Amida Buddha with scaffolding, Kamakura, Japan

Mar. 27 Spring Cleaning A 700-Year-Old Buddha. The Amida Buddha Inspired A Kipling Poem Is 36 Feet High The towering bronze statue of Amida Buddha (Lord of Boundless Light) erected in Kamakura, Japan, 705 years ago, is having a complete structural inspection, and cleaning - the first for many years. It will then be designated a National Treasure. The 38-feet-high statue was cast in 1252 by Ono Goroemon, famed 13th-century sculptor. It was originally enclosed in a large hall, which was lost and never replaced. The height of the Buddha from its base is 53 feet. Its width is 16 feet, and depth is 9 feet. The eyes are 3.9 feet in width, and the nose is 3 feet 9 inches long with nostrils three feet in diameter. The shoulders are 28 feet across and the chest is 10 feet 8 inches broad. The thumbs of the figure are four feet 5 inches long. The Buddha sits on 56 lotus petals, on which are engraved representations of the Buddhist universe. It is set amidst pines in the precincts of the Kotokuin Temple at Kamakura. Of it Kipling wrote: Oh, ye who tread the narrow way. By Tophet flare to judgement day. Be needful when the heathen pray, to Buddha at Kamakura. The Great Amida Buddha at Kamakura. surrounded by scaffolding during its structural check and cleaning. Once it was inside a Hall, until a tidal wave washed the hall away and left the statue in the open air where it has remained down the centuries since

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1252 Amida Amidst Buddha Buddhist Centuries Depth Designated Diameter Enclosed Erected Famed Flare Heathen Inches Inspection Inspired Judgement Kamakura Kipling Lotus Needful Nostrils Petals Pines Poem Pray Precincts Remained Replaced Representations Scaffolding Structural Thumbs Tidal Tophet Towering Tread Universe Washed Width Wrote

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