The unexpected perks of a Japanese Buddhist temple

For Fodor’s Travel, Rosie Bell wrote about her experiences at Sekishoin, a modern Buddhist temple in Kōyasan, Japan:

Was it a Rolex? I couldn’t get close enough to tell what was dangling on the wrist of the 83-year-old monk teaching us. I’m not enough of a timepiece aficionado to make out the brand, but it was bold, gold, and rattled on his wrist as he gesticulated gingerly while talking us through the temple’s 1,100-year evolution.

The octogenarian in question was one of the resident monks at Sekishoin, an unexpectedly modern Shingon Buddhist temple in Koyasan or Mount Kōya, a sacred temple town that became Japan’s 12th World Heritage Site in 2004. Prior to the trip, my supposition about monks was that they eschewed material things, lived chaste lives, were sober in temperament, and worshipped in pared-back shelters.

Not here.

Dressed in a mustard-colored samue–the traditional garb of Buddhist monks–the monk graced us with his presence during an orientation session and over dinner when he regaled us with jokes and frank tales, revealing the intricate hierarchy of the temple where he holds the rank of the eighth oldest.

A monk with gold on his wrist? And beer-stocked vending machines? Maybe I need to get into Buddhism!

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