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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;krispy, post: 1417100, member: 19065&quot;]Not yet, Wat Po is on my bucket list... Perhaps the most similar such place that I have visited is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanj%C5%ABsangen-d%C5%8D" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanj%C5%ABsangen-d%C5%8D" rel="nofollow">Sanjūsangen-dō</a> (temple) in Kyoto to see the Thousand Armed Kannon in the Hall of the Lotus King. This stuff is just mind boggling to see, enormous amounts of gilt gold statues stuffed to the ceilings in enormous wooden structures that have just been sitting there and gently tended to for ages! </p><p><br /></p><p>Chris, you may like this quote about jade written by a famous Japanese author in a well known essay on aesthetics. The essay is ostensibly about &#039;light&#039; and &#039;shadow&#039; in traditional Japanese aesthetics. It was written back in the 1930s as Japanese culture had rapidly begun to modernize by then and many of the things the author tried to capture in words were culturally disappearing. This quote is a reflection about root sentiments in their culture that extends to the influence of the Chinese, as perceived by a Japanese writer then:</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p><br /></p><p>Written by Jun&#039;ichiiro Tanizaki <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Praise_of_Shadows" rel="nofollow"><i>In Praise of Shadows</i></a> [Leete&#039;s Island Books, 1977 - translation]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I hadn&#039;t heard that story, but it&#039;s a charming one, and sure to add to the longevity of this storied place, surely it will also keep attracting the curious.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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