A Tale of Two Buddhas

There are lots of statues of Buddha in Japan, of various types. But most we saw are the sitting Buddha (I think we only saw one reclining Buddha). We were fortunate to see the two largest Buddhas in Japan. The largest Buddha is in Nara, which was the capital of Japan before Kyoto (which was the capital before Tokyo). This Buddha is bronze, is 15 meters tall, and was cast in 752. Very appropriately, he sits inside the world's largest wooden building! I hope you can tell from this picture that the building is very big. The building is called Daibutsu-den. Daibutsu means Great Buddha. Den must come from English and mean pad or something. Alan might correct me on this.
This Buddha has had a hard time, what with his head falling off, and his right hand melting a couple of times. There's also a couple of guardian gods (Nio) in the Daibutsu-den -- don't think they've been doing the best of jobs of protecting the Buddha, although they are quite fearsome.

Here's Buddha with hand attached.I can't remember the name of all the figures circling the Buddha, but they're important.
Well I was hoping you'd be able to tell how big Buddha is from this picture, but I'm afraid Buddha's too dark.
Each of the major shrines we saw had a torii out front, a "simple" gate. But following that would be a much larger gate which was pretty much a building. In this picture is the gate to Todai-Ji, which is the shrine that includes the Great Buddha. The gate is called Nandai-mon, and re-built (re-!) in the 13th century. Behind it, about 200 yards, is the Daibutsu-den.
The other Great Buddha we saw was in Kamakura, which is about 1 hour from Tokyo. We went to Kamakura on our last day as tourists in Japan. The Buddha is in the Hase-dera temple, which dates back to 736. This Buddha was built to rival the larger Buddha in Nara, and was completed in 1200 or so. This Buddha also has had a hard life, in particular his house. He's only 11 meters tall, but because he's lost his house, he appears larger, I think. The Daibutsu-den kept being destroyed by fires, typoons, tidal waves, earthquakes, etc.


But first, here's the inside of the Buddha. He's hollow! And you can go inside for 20 yen, about 16 cents. This is looking up inside his head.













Here's his more impressive front side.





I wanted to get a picture of me and Alan in front of this Buddha, but everyone around us was busy taking picture with cameras the size of credit cards. My camera's an old fashioned SLR - but Alan spotted a likely photographer, sporting a bigger camera than mine (and lens!), plus wearing one of those photographer vests with all the pockets. Surely he would know how to wield my camera! He obliged, but wouldn't you know he cut off our feet!!!
Here's the one reclining Buddha we saw, at the Daisho-in Temple on Miyajima. (Baker)