As part of their ongoing working trip to Japan, a group of Da Nang’s leaders, led by municipal People’s Committee Vice Chairman Dang Viet Dung, yesterday visited the Todai-ji (Eastern Great Temple) which is a Buddhist temple complex in Nara City.

The Todai-ji temple complex

Vice Chairman Dung expressed his delight at visiting the temple complex which features a unique style of wood-based architecture.  He spoke highly of the fruitful bilateral cooperation, especially in Buddhist cultural exchanges, between Todai-ji and the Quan The Am Pagoda in Da Nang’s Ngu Hanh Son District over recent years.

He hoped that Todai-ji would continue conducting more cultural exchanges with the Da Nang pagoda in the years ahead in order to strengthen the bilateral friendship and cultural cooperation between Japan and Da Nang.

The head of the temple, Superior Buddhist monk Sagawa Fumon, remarked, “The Buddhist temple complex is located on the eastern side of Nara City.  Work started on the complex in 743 and it was completed in 751.  Todai-ji is one of Japan’s most famous and historically significant temples, and a landmark of Nara”.  The temple welcomes about 3 million visitors each year from both home and abroad.

The Buddhist complex includes the largest wooden building of its kind in the world, the Great Buddha Hall, which is 50m wide, 57m long and 48m high.  The hall houses a 500 tonne, 15m-high gilt bronze statue called the Daibutsu, which is the largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world.  Todai-ji is a UNESCO-recognised world heritage site and one of the ‘Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara’.