Toshodaiji Temple 唐招提寺

Description

World Heritage site Toshodaiji Temple in Nara was founded by the Chinese monk Ganjin (688-763), or Jianzhen in Chinese. Ganjin was invited by the Japanese emperor to travel from China to Japan and preach the tenets of Buddhism. At that time, travel between the two countries was fraught with difficulty and danger; it took Ganjin six attempts over multiple years to finally make the voyage, and by the time he arrived in Nara in 754 he had lost his eyesight. However, he was warmly received by the Imperial Court and founded Toshodaiji in 759 as a centre for monastic learning. The extensive grounds and magnificent buildings are a reminder of the prestige once held by Toshodaiji; in its early days, the temple controlled 48 sub-temples. Although much has changed, the temple remains an excellent example of early Buddhist culture in Japan. The temple buildings themselves include the main sanctuary (kondo), a lecture hall (kodo) that originally was part of Nara’s Imperial Palace complex, and a drum tower (koro) that houses some of Buddha’s ashes, brought by Ganjin from China. These and several other buildings in the Toshodaiji complex are designated National Treasures. The main sanctuary houses a statue of the Vairocana Buddha, similar to the one in Nara’s Todaiji Temple. The three-metre-tall statue is flanked to the left and right by statues of the thousand-armed Kannon and the Buddha of medicine and healing, Yakushi Nyorai. On the western side of the grounds was the smaller sub-temple of Kaidanin, where novices were given instruction. Kaidanin was destroyed in a fire, and all that remains nowadays is the marble foundations.