 2-25313054-0

External bonds

: Nippon-tabi.com: photographs of Todai-Ji as well as guides to manage in Japan

Random links: