Photo: @_deepskyy
lifestyle

Japanese photographer captures Great Buddha’s ritual cleaning

6 Comments
By grape Japan

Buddha statues can be seen at temples, sitting quietly with calm and peaceful faces.

The size range is wide, but when you have to stand back to see the whole picture because it is so tall...the statue looks overwhelmingly majestic.

As you can imagine, the bigger the statues are, the more maintenance effort they require.

A photographer, _deepsky (@_deepskyy) happened to encounter a rare sight of a ceremonial Buddha statue cleaning, known as ominugui. He posted the photos of the sight on Twitter.

The Buddha in said photos is a Takaoka Buddha, and has a nickname of “Ikemen (handsome) Buddha”, residing in Takaoka city, Toyama Prefecture.

The sight of this 16-meter-tall, handsome Buddha statue is nothing short of majestic.

Let’s take a look at the rare sight of a cleaning ceremony.

68505_01.jpg
Photo: @_deepskyy

He caught the usually sacred ceremonial cleaning process, but the photo came out ironically comical!?

The monks in their ritualistic white cleaning uniforms look so tiny compared to the Great Buddha.

Although this is a great photo implicating old yet amazing Japanese tradition, there is a hint of humor to it...like the way the monk grabbing inside the Buddha’s nasal cavity looks as if he is barely holding on to it, and the Great Buddha is just calmly looking down on the little monks.

The irony in this photo made many people chuckle, and the post received many comments.

"This is quite a shot. It almost looks like Buddha is alive!"

"Makes me think of what would happen if Buddha sneezed right about now."

"The monk under Buddha’s nose makes it almost look like Buddha has a nose ring sticking out."

It is not every day you get to see a sight like this.

This is the evidence of how well these sacred statues are taken care of, and the reason why we get to greet such beautiful Buddha statues with each visit.

Read more stories from grape Japan.

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© grape Japan

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

6 Comments
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If I didn't know any better, I'd say this guy was picker boogers from the Buddha's nose!

2 ( +3 / -1 )

He could always wear a mask, that would show solidarity with the people and also look totally dope.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Thomas GoodtimeApr. 6 03:32 pm JST

I wonder how the workers clean the statue of buddha in the West

I'd imagine it's quite easy as there probably aren't any statues of Buddha

You probably can find some in Asian restaurants, but certainly not this size.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The cleaning process is so Asian on barefeet and without PPE. I wonder how the workers clean the statue of buddha in the West. I think they must wear safety shoes and helmet but wouldn't that be disrespectful stepping on statue with those heavy boots?

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

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