The Great bronze Buddha of Kamakura , Japan

Very moving, very sacred. A notice at the entrance to the grounds reads:

“Stranger, whosoever thou art and whatsoever be thy creed,

when thou enterest this sanctuary

remember thou treadest upon ground hallowed by the worship of ages.

This is the Temple of Bhudda 

and the gate of the eternal,

and should therefore be entered

with reverence.”

A stanza from the Five Nations by Rudyard Kipling:

But when the morning prayer is prayed,

Think, ere ye pass to strife and trade,

Is God in human image made

No nearer than Kamakura?

The bronze Kamakura Buddha statue, on top of a hill, dates from 1252, has survived two storms in 1334 and 1369, a tsunami in 1498, it weighs 93 tons, and is 48 feet tall.