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What Did He Really Look Like?
silver
In the beginning there was nothing, and then it exploded.USA, Left coast. Veteran
Hi everybody,
I'm 1/3rd way through the Old Path White Clouds, a book about the Buddha's life by Thich Nhat Hanh and it has simple illustrations of Buddha and those in his life, and there are innumerable statues of Buddha, but are there any realistic drawings or paintings of what he actually looked like?
While I'm reading the book, I try to picture him and can't help but wonder what he looks like ... I sometimes imagined he looks like Master Po from Kung Fu, the tv series.
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Comments
Check the mirror....
Nobody knows. Statues of the Buddha, once they began to appear, were eventually based on Greek-style 'portraits' but originally, the "representation" of the Buddha was either a pair of footprints or a cartwheel.
It really doesn't matter what he looked like, just as it really doesn't matter to most Christians what Jesus looked like....
Historically.... no.
Which might be a good thing if folks can then focus on his teaching
rather than getting mis directed by the superficiality of externals.
Who can know. The Gandhara style is pretty early. But the Wheel of the Law is of course the most significant as it represents the Dhamma. Thus Saykamuni's first discourse is often called putting the Wheel of Law in motion. As time goes on the iconography becomes more important as Dhamma/Dharma comes in contact with other cultures.
Great reponse!
I was just curious. I thought maybe some how I kept missing on line -- thought maybe someone somewhere had done a portrait of him back in the day.
I'm not sure that's true, otherwise White Christians wouldn't have such a problem seeing him depicted in a more accurate ethnological portraiture.
I was interested in a film I watched on cable last week -- "Heaven Is Real". It wasn't as sappy as it sounds, and it was more about the story of the boy who claimed to have been in heaven, and less a real religious-preachy film. There were only brief depictions of Jesus, and it was probably the most (though not totally) ethnically correct depiction of Jesus I have ever seen in a movie.
(That's why I was careful to use the term 'most'...or maybe you mean 'a handful'...? ghugh!)
Sorry, I can't describe that sound. It's maybe like a cross between 'ugh' and 'yech!' )
Well, let's put it this way, I've yet to be in a Christian church, whether Catholic or Methodist, or a few others, that caters to a predominantly White community that doesn't still present the Christ depiction as being very White.
I've been in a few predominantly Black or Latino Christian churches where the depiction is otherwise.
That may be true, vinlyn.
Right now, I'm remembering back as a little kid going to church and Sunday school, and first learning about how Jesus was so kind and loving and the whole 9 yards, and I can recall feeling so excited to think there was such an entity somewhere and that there was a NEED for a loving, caring someone - even if, as I learned years later that it/He'd become just a figurehead. This all has stayed with me, and seeing those pictures of him with the children surrounding him or at his feet, feeling paid attention to and loved and safe. I honestly don't think that if he were portrayed as brown, black, yellow or red I would feel any less uplifted.
I'm sure the Buddha was a very beautiful and a resplendent looking man, after all he perfected his 10 paramitas, which must of taken billions upon billions of years or maybe even trillions of years to develop by going through life after life of perfecting them, and in that time he had also made extraordinary great good karma, I think he must of reached the peak of human evolution when he became an awakened Buddha.
What Did He Really Look Like?
A cross between a Mongolian and a Indian=Nepalese...
Mongolindilese..... of course!
What Did He Really Look Like?
Morgan Freeman
Like the original teachers of the major world religions, he was a dark brown guy
Here's a passport photo:
http://dhammawiki.com/images/1/11/Buddha2.jpg
Unacceptable. Eyes are closed. Eyes must be open in passport photos. It also needs enlarging.
You mean he looked like a Sherpa?
What's the impetus behind wanting to know what he looked like? I imagine he looked like a quite normal Indian fella, or maybe he was ugly, or maybe he was handsome. It doesn't matter if he was any of those, or even if he was a she (that'd be something; get out of all this male-dominated spirituality).
The Buddha thankfully and traditionally said no statues of him should be created. If they wanted a statue, create one of the Bo tree under which his enlightenment opened. Funny guy.
