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Buddha Sakyamuni
Figure 1.1
This 5th
century image of the Buddha was found in Bihrail but a scientific analysis of
the Chunar sandstone from which it was carved, as well as the style and
workmanship of the sculptor, identify this sculpture as having been brought to
Bangladesh fromSarnath, India. How it got to Bangladesh is unknown but images
were transported by Buddhists monks across the Buddhist world and served as
models for local sculptors to create images for teaching about the life of the
Buddha and his path to enlightenment.It would have been easy to bring the
sculpture by boat down the Ganges to Bangladesh.
2500 year
ago, the historic Buddha went to the Deer Park at Sarnath and gave his first
sermon. He denounced the Hindu caste system, believed that all people
regardless of race or occupation were equal, and that all could achieve
enlightenment. He taught that Desire-what today we call materialism- the belief
that money, objects, being rich can make us happy-is in fact the cause of human
suffering. He offered an eight fold path to rid ourselves of desire and achieve
enlightenment. His teaching is known as The Middle Way as he rejected both
excessive wealth and extreme self-denial of the pleasures of life as
self-defeating.
He wore a
single robe he stitched together himself from pieces of cloth that others
discarded, ate without restriction food offered by every caste and outcaste,
never owned any property but constantly moved from town to town teaching for
more than 50 years to rich and poor alike; not in Sanskrit, the language of the
educated elite’ but in the common language of the people. When he died at age
80 his body was burned and his ashesburied instupas as memorials to his
teaching.
Because
Buddha’s followers respected him as a great teacher and did not think of the
Buddha as a god, no known images were created of Buddha during his lifetime.
Instead, events in the life of the Buddha were represented by the stupa, the
wheel of the law, a lotus flower, an umbrella, or a pair of footprints.
Centuries
later, when images of the Buddha were first created, they were not portraits of
the historic Buddha but images of the ideal holy man.
How do we
know? Early in the development of Buddhist art rules were laid down that specified
the proportions and the details for creating images of the Buddha. These rules
include drawings that determine the geometric proportions of an image and
specific details of the features, hand gestures, and objects associated with
each deity.
Figure 1.2
Figure 1.3
Does he have
an ushnisha—a bump on his head that tells us he is very wise?
Is his hair
cut short?
Are his eyes
lowered in deep meditation?
Does he have
long earlobes that indicate he was once a prince who wore heavy gold earrings
but no longer has any desire for material things?
Does he wear
a crown or other jewelry?
Does the
Buddha wear beautiful robes or theundecorated robe of a Buddhist monk?
You have
just identified the signs of a Buddha and will be able to recognize other
images of the Buddha in this museum.
Last updated by admin at 09 September, 2020