High on Mount Koya, Julie Eagleton is nourished by the graceful rituals – and deliciously delicate food – of the monks of the Daishi religion.________________________________________________
Japan is a beguiling, mysterious and yet contradictory world of modernity and tradition, whose ways are difficult for Westerners to comprehend, but the ancient rituals maintained in the temples of Mount Koya bring us a little closer to understanding, reports Julie Eagleton of TELEGRAPH, U.K.
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Elderly pilgrims, mostly dressed in white, climb the lantern-lined path leading to the Okunoin. Some tombs are decorated with red and purple bibs and hats. Occasionally jars of money are left along with little boxes of baby milk for Jizo, guardian of sick and miscarried children.
Directly in front of Daishi’s mausoleum is the Toro-do (Lantern Hall). Eleven thousand lanterns burn here day and night, including two that are said to have remained lit since the 11th century.
This is where most of the pilgrims lingered, including an elderly Japanese couple dressed in white capes, who, supported by walking sticks, stared ahead lost in thought.
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'The chanting held us all in a suspended hypnotic state until each person in turn was asked to navigate the crimson carpet
on his or her knees'
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Given here are extracts from the report published in TELEGRAPH, February 22, 2008.
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© Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2008.
