Warning: Do Not Kill the Deer in Nara

Last weekend I went with my Japanese Buddhist class to Nara to visit the temples Kofukuji and Todaiji. It was an all day affair because Kofukuji was waaaayy more crowded than we expected. In addition to the "leaf peepers" - the multitudes of people who swarm the Kansai area every year to see the fall colors - Kofukuji was busy because of the recent Ashura craze that has taken hold of Japan. Ashura is a three-headed, 6-armed being that is one of the eight guardian deities of Buddhism, and the sculpture that we saw has been recently on tour throughout the country. It's from the Nara Period (AD 700s) and it reminded me of the Mona Lisa (at least from what I've heard, since I've never actually seen the Mona Lisa) in that it was a lot smaller than I thought it would be. I was expecting it to be perhaps human-sized, maybe a bit bigger, but it was in actually a small wooden figure about a meter high. It was actually kind of cute. Apparently, it's really popular with girls because of its kind boyish face, and I guess I can see that.

Ashura

What I can't understand though, was the three hour line to get in the building for the brief minutes that we got to look at his face. The line was ridiculous! If we weren't there with a class, the general consensus was that honestly we probably wouldn't have stuck it out and seen the statue, no matter how beautiful and sweet it was supposed to be. It was simply amazing to us that so many people would be that committed to view a statue. But in the end I guess it was okay. Max brought these huge black edamame - soy beans - from his family's garden and we munched on them while we were in line. We also got to see the deer that we lolling about the temple grounds, and I consequently learned that killing a deer is punishable by death. Apparently the deer are believed to be kami - gods - and so they're considered sacred, I guess much like the cow is in India. Who would want to kill a temple deer? I don't know, but apparently it has been done and the punishment has been death...crazy!

Yup, see that hoard? That was the line to get in. It zig zags back and forth.

After Kofukuji, we went to see Todaiji where the Daibutsu - this huge Buddha statue - is. There, we saw more deer and more people swarming the avenue leading up to the entrance of the shrine. There were stands along the side of the road selling deer biscuits which people could buy and feed the deer, who have long lost any sense of danger towards human beings. Deer were everywhere, lolling in the mud under the bridge, walking on the pathway in front of the temple, sleeping in the gutters....in Japan there are a lot of unsavory little jobs and at Todaiji I saw witnessed two that I think would be terrible to have: 1) counting the people who came in and out of the temple (there were swarms, so it wasn't like they were in a nice, neat little line) and 2) sweeping up the deer poop, which was plenteous. Trust me.

Deer!

Hey there little fella

Anyway, the Daibutsu was grand and there was some semi excitement when we learned that we could climb through his nose. But that ended up just meaning that you could try squeezing yourself through this hole at the bottom of a pillar which represented the dimensions of his nostril. Not exactly the same thing. Max was disappointed. He wanted to be a booger in the Buddha's nose.

The DAIBUTSU