探秘福冈南藏院：世界最大的青铜卧佛 Nanzoin – The Largest Bronze Reclining Buddha in the World | Fukuoka | Japan
Nanzo-in (南蔵院) is a Shingon Buddhist temple in Sasaguri, Fukuoka, Japan. It is notable for its bronze statue of a reclining Buddha, said to be the largest bronze statue in the world.
Nanzo-in was originally located on Mount Kōya, but local anti-Buddhist authorities threatened to destroy the temple in 1886. Public outcry lead to a decade-long effort to have the temple transferred to Sasaguri. It was moved in 1899, under the leadership of Sasaguri priest, Hayashi Satoshiun. Nanzo-in is the main location among the 88 temples that make up the Sasaguri pilgrimage route, one of the three famous walking pilgrimages in Japan.
Today, the temple and its surrounding grounds receive more than 1 million visitors annually.
The reclining Buddha statue, known as either Nehanzo or Shaka Nehan (“Nirvana”)[8] is 41 metres (135 ft) long, 11 metres (36 ft) high, and weighs nearly 300 tons. The statue depicts Buddha at the moment of death, or entrance into nirvana.
The interior holds ashes of Buddha and two Buddhist adherents, Ānanda and Maudgalyayana. Those relics were a gift from Myanmar as thanks for the sect’s donations of medical supplies to children in both Nepal and Myanmar. In 1995, 1,300 monks from Myanmar and Nepal attended the unveiling of the reclining Buddha statue.
Inside the sculpture, sand from each of the 88 shrines that make up the Shikoku pilgrimage are stored below bricks within a narrow hallway.
Every year, hundreds of Buddhists come together to clean the statue using bamboo leaves tied to five-meter poles.