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MUMBAI
Temple tales
We take a look at Worli's tryst with the Japanese
Updated : Sep 19, 2014, 06:23 PM IST
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Mumbai's borders are rather porous and the city itself appears to have an unquenchable thirst for immigrants. Into this enormous melting pot poured the Japanese, who trundled into the city to trade in cotton.
The Nipponzan Myohoji order is a small Japanese-Buddhist sect. The story of the Nipponzan Myohoji temple in Worli unfurls thus—700 years ago, a Japanese monk foretold that humanity's salvation would lie in the roiling churn of the city of Mumbai. Many centuries later, in 1931, a Japanese monk, Nichidatsu Fuji, came to the city to fulfil that prophecy. A chance encounter with Sheth Jugal Kishore Birla led to the erection of the temple's main structure in 1956. An older structure at the back is used as a dharamshala for lesser privileged children.
An oasis of peace in the midst of the Worli scrum, the temple seems contented to go about its business in a quiet manner. Every morning at 6am, a time when the Worli traffic has not yet swelled to a honking crescendo, the daimoku mantra is chanted. The sandstone temple is, perhaps, not the most pulchritudinous structure. But within the temple resides a marble statue of Buddha, flanked by beautiful scrolls depicting his life hung on the walls and drums that are used while chanting.
The temple's gentle monk and caretaker, Bhikshu Morita, has pottered about the temple from 1976. Never one to veer from duty, he marched down the streets in 1992, when the city was frothing during the communal riots, chanting a message for peace.
Let us now move from the sacred to the profane. In 1865, a Bombay Burial Commission deemed that all graveyards should be located only in particular areas of Mumbai, to ensure public health. The one on Haines Road in Worli was considered adequately remote at the time and was used later by the Japanese. Not only are the Japanese tradesmen buried here, but also their compatriots, Japanese women who were sent to 'entertain' them. Bhikshu Morita still holds prayer meetings for all of them once a year. Otherwise, it has all been largely forgotten.
