The approach to Horyuji Temple leading to the main gate. The pagoda is visible in the background.

When Dave and I traveled around Japan for New Year, it was a trip full of superlatives.  Almost everywhere we went was the most beautiful, oldest, biggest, or best in Japan.  Todaiji, which I wrote about in my last article, was no exception.  It has one of the biggest wooden buildings in the world.  The daibutsu is the largest of its kind in the world.  It is an incredibly place, and while it is very popular with tourists, I whole-heartedly recommend visiting.  However, if I could only visit one place in Nara again, Todaiji wouldn’t be it.  There is a temple that is about a ten minute train ride from Nara Station followed by a fifteen minute walk through the local neighborhood called Horyuji that I would go back to hands down, every time.  Horyuji isn’t as big as Todaiji.  There is no Daibutsu to see.  Kofukuji in central Nara has a pagoda and an octagonal hall that are very similar to the ones at Horyuji.  However, Horyuji was founded more than one hundred years earlier, and, astoundingly, it is all original.  That is why, if you ever have the chance to go to Nara, you have to see this place.  It isn’t just old.  It is a collection of the oldest wooden buildings in the world.

The Kondo and Pagoda of Horyuji Temple, which are the oldest wooden buildings in the world.

In Japan, old takes on a whole new meaning.  The temple was founded, according to early documents and the Guinness Book of World Records, in the year 607 C.E., which makes it more than one hundred years earlier than Todaiji’s foundation, and it has been continuously used as a Buddhist holy site to this day.  The temple site and the adjoining museum hold countless artifacts and treasures spanning nearly 1400 years of human occupation and worship.  The woodwork in the building decorations and the statues and carvings preserved at Horyuji are remarkably detailed even for today, and many of them are over a millennium old.  Sadly, there are no photos allowed inside of any of the structures, not even in the modern museum building, so you will have to take my word for it.  Even so, just the fact that these artifacts still exist, and in such good condition, is incredible.

The pagoda of Horyuji Temple. This pagoda was completed in 607, making it the oldest wooden building in the world.

But that isn’t the most amazing part of this sprawling (by Japanese standards) temple complex.  As I mentioned before, all of the buildings in Horyuji are original, which makes them the oldest wooden buildings in the world.  Though there is some debate on exactly how old they really are. The Nihon Shoki, Japan’s first unified history published in 720, claims that the entire temple complex was destroyed in a fire in 670 and was then rebuilt by the 690s.  And while this would still qualify the temple’s main buildings as the oldest in the world, there are doubts about whether or not the fire ever happened.  In the early 2000s, while some preservation work was being done, scientists were able to take a core sample of the central pillar of the five storied pagoda in the western precinct for tree ring analysis.  According to their tests, the tree that the central pillar was taken from was felled in the year 594 C.E.  To put that into perspective, England, Wales, and Scotland were still a collection of warring city-states.  In fact, with the exception of the microstate of San Marino, the temple buildings here are older than any of the nations in Europe.  It predates the oldest wooden building in Europe, the House of Bethlehem in Switzerland, by almost 600 years.   In the Middle East, Islam’s prophet Mohammed was 4 years old when that pillar was cut, which means that the pagoda likely predates the entire Islamic religion.  A date of 594 C.E. on the main pillar also makes it too old to have been destroyed by fire in 670.  This leads many experts, including the Guinness World Record people and the UNESCO committee, to believe that it is likely the original complex established in the year 607.  That makes the pagoda of Horyuji a bit more than 1,400 years old.  Even standing in front of it myself, knowing the date and having the brochure in front of me, I found it almost impossible to comprehend the incredible age of this place.  Even more amazing is the construction.  The detail work and decorations are exquisitely carved and almost perfectly preserved.  More than that, the building is earthquake proof.  Each level of the pagoda is its own box, floating freely around the central pillar.  When there is an earthquake, each box can shift and slide around the center, which absorbs the energy of the quake and prevents the tower from falling over.  It is the same kind design they use to protect skyscrapers in Tokyo from strong quakes.  The level of detail and design in these buildings is beyond anything I would have thought was possible such a long time ago.

The Kondo of Horyuji Temple. The building was restored in 1950 after a fire heavily damaged the first floor of the hall. Tree ring dating of the original timbers date the building to the mid-600s.

What amazes me the most, however, isn’t just the age of this place.  There are plenty of places around the world that are thousands of years old.  But, how many of them are still active in their original role?  You can’t go to the Roman Colosseum and see a chariot race next week.  We don’t bury pharaohs in the great pyramids anymore.  The ancient castles across Europe today are mostly there for tourists.  Horyuji, however, is still a temple, exactly as it was 1,400 years ago.  The descendants of those who built this incredible place still worship here.  Photography isn’t allowed inside the buildings because they are still revered as holy sites.  That is what makes it the most incredible thing I have ever seen.

The Yumedono, or hall of dreams, which was completed in 739 C.E. It is considered the third oldest building in the world and it is the oldest octagonal hall in existence.

If you ever find yourself in Japan, take a trip to Nara and see this incredible place for yourself.  It is a little bit of a walk from Horyuji station, but it is a pleasant walk with nice markers to point the way.  And, surprisingly, it isn’t overly touristy, like Todaiji.  A lot of the school groups that go to Nara every year, sadly, pass over Horyuji, and there are only a couple of small restaurants and gift shops in front of the complex.  When I was there last December, there weren’t that many people around.  So if you are ever in Japan, go see Horyuji.  It is worth making a special trip for.  You won’t regret it.