Hieizanenryakuji Temple

Straddling Kyoto and Shiga, Enryakuji on Mount Hiei is the head temple of the Tendai school and a World Heritage Site. The mountain divides into three precincts — Todo, Saito and Yokawa — each centred on its own main hall, with well over a hundred halls spread among them. Since Saicho climbed the mountain in 788 it grew until people spoke of 'three thousand cloisters of Hiei,' and in the Kamakura period it produced the founders of school after school: Honen, Eisai, Shinran, Dogen, Nichiren, Ippen. The lamp Saicho lit 1,200 years ago still burns as the 'inextinguishable Dharma light.' Walk between the halls and the old cedars and the Ano-shu stonework give you the measure of that span of time.