Bowing deer, big Buddha

Took a day trip to Nara yesterday to see the fabled bowing deer.  They roam at will in a park that encloses shrines and temples and have an unusual reputation for bowing back if you bow to them first.  According to the guide books, this imitative behavior has evolved over the centuries.  

I bowed a number of times but none of the deer bowed back.  I thought, “How rude!” 

Then I noticed snack carts that were selling round crackers that could be fed to the deer.  So one purchased the crackers, selected one, and bowed to present it to the deer.  The deer lowered its head to slurp up the cracker, or, if you let the image of their reputed manners blur distinctions, they bowed to snatch the cracker from one’s clutch.  

Ella quickly tired of the shaggy, dog-size deer nuzzling for a bite, and we moved on to the Golden Central Hall.

We weren’t allowed to take photos, but inside on a raised platform nine Buddhist icons were lighted by candles.  The light reflected by the gilded icons gives off a golden glow at night meant to spread out like Buddhist teaching illuminating the world with wisdom.  We were there in the morning, so no glow, but the icons were remarkable.  The central icon, Shaka Nyorai, represented Buddha Sākyamuni.  His right hand was lifted with the palm towards us in the semui-in gesture dispelling fear; the left hand rested on the lap forming the yōgan-in gesture bestowing wishes.  On either side of Shaka Nyorai were my favorite icons from the 13th century, the Four Heavenly Kings, ferocious figures from Indian mythology seen as protectors of the Buddhist teaching.

After the Golden Central Hall we followed a path past old temples, pagoda temples, round temples, all with their incense cauldrons and prayer ropes.

Then there was the Eastern Golden Hall where the central icon, Yakusha Nyorai, was the Buddha Master of Medicine.  His Four Heavenly Kings, ninth century masterpieces from the Heian-period, eyes flashing from a glossy lacquer, were standing on splayed-out demons. 

Next to the Eastern Golden Hall was the National Treasury which we thought might be a collection of gold coin and precious stones but turned out to be a gallery of icons dating from the seventh century. The woodcrafting from slender cuts of cedar were amazingly three-dimensional, but the icon that stole the show was the thirty-foot hundred armed Buddha.   I wish I could have snapped a picture, but no photographs were allowed.  (The Heavenly Kings shots I got from the brochure.) We’ve encountered this prohibition in a number of cultural sites that we’ve visited.  Maybe this helps explain the stereotype of the Japanese tourist armed with a camera—the liberating feeling about being away from a restrictive environment!

Leaving the deer park, we made our pilgrimage to see the Nara Daibutsu, aka the Great Buddha of Nara.  At a hundred feet in height, it is the image of Buddha Birushana, one of the largest in the world.  To get to the Todai-ji Daibutsuden (the Great Buddha Hall) we had to pass under some gigantic gates and cross a wide graveled approach which was fortunate because the bigger the Buddha the larger the crowd. 

Inside the Great Buddha Hall the mob of unrestricted tourists held their phones up high, as I did, to record the big guy.

On either side of the Great Buddha were two large Bodhisattva icons.

Back outside away from the gigantic Buddhas, we managed to escape the jostling multitude and find the Isuien Garden.  A combination of two strolling-around-the-pond gardens, it was designed in the Edo period and Meiji era.  

The attendant at the entrance to the garden advised us to “listen to the water”.  It wasn’t hard.  The purling stream curling through the peaceful sculpted landscape was the only sound.  It was enough to make anyone an iconoclast.