I haven't watched it yet but plan to. I watched the trailer and several scenes jumped out to me, this one being the most obvious.

HA! That's amazing - I hadn't put that together but thank you for making that connection. Sounds like there's a lot of symbolic meaning here from a quick google search.

Limestone is a pretty soft stone so I'm really surprised by how well it has held up over the years (assuming it's older). I'm guessing this is not a typical type of stone to use so I wonder why it was used in this application.

I was thinking the same thing when I read it. Protestant Buddhism as a reaction. I think this was another way to marginalize Buddhism as not a religion but rather a philosophy.

Based on what we read about Drukpa Kunley - I'm guessing drinking was acceptable as part of his crazy wisdom. But it's probably frowned upon by the more prominent schools.

I've actually thought of this as well. I believe the other comments are on point and I also think we may not be aware of how many monks there are given the geographic distance between us and the epicenter of Buddhism. Perhaps they wonder why there aren't more priests.

I think determination probably plays more of a role than flexibility, given some of the photos we saw in class and the poses in the readings.

Thank you for sharing these pictures. The colors are striking and I guess unexpected for Japan.

This is pretty interesting how Buddhism has become so commonplace in our lives that it even appears on The Simpsons, reinforcing what we discussed in class.

Thought you might find this interesting: Bon, indigenous religion of Tibet that, when absorbed by the Buddhist traditions introduced from India in the 8th century, gave Tibetan Buddhism much of its distinctive character. www.britannica.com/topic/Bon-Ti...