Ishite Temple

Still catching up on posts from a few weeks ago. Another trip that Gentry and I took was to visit the Ishite temple with Azami and Lisa. I'm no expert on Buddhism, so I couldn't tell you what sect was being practiced here, but I will say that the temples in Japan differ greatly from the temples in Nepal, which was to be expected, I guess. In any case, we took a full tour of the place. In addition to the giant bell that comes standard with all Buddhist temples, there were about ten different buildings scattered over the compound where you could pay your respects, as well as pay a few coins out of your pocket to support the local monks. One of the cooler things was getting to go inside one of the buildings and joining in a mantra with one of their head monks. A bit of culture shock though, in the outer room was a man chanting into a microphone, which was being broadcast over the entire area. That in itself wasn't odd, but the fact that he had his cell phone out next to all of the holy documents he was singing from was a little off. Kinda made it less impressive. Maybe it's because the Nepalese lamas don't have cell phones, but I just can't see that sort of think happening near the feet of the Himalayas. Oh well, different cultures, different customs.

Another interesting point was walking through a crevice in the hillside and seeing the back area behind the temples. Talk about your grab bag of statues! I posted some pictures, see if you can spot the deity that looks suspiciously like Vigo Mortensen! All in all, a really interesting place. Gotta love the smell of hundreds of sticks of incense!