The recent news of a Buddhist monk’s angry outburst at negative online reviews made me smile. Visitors complaining about meals being “basic
and vegetarian” at a monastery is like criticising a steakhouse for
having too much meat on the menu. So I did scoff initially at the idea
of people travelling in Japan – and to a monastery – and not being
prepared for “strange” meals that are “quite unlike any food I’ve ever
tasted”.To get more
buddhist food, you can visit shine news official website.
But maybe (American-born) Shingon priest Daniel Kimura was being unfair –
and the term “uneducated fuck” is certainly intemperate. The comment
isn’t necessarily negative: eating food unlike any you’ve tasted is one
of the great joys of travel, and perhaps the person posting meant only
to alert others to its unexpected nature. Mount Koya, or Koyasan, 85km
south of Osaka, is the centre of the Shingon Buddhist sect, with over
100 temples in a small mountaintop town, 52 of which offer shukubo, or
guest quarters (doubles from £120 a night full-board). It’s reached by
train and funicular through spectacular wooded mountains and very well
set-up for tourists, with helpers directing visitors to the right bus
for their lodgings. The peaceful town is a bit like Oxford or Cambridge,
except instead of ancient colleges, the streets are dotted with temple
complexes, and monks clip-clop around in wooden geta sandals.
There’s no privation, though: en suite rooms have wifi and in-room dining. When
I stayed in a Koyasan monastery last year the food was certainly unlike
any in the west – and indeed unlike much in the rest of Japan.
Homemade, healthy and vegan, it was beautifully presented, and served on
lacquer trays with tiny legs, as we sat on floor cushions. It was full
of strange textures, though – and oddly bland. There was a big fuss
about goma dofu, starchy squares made from a root vegetable that’s hard
to dig up, hard to process – and hard to understand: texture a bit like
blancmange, flavour barely discernible. It is apparently high in
protein, though. But hey, if you want familiar foods or luxury lodgings,
you don’t do a temple stay. The old buildings and gardens are lovely
and guests can join in evening meditation, 6.30am prayers and a dramatic
7am fire service.
Each evening a monk leads a visit to Okunin cemetery, the holiest in Shingon, which is atmospheric, peaceful and not
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