Byodo-in was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Built in the south-east suburb of Kyoto during the Heian period in 998 as a rural residence by a powerful politician Fujiwara. In 1052 his son transformed the building into a temple. The architecture with the lake and the garden is a vision of the “Western Paradise” of the Jodo or Pure Land School of Zen Buddhism. The Phoenix hall is one of the surviving originals of the architecture of the Heian period in Japan.