The stones once belonged to a seven-headed serpent-like statue found with a Buddha in the temple. Screengrab from Apsara National Authority's Facebook page What are we learning about the past?
The women first met in 2015 at the World Heritage site Nikko, in Tochigi Prefecture, where they were helping to restore 7.5-meter-tall Buddha statues at Nikko Rinnoji Temple. After the two-year ...
In the 18th century, however, they fell into neglect and were largely forgotten until 1908 when visiting German architect Ernst Boerschmann "discovered" the grand caves filled with Buddha statues ...