Photos: lienyuan lee · CC BY 3.0 · Nekosuki · CC BY-SA 4.0 (2, 4, 5) · Tomi Mäkitalo · CC BY-SA 3.0
Tōdai-ji's Daibutsuden holds the 15 m bronze Vairocana. Behind the Buddha a pillar has a hole at its base the size of the Daibutsu's nostril; squeeze through it and you are promised enlightenment.
Why it's unique
Until recently the hall was the world's largest wooden building, even though the 1709 rebuild is only about two-thirds the width of the original. The claim here is the Buddha, the hall and the pillar together, at country level; no part of it carries a world claim.
The pillar is what turns looking into doing: you queue, you get down, and you crawl through.
Before you go
The queue for the pillar is mostly schoolchildren; adults do fit, slowly, arms first.
On 7 August about 180 monks in white clean a year's dust off the Buddha in the Omi-nugui, his face from a gondola, from 7:00. Booking is not needed and not accepted.
