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Sumeru altar (shumidan 須彌壇, shumi 須彌)

A large dais, accessible by steps on either side, which serves as the altar for the main object of veneration (honzon 本尊) in a buddha hall, and as the place where the abbot's chair is set for sermons in a dharma hall. The altar is named after the vast mountain which, according to traditional Buddhist cosmology, rises out of the sea at the center of the universe.