Great Buddha Cleaning Ceremony

About this event

The Great Buddha Cleaning Ceremony at Todai-ji is an annual event in which over 100 monks and volunteers climb scaffolding to scrub the giant bronze Buddha clean of a year's worth of dust before the Obon season. The sight of tiny figures clambering over the hands and knees of the 15-meter-tall statue is both humbling and spectacular. This ritual of care and devotion has been performed faithfully for centuries.