The secluded plateau of Koya-San is situated at an altitude of around nine hundred metres on the Japanese peninsula of Kii.

This monastery mountain is one of the most important and oldest pilgrimage sites in Japan. In 816 A.D., Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon School, had the first monastery built, which was subsequently followed by a hundred and twenty four temple buildings. The Danjo Garan Complex is rated as one of the first sites and encompasses twenty temples and buildings. Symbolically, a red glowing pagoda stands in the centre of a mandala in the form of a lotus. The temple buildings are situated within dense forests and represent the heyday of ninth century Japanese Buddhism. ...continues