Nara, Japan: Buddhist Celebration and Sacred Deer

     A few days ago, our class took a fun trip from our hotel in Kyoto to Nara, Japan, which is about an hour away by train. Nara is the ancient capital of Japan and is home to one of the oldest and most formerly powerful Buddhist temples in the country called, Todai-ji. The massive temple is home to one of the largest Buddha statues in Japan, so big that a human being could fit the nostril of the structure! The beautiful structure of the temple had many of the elements of a typical Buddhist temple that we have learned over the duration of our class. As we entered through the gates, the Buddhist guardians on either side welcomed us, as always, one has an open mouth, and one a closed mouth. Inside, observed the many Buddha and bodhisattva statues, as well as the typical votive tablets, where worshippers write their prayers to the gods on wooden panels and tie them off to be burned by the monks in hopes of obtaining their wishes. Even more special, was the fact that the day our class visited Todai-ji in Nara, it happened to be the 850th anniversary of a particular sect of Buddhism, and we witnessed the monk's ceremonial procession and religious ceremony inside the temple. It was so cool to be a part of such a historical ceremony! 

    The religious aspect of this visit was so informative of our class themes, but so was the aspect of tourism in Nara. There is an interesting juxtaposition between the deep religiousness and historicity of the Nara grounds, as it is packed with gift shops and tourist traps at every turn. 

The lines separating religious site of worship, and tourist excursion, become extremely blurred.  The same could be said for the sacred deer all over Nara and the temple grounds. The sacredness of the animals, and their “bowing” for food has been marketed and commodified through the “mascotting” of the deer and the selling of treats so tourists can feed the sacred deer. A site where many Japanese school children take field trips to learn about their heritage, we witnessed many of the kids highly consumed with being able to feed the deer. Of course, feeding and petting animals are of more interest to little kids than ancient temples, but framing the extreme commodification and tourist centrism of the Nara grounds in the context of our class provides an analytical lens through which to consume and observe all that was going on around us.

    Aside from the purely educational aspects of our trip to Nara, it was just plain fun. The scenery is absolutely beautiful, and the fact that there are deer walking around so close to you is so cool! Our class had a fun time spending time together all day, taking pictures and communally reflecting on what we saw. In the end, we even got to feed the deer, which was so funny since they get can get very pushy and persistent about their biscuits. Before going back to Kyoto, we all stopped to try Mos Burger, which is kind of like the Japanese version of Mcdonald's. I'm a vegetarian, so I got a veggies burger, but everyone enjoyed having a meal after our long day of walking and site seeing. Spending time in Nara was one of my favorite parts of our trip!