Leading economic expert Jim Rogers traveled to 150 countries over 150,000 miles in three years – follow his adventures here on FentonReport.

In this video Jim and Paige visit Ryoan-ji temple in Kyoto, Japan.

Copyright Jim Rogers – provided as a special contribution to The Fenton Report. http://www.fentonreport.com

Ryoan-ji is a Zen temple located in northwest Kyoto, Japan. Belonging to the Myoshin-ji school of the Rinzai branch of Zen Buddhism, the temple is one of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Kyoto, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The site of the temple was originally a Fujiwara family estate. It eventually came into the hands of the Hosokawa clan branch of the Fujiwaras. Hosokawa Katsumoto inherited the residence, and lived here before the Onin War. Katsumoto willed the war-ravaged property to be converted into a Zen sect temple complex after his death. Later Hosokawa emperors are grouped together in what are today known as the “Seven Imperial Tombs” at Ryoan-ji. The burial places of these emperors — Uda, Kazan, Ichijo, Go-Suzaku, Go-Reizei, Go-Sanjo, and Horikawa — would have been comparatively humble in the period after their deaths. These tombs reached their present state as a result of the 19th century restoration of imperial sepulchers (misasagi) which were ordered by Emperor Meiji.

Ryoan-ji’s tsukubai, which is a small basin provided at Japanese Buddhist temples for visitors to purify themselves by the ritual washing of hands and rinsing of the mouth.An object of interest near the rear of the monks quarters is the carved stone receptacle into which water for ritual purification continuously flows. This is the Ryoan-ji tsukubai, which translates literally as “crouch;” and the lower elevation of the basin requires the user to bend a little bit to reach the water, which suggests supplication and reverence.

The absence of a dipper is intended to imply that the water is for the soul only and that it is necessary to bend the knee in humility in order to receive its blessing.