The
visual and textual narrative that I present below are
considered
to be small fragments of the larger Buddhist culture and legends
Lord
Buddha was
staying in the Jetavana monastery of Savatti (Sravasti), capital of
Kosala, ruled by King Pasenadi. One
day, King Pasenadi went to
pay homage to Lord
Buddha. But when the Lord Buddha
announced he would leave for
three months in Tavatimsa Heaven, the king and his followers felt
sad, and made known to the Buddha
their feelings, should he die.
The next day the King visited the Buddha to ask permission to make an
image of him. On being
granted permission, the King
had a statue carved using
sandalwood of the
Lord Buddha in the sitting position. It looked exactly like Buddha
and it was housed in the place where the Lord used to sit.
Upon Lord Buddha’s return
from Tavatimsa heaven,
King Pasenadi invited him to look at the sandalwood image. On seeing
the Lord Buddha, the image acted as if it were alive and knew it had
to rise to show respect to the Buddha. Possibly there was an instant
of eye contact, it
started to move from the seat and was about to pay homage when the
Buddha raised his left hand to stop the figure, saying “You will
remain seated”.
After
that, the Lord Buddha
preached a sermon about the
merit gained by making Buddha images. It is believed that the
sandalwood image was the very first image in Buddhism.
The Legend in Thailand
In
modern Thai iconography the statue of the Buddha refraining his image
to rise, was codified (“Halting the Sandalwood image “) with the
right arm pendant alongside the body and the left hand raised to
prevent the sandalwood from rising (Matics 1988; 103). It is believed
that not only is this
sandalwood image the oldest ever created but also that it was the
first image
when the Lord was still alive. Copies of it are highly venerated in
Northern Thailand and are
always depicted his right hand pressing on the seat (so
as to rise).
According
to old Thai narrative, the Tamnan Phra Kaen Chan, the first image of
the Buddha was made about seven years before Lord Buddha passed away
(Shober 2006: 34). The myth of the first Buddha image gave origin to
several legends. One rare stone sculpture of Gandhara art is
interpreted as King Udajana presenting a Buddha image to the Buddha
himself (Skilling 2006: Fig1). The original sandalwood image
mentioned above disappeared after the 16th century while canvas
paintings of the Buddha are various and in known locations (Skilling
2006: 228). On the wall of the ubooth
of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, there are 72 paintings illustrating
Buddha in different attitudes, preserved in elaborate guilt frames,
renovated in 1831 during the reign of King Rama III. One painting is
entitled “Urging Phra Kaenchan (the
sandalwood statue in his semblances)
not to rise from his
seat” (Ambai 2004: 295).
The Legend in Burma
The
legend of the first statue of Lord Buddha is also well known in Burma
(Myanmar) where the renowned image of Mahāmuni is believed to be the
living double of the Buddha. Here
the legend is adapted in that it was
made by King
Candrasuriya, an Arakanese king who lived at the time of the Buddha
(Shober 1997: 265). When the Buddha prepared for his departure, the
king lamented that he
and other
devotees could no longer be able to pay homage to Lord Buddha so
asked for an image in his likeness. Reflecting on the greatness of
the kingdom and the king’s need to gain inspiration, the Buddha
consented to the request.
Sakka and Vissakamma cast his image and created an exact replica of
the Buddha’s
physical appearance (Indra and Visvakarman, the architect of the
gods). In the Burmese legend, Buddha breathed upon the image to
impart life to it and the image was transformed into a life-like one.
King Candrasuriya made offerings and placed the image on a throne
under a turret, then built
monasteries around it and entrusted monks to take care of the image.
The
Burmese legend follows
the original legend. When the Buddha was brought to see the
sandalwood image, the latter made the movement of rising to pay
respect to the
Lord. The Buddha raised his left hand in Abaya
mudra and stopped it by
saying ‘Oh young brother do not stand up. I shall
enter Nirvana in my eightieth year, but you, endowed with the
supernatural powers of a Buddha, shall exist for 5,000 years, which I
have prescribed to be the limit of my religion; you shall be the
means of working out the salvation of men and nats’ (Shober 1997:
268).
Some thoughts on the Legend.
