Tō-ji

In 794, when Kyoto was laid out as Heian-kyō, only two temples were permitted inside the whole new capital. One of them is still on its own ground, under the tallest wooden tower in Japan: a pagoda of about 55 metres, the fifth to stand on the spot, raised in 1644. Step into its lecture hall and 21 statues stand together as a mandala, a diagram of the Buddhist cosmos built as objects rather than drawn: you walk in and stand inside it.