In this January 8, 2015 photo, a monk Kenmyo Muta bows at the condominium construction site and the gate of Sengakuji temple in Tokyo. The “47 ronin” samurai who inspired the long-loved saga of loyalty and honor eulogized in films, books and plays are fighting a new kind of battle in urban Japan. An apartment complex is going up next to the curved tile-roofed Sengakuji temple where the three-century-old graves of the ronin, or masterless samurai, lie. The banner reads: “We only hope to protect landscape of Sengakuji temple”. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko/AP Photo)

Buddhists monks and children look out from the rooftop at a Buddhist mission hostel and school for underprivileged children as an international passenger flight takes off at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport as the authorities eased restrictions imposed as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Kolkata on July 5, 2020. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

Commuters interact with an elephant as he rests in a public road ahead of the annual Perahera festival of the historic Gangaramaya Temple in Colombo on February 18, 2019. Some 50 elephants, most of them from the central area of Kandy along with thousands of traditional drummers, dancers, and monks have gathered in the Sri Lankan capital to participate in the city's biggest two-day annual Buddhist Navam procession, scheduled for February 18-19. (Photo by Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP Photo)

A Buddhist monk salvages a statue of a Buddhist deity from a monastery around the famous Swayambhunath stupa after it was damaged by Saturday's earthquake in Kathmandu, Nepal, Thursday, April 30, 2015. In mere seconds, Saturday's earthquake devastated a swathe of Nepal. Three of the seven World Heritage sites in the Kathmandu Valley have been severely damaged, including Durbar Square with pagodas and temples dating from the 15th to 18th centuries, according to UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency. (Photo by Niranjan Shrestha/AP Photo)

Revellers chase a bull into the sea during the “Bous a la Mar” festival on July 14, 2011 in Denia, Spain. The Spanish “Bous a la Mar” or “Bulls to the Sea” festival is held in honour of the Santisima Sangre and commemorate a monk named Pedro Esteve, who, as the legend has it, saved the coastal town of Denia from a plague in 1633. The bulls chased into the sea are later brought back to land by small boats. (Photo by Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

Key Gompa (also spelled Ki, Kye or Kee) is a Tibetan Buddhist monastery located on top of a hill at an altitude of 4,166 metres (13,668 ft) above sea level, close to the Spiti River, in the Spiti Valley of Himachal Pradesh, Lahaul and Spiti district, India. It is the biggest monastery of Spiti Valley and a religious training centre for Lamas. It reportedly had 100 monks in 1855.

Monastic dormitories stand on the hillside at the Serthar Wuming Buddhist Study Institute on November 4, 2006 in Serthar County of Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China. The Wuming Buddhist Study Institute is located in Larung Gar Monastery on an altitude of 3,700 meters (about 12,136 feet). The institute has the largest conglomeration of monks and nuns in Tibetan Areas, with over 40,000 monastics from the Tibet Buddhism Nyingma School, Gelug School, Sakya School and Kagyu School, including more than 10,000 nuns. (Photo by China Photos/Getty Images)

Nopparat (R), a 24-year-old transgender, and a Buddhist monk (L) wait to speak to officers during an army draft held at a school in Bang Na in Bangkok April 3, 2015. Thai men over 21 must serve in the army. Those who volunteer serve six months, but others choose the annual lottery, which goes on for 10 days in recruitment centres around Thailand. Only those not considered physically capable of service, the mentally ill and those who have significantly altered their physical appearance, such as transgenders, are exempt. Picture taken April 3, 2015. (Photo by Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters)