Endurance Test: The 1000 Days

The story

For the latest chapter of Endurance Test, Los Angeles-based director Ivan Olita talks about his portrait of the monks of Mount Hiei, Japan, where spiritual practices hearken back thousand of years, and where the kaihōgyō, a pilgrimage lasting 1000 days, has been completed by less than fifty monks in over a century: “Kaihōgyō, the 1000-day pilgrimage performed by Tendai Buddhists, is not a challenge in the usual sense. The literal translation is 'circling the mountain,' so the mountain itself and a connection to nature is crucial; it has a more meditative meaning, it is part of a lineage of enlightenment wisdom that spans centuries, ages and generations.