One Big Buddha

After feeding the deer we made our way to the temple, which houses the largest upright Buddha in the world! This is the largest wooden temple also. It was a breathtaking sight as we turned the corner. The craftsmanship is incredible. At the entrance to every temple there are always "Oni" (Japanese word for monster) to guard the temple. One is named "Ah" and the other "N". These stand for the first and last letters of the Japanese alphabet, sound familiar? I think I mentioned this in another blog also, the similarity with the Christian terminology for God, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last..." (Rev. 22:13) These statues are carved of wood and must be at least 20 feet tall! As you enter the temple the Buddha is very impressive. Looks like gold, but I was told it is bronze. Everything around it symbolizes something important to their faith, down to the tiniest lotus petal. At the end of the tour of the temple one of the upright support beams has a hole carved out of it at its base. Eiichi told us this hole is the same size of the hole of the Buddha's nostril, and that the belief is that as children crawl through, they will now be happy. I immediately ordered my kids to go through! Darn it, it didn't work!!! The hole was rather small, Shannon made it through, and Taylor made it after he took off his coat. I actually saw two full-grown Japanese women make it through! Oh, to be soooo tiny!