Todaiji Buddha

Table of contents

1 The Todaiji Buddha In Nara 1.1 The size of the Buddha 1.2 History

The Todaiji Buddha In Nara

It is said that Todaiji Daibutuden where the Buddha is located is the biggest wooden architecture in the world now. In fact there used to be two Buddhas that were bigger than Todaiji Buddha. Hideyoshi Toyotomi and Ieyasu Tokugawa who were great soldiers built those Buddhas. The one that Hideyoshi had built was destroyed by an earthquake, the other one that Ieyasu had built burned.

The real name of Todaiji Buddha is “birushanabutsu”. It means “the Buddha which is lightened broadly in hope of wisdom and mercy”.

The size of the Buddha

• total height : 30 meters
• sitting height : 14.98 meters.
• face : 5.33 meters.
• eyes : 1.02 meters.
• nose : 0.5 meters.
• ears : 2.54 meters.
• weight : 250 ton.

It is made of gold (440 kg) and copper (499 tons) The Buddha has special hair, like a spiral perm. In total, it has 966 balls whose diameter are 18 cm and whose height are 30 cm each.

History

During the Tempyo period, people suffered from disasters and epidemics. In 743, Shomu emperor issued a law that we should make a Buddha to protect ourselves. He believed in Buddha’s power could help us. 420,000 people contributed and 2,180,000 people worked to build it. A lot of people, 2,600,000 in total, constructed the Buddha at that time. This number of the people is nearly the half of the people in Japan at that time. It took 10 years to build the Buddha because of the disasters and riots.