Nara | UNESCO World Heritage Site

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara in the UNESCO World Heritage Site includes 

the 8 

major paces in the old capital of Nara in Nara Prefecture, Japan.

5 of them are Buddhist temples, 

1 is a Shinto shrine,

1 is a Palace and

1 is primeval Forest.

The overall properties include 26 architecture building which designated 

by the Japanese Government as National Treasures.

So, day trip to Nara is one of the schedule that we must

include into our trip.

(p/s: thanks to Tomo and Yutaro to be our tour guide during the past 2 days in Nara & Osaka)

The first building we visited was Kofuku-ji 兴福寺 which consists of a 5 storey pagoda
and a  East Golden hall.
The temple was once one of the powerful Seven Great temple in the city of Nara
and National Headquarters of the Hosso school.

The second places we visited is the most important architecture building in Nara which is 

The Todai-ji 东大寺 ( Kegon Buddhist Temple)
The gateway before entering the Todai-ji temple located at South which is also known as
Great Southern gate (Nandaimon).

Todai-ji Temple is the main building in Nara.
The brief introduction of the building was listed in the entrance ticket.

Nara was once the capital of Japan from 710 to 784 ( Nara Period)

Therefore, Toidai-ji temple was built in large scale to resemblance the importance of the period.

Its Great Buddha Hall houses the world's largest bronze statue of Buddha Variocana.

The temple also serves as the Japanese headquarters ofthe Kegon school of Buddhism.

One of the japanese culture in their temple.

奉纳

( Offering )

The main purpose is for purification to purify themselve from impurity through 

cleansing or exorcising before they entering the main Buddhist Hall.

The act of cleansing is known as Misogi and the actual washing of hands 

with water is called Temizu 水手.

The worshipper or visitor can rinse their mouth and hands 

from left and then the right hand at the purification font,

then the mouth is rinse with the water from left hand.

The massive timber structure of the temple that constructed without using nails.