2 Postcards
Sanjusangendo is a stunning Buddhist temple housing 1,001 intricately crafted Kannon statues, creating an awe-inspiring spectacle that'll captivate your senses.
657 Sanjusangendomawari, Higashiyama Ward, Kyoto, 605-0941, Japan Get directions
"Sanjusangendo is dedicated to Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Kannon appears in many forms—as a beautiful woman, as a man, as someone with a horse’s head. In Japan, perhaps her most popular representation has her sporting 11 heads and 1,000 arms. Sanjusangendo has 1,001 examples of that incarnation (and while they do have 11 faces, each version only has 42 arms visible). Each hand holds a gem, a vajra , a wheel of law or another symbol. The overall design is stylized but no two statues are alike, and seeing them under one roof, glittering gold in a line longer than a football field, is pretty astounding."
"The temple—the longest wooden building in Japan, filled with 1,000 many-armed statues of the Buddhist deity, Kannon—was a lively tableau."
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C R
Willie Lorenzo
Amy Myers
Harry Hao
Jenny Lam
Matthew Lenton
Adit Desai
j
C R
Willie Lorenzo
Amy Myers
Harry Hao
Jenny Lam
Matthew Lenton
Adit Desai