Buddha Vairocana - Nara, Japan
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N 34° 41.316 E 135° 50.391
53S E 576927 N 3838831
This huge bronze Statue of the Buddha sits inside the Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) at Todai-ji (Great Eastern Temple), a complex of Buddhist temples located in the city of Nara, Japan.
Waymark Code: WMZC62
Location: Nara, Japan
Date Posted: 10/17/2018
Views: 3
Todaiji is one of Japan's most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. The temple was constructed in 752 as the head temple of all provincial Buddhist temples of Japan.
Todaiji Great Buddha Hall (Daibutsuden) houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Buddha (Vairocana), known in Japanese as Daibutsu. The 15 meters tall, seated Buddha is flanked by two Bodhisattvas.
Vairocana is a celestial buddha who is often interpreted, in texts like the Avatamsaka Sutra, as the dharmakaya of the historical Gautama Buddha. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Buddhism, Vairocana is also seen as the embodiment of the Buddhist concept of Sunyata. In the conception of the Five Tathagatas of Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism, Vairocana is at the centre and is considered a Primordial Buddha.
With regard to sunyata, the massive size and brilliance of Vairocana statues serve as a reminder that all conditioned existence is empty and without a permanent identity.
The temple gives the following dimensions for the statue:
Height: 14.98 m (49 ft 2 in)
Face: 5.33 m (17 ft 6 in)
Eyes: 1.02 m (3 ft 4 in)
Nose: 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in)
Ears: 2.54 m (8 ft 4 in)
The statue's shoulders are 28 meters across and there are 960 six curls atop the head. The Birushana Buddha's golden halo is 27 m (87 ft) in diameter with 16 images each 2.4 m (8 ft) tall.
The statue weighs 500 tonnes (550 short tons).
Recently, using X-rays, a human tooth, pearls, mirrors, swords and jewelry were discovered inside the knee of the Great Buddha; these would be the relics of Emperor Shomu.
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