teras of kyoto & nara
Posted by rocksea on 27 Jun 2006 | Tagged as: japan, photography
These cultural/religious edifices of Japan are well preserved in the midst of a bustling technologically advanced city, Kyoto, the formal imperial capital and now the cultural capital of Japan.
Kiyomizu tera at Kyoto. circa 7 cent. and 1633 (reconstructed)
The Golden Pavilion (Kinkaku or the Rokuon-ji Temple) at Kyoto, circa 1220
@ the Horyuji, Japan’s 1st World Cultural Heritage with the 5 storied pagodas (known as Goju-no-To). circa 7th cent.
and the new religion at Tenrikyo church at Tenri, since 1838
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10 Comments »
on 27 Jun 2006 at 8:01 pm 1.sarah said …
This is wonderful. 7th century monuments and bbuildings so well taken care of and respected. So, what are these new religions based on? I mean, is it a refinement of the previous ones or based on a new philosophy or rituals? It seems like a lot of recent new religions have appeared in Japan, is it?
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on 28 Jun 2006 at 6:41 am 2.James Bright said …
It is surely a wonderful experience to watch these places, people and temples..!
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on 28 Jun 2006 at 10:54 am 3.rocksea said …
sarah, ya they have been taken care of and respected though most of them have been repaired/reconstructed over time. here i have put a pic of only one new japanese religion, based on the tenrikyo church. it is after the revelations of a lady called miki nakayama. other than that, i dont know of any other new religions.
all others are a mix of buddhism and shintoism. most of the hindu gods from vayu to varuna are also part of the japanese religious culture.
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on 28 Jun 2006 at 11:02 am 4.sarah said …
most of the hindu gods from vayu to varuna are also part of the japanese religious culture.
… Rocksea, I am interested to know more abt tht… I know Japanese religious culture is part Budhism and part shintoism.. but never knew it had hinduism in it as well..
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on 28 Jun 2006 at 2:19 pm 5.nina said …
hey, somehow i feel there is s light resemblencu to our style temples & the ponds nearby
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on 28 Jun 2006 at 6:42 pm 6.ezee123 said …
Good pictures.
Good write up.
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on 04 Jul 2006 at 3:01 pm 7.Preethi said …
Lovely pics roxie… u’ve captured them from a real good angle…
I feel the architecture is kinda similar to the Keralaite temples… esp. the roofings, conically slanted low…. Only difference is here it curves up a bit…. The top embellishment (don’t know wats its called in japan) is again similar to our temples… the square basement with stairs… the woodwork all that reminds me so much of our own temples…. Esp. guruvayur…
The hanging flags, reminds me of the ultsavam times when the temples are decorated with bright colorful flags. Again, the lake beside the temple: similar to our, ambala kulams. That iron-pillar in the front of the temple in one of the pics…. it’s more like the kodimaram (flagstaff) that we’ve in all south-Indian temples…..
I’m jus a little amazed at this coincidence….. maybe temple everywhere have this as common…
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on 04 Jul 2006 at 5:17 pm 8.rocksea said …
sarah,
I have been seeing hindu gods as dieties at several places but it was during this trip that i saw a clear evidence. We had gone to the 1001 buddha temple and in front of these 1001 statues of buddha, there we statues of hindu gods. photography is prohibited in that temple, so i dont have any pics from that. Their looks were different and so were the names but their origins were linked to the respective hindu gods and their tasks(roles) were same. There were also dragon diety linked to the snake god and bird diety linked to garuda. Dont know much about the history of it and the statues may be the’re from different time periods. It seems buddhism had absorbed many of the hindu gods as dieties though we don’t know it!! For example, see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guardians_of_the_directions
I’ve uploaded a file on hindu influence on japan (pdf) which has names and images of the japanese gods and the corresponding hindu gods.
There’re several articles in wikipedia also..:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Heavenly_Kings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benten
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on 04 Jul 2006 at 5:33 pm 9.rocksea said …
Yes, nina, preethi, there are resemblences in the temple structures to ours as you said. some of the chinese buddhist temples also have similar roofs. The pond you see nearby one of them was seen for that temple (Rokuon-ji) only and it is quite different to the ponds of our temples. Here the water surrounds the whole temple and there is a small path leading to the temple (which we were not permited to go).
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on 20 Jul 2006 at 7:41 am 10.sarah said …
I was looking at all the links you gave..
I think I can understand now.. Budhism is from India..and may be it would have been influenced by hinduism..
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