The Sleeping Buddha and Its Meaning
Just about every designer knows that when a client wants a space that is calm and beautiful, there’s only one route to go with the furnishings, and that’s East. Think water features, bonzai, graceful flowers, beautiful screens and exotic sculptures. You’re able to create a touch of the orient in lots of ways, but among the easiest would be to add a statue of the Buddha. There are over one hundred known poses and three distinct orientations for these statues, so there is bound to be one that will be appropriate for virtually any room or space, even when it’s an awkward shape or size.
Side tables along with desks almost all seem to cry out for a sitting Buddha, backyards and balconies might be just right for a standing Buddha, however certain spaces need an subject a lot wider than it is high. There the optimal decor item is a reclining Buddha.
Many Buddha statues display 32 features believed to have been bodily features of the first Gautama Buddha who was born around 563 BC. These are also known as the ‘Thirty Two Signs of a Great Man’, and encompass:
• flat feet
• a pointed head
• beautiful golden skin
• long fingers all the same length
• long toes all the same length
• a robe draped over one shoulder
• long ear lobes
The Buddha wasn’t in favor of representations of his own body, and therefore the proper question is, why are there so many Buddha statues?
It seems this may be yet another thing which can be attirbuted to the Greeks, and on one Greek in particular, Alexander the Great. When Alexander conquered Northern India and Afghanistan, he kept lots of soldiers and artisans behind, therefore the art of the area had been to a great extent affected by classical sculpture, and by Greek ideas of Gods and men. Alexander was widley known for enjoying the reproduction of his own face, having understood the worth of portraits and sculpture as items of propaganda.
This might be the reason why Alexandrian India, with a partially Greek population as well as ties to Greek culture, was the earliest area to produce Buddha statues. These proved exceptionally popular and the concept propogagted with Buddhism itself, on the other hand as Islam forbade the rendering of the human form and looked at such statues as idolatry, countless historic and wonderful statues of the Buddha in that region have since been destroyed.
There are a couple of well defined poses for these statues which pertain to specific concepts or events in the life of the Buddha.
But the most interesting is the reclining pose of the Buddha. There are 2 variations. One shows the Buddha, resting with his head on his arm. This is the sleeping Buddha, but the other similar pose, where Buddha’s feet are resting together, symbolizes the day the Buddha entered Nirvana.
Aged eighty, the Buddha sat down to rest and told his followers he would soon enter parinirvana, the condition which occurs whenever the physical body of an individual that has accomplished complete awakening or enlightenment finally passes away. He ate his last meal and then grew to become strongly sick. He asked his followers for any inquiries they had and when there weren’t any he offered them his last directions. “All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence.” Custom tells that when his body was placed between the sala trees, the plants bloomed, even though this was not the time of year.
This is the moment commemorated by the reclining Buddha statue. In Thailand the most frequent position shows the Buddha with legs crossed and with his left hand in his lap while the right points to the ground, palm inward in a pose called ‘Calling the Earth to Witness’ and refers to the precise of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
Whatever shape your room, right now there is a Buddha statue which will match, bringing a feeling of serenity and tranquility to your world and surroundings.
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