The
Buddha, in recognizing his likeness in the sandalwood image (and
vice-versa),
set in motion
the process of iconization: the
investment of images with
authority and direct links with the Buddha (Skilling 2006:231).
The sandalwood image traveled
in the imagination of Buddhists not only in its material form as the
object of veneration, but its
enshrinement sites also became the destinations of pilgrimages.
Buddha statues
traveled
to each corner of Buddhist Asia acquiring the idealized form of a
man local
to the region but with
superior spirituality, radiating
inner and outer
beauty. Rituals
were performed around
statues giving gradual
rise to
the cult of an image, so
idolatry was born: a cult
hardly acceptable to the Buddha, as was the commercial idea of
merit-making
by paying respect to the Buddha’s statue followed by the concept of
acquiring merit in making new Buddha images or renovating
older ones.
The statue being perceived as the living image of the Lord invited
consecration ceremonies where
the eyes of statues were opened; or
consecrations of amulets
with small images of the Buddha or of holy monks, especially in
Thailand. Thus Buddha’s
statues became the center or religious buildings.
Kings of the Chakri dynasty moved statues from dilapidated temples in
the North of Thailand to their capital, Bangkok. Many Laotian Buddha
statues were taken as war trophies
and religiously installed in Thai temples. Gradually the statue was
given potency, miraculous powers, and the ability to make people
overcome difficult situations or fulfill a wish.
Gilding
of Buddha bronze statues was allegorical of the brilliance and
splendor of the Enlightened, besides reflecting
the wealth of the donor. The
statue was an image of the Buddha and sacred as such. Despite being
considered as living images, in mainland SE Asia and especially
Thailand, Buddha’s statues were made of glass (and
more recently in
multicolored plastic resin).
Some
important simulacrum, such as the Emerald Buddha of Bangkok, is
subject to changes in its
adornment according to the
seasons; other statues are simply covered with monk’s robes and
regularly washed as if they were living. Finally,
the image of the Buddha
could not escape modern entertainment
with a
colossal seated cement statue being the main attraction of the
‘Buddhist Theme Park’ of Wat Muang (north of Bangkok) reaching
the height of 92meters,
named Phra Buddha Maha Navamin.
The
name given to a specific statue often
depends on
the financial donor or
maker, or, as in Thailand, also according to their weight or height,
fabrication techniques and materials (Aroonrut 2006:45). In Thailand
emphasis was paid to the mudra,
position or articulation of the statue (Matics 1998).
In the legend of the Buddha and his identical image, it
is possible to perceive several meanings such
as the relationship
Buddha/king, Buddha/homeomorphic
image, Buddha/artist, father/son, subject/object, observer/observed.
In Cambodian legend the carved image of the Buddha was perceived as
that of the Khmer king to be venerated jointly to that of the Buddha
with the
plinth of the statue equated to the throne of the Khmer king.
Incidentally in modern Cambodian iconography, the mudra of the Buddha
differs, insofar he use his right hand to dissuade the statue from
rising.
Bangkok,
October 2014
[1] Or the Pali Jinakālamālini
(2006:227)
Fig.1- Mural painting showing a sculptor presumably carving the first statue of the Buddha out of sandalwood. Battambong temple
Fig. 2 – Wat Pho (Bangkok). Lord Buddha urging Phra Kaenchan (the sandalwood statue in his semblances) not to rise from its seat (painted c. 1831 CE, Third Reign)
Fig.3 – Angkor Wat North monastery (Siem Reap, Cambodia). The Buddha encountering his statue and asking it not to rise to pay homage (end 20th century)
Fig.4 – Wat Prasat Andet (Kampong Thom, Cambodia)– Lord Buddha stopping the sandalwood to rise (end 20th century).
Fig.5 - Another example of the Buddha telling the statue not to come alive by raising his left hand in the abhaya mudra. Wat Damrei Soer, Battambnong, Cambodia.
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Can you please share the reference of the story of King Prasenjit?
ReplyDeleteDear sir, What is the reference of the first story about the King Prasenajit commissioning to build a Buddha's statue? Could you please kindly let me know, either here or through my email: bibeksharma@hotmail.com
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