Now we have symbolic proportions of perfect and often golden form.
You can go as far into this as Disney has with Micky 'Mouse'.
http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level2_lamrim/initial_scope/safe_direction/thirty_excellent_signs_major_marks_.html
I look exactly like a buddha. Normal. With or without looks, skin tone or clothing. With or without tits. With or without legs.
. . . and now back to celebrity dharma . . .
**_>
I did not know that about him wanting no statues of him, but it sorta rings a bell - faintly. Thanks lobster.
I'm reading a book about his life, and it was a question that innocently popped into my head last night or this morning.
I'd like to add that when I was a teen, I used to do really good portraits (pencil) and in an adult art class when I was in my 20's, the model bought my drawing of her because she said it looked like her more than any of the others. Made eight bucks and we were friends for a long time. She did lots of different arts & crafts using live flowers that she grew, she had stuff all over her house.
I often forget people's names, but I never forget a face.
An interesting question to ponder is what if evidence somehow came to light that Buddha or Jesus was actually Black.
I just assume they were. When I see or hear "Black" I imagine an African American, but I think I know what you mean.
I say Black, because not all Blacks -- even within the U.S. -- are African-American.
Yeah, I mean we don't call white people "European Americans", do we?
It's silly to call people born in this country "African Americans".
It's like we're distancing them from just "Americans", which seems racist!
For contrast, imagine if we said "Jewish Americans" (it's not a race, but it's still tribal).
This post is as meaningless as life itself!
Keanu reeves looks good as buddha though:
It's silly to call people born in this country "African Americans".
It's like we're distancing them from just "Americans", which seems racist!
For contrast, imagine if we said "Jewish Americans" (it's not a race, but it's still tribal).
Yes, although that was not what I was referring to. At my school one evening we were having a community meeting...don't recall now what it was about...probably standardized test scores. And I made some statement about "our Black students", and a White parent stood up and said, "Mr. Lynch, you're not supposed to call them Black. They're African-Americans!" A Black parent stood up and said, "No, we're Black. We're from Africa, and like three other L--------- families, we are still citizens of our African homeland nation. We happen to be a diplomatic family from Kenya." What a hoot people can be!
He looked like Everyman (or woman).
Well, he would be skinny when he started out. He almost starved himself to death before his awakening. But after he got popular he was continuously invited to meals from the surrounding towns and certainly didn't have to beg anymore. Still, I doubt his wandering monk lifestyle would have put much weight back on him. And that hot Indian sun would have given him what we in Ohio call a farmer's tan because he spent a lot of his life outdoors.
We know he wore a robe because one of Ananda's duties was to repair it as needed. But we don't really know if he shaved his head bald, or if his earliest disciples did so either. There is a reference to someone coming across him in the forest later in his ministry and surprised to see a bald head, but that might mean Buddha was naturally balding. Certainly if it was accepted practice for him and disciples to shave, the man should not have been surprised.
So would it burst your bubble to find Buddha looked more like this than the statues?
No! He supposedly lived to 80 years old. He must have been grizzled and wizened, with most of his life lived outdoors as a mendicant. He probably had inches of hair growing out of his ears and nose and after a time, bad teeth. I imagine his eyes must have been amazing
Now now @anataman, some of us do enjoy a bit of imagination, silly as it is. I wonder what Joan of Arc looked like too.
You mean he doesn't look like Keanu Reeves???
Actually no one knows what He really looked like. From the suttas, it would appear that he looked rather ordinary. The ascetic didn't recognize the Buddha at first even when they were sharing the same dwelling.
Have to admit that what interests me is whether Jesus was heterosexual ... But as others have posted, and without denigrating anyone's curiosity (which doesn't need to kill the cat), doesn't bother me one whit what either Jesus or the Buddha looked like. I love the way both are portrayed but know they are recent ideas, not contemporary ones. It's the words that matter - why else would they be portrayed the way they are? Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder but inner beauty does shine through - even if it's only by way of an aura. Have sadly met few Buddhists but have known many Christians in my life who make me understand why artists use a halo to indicate that aura.
As you have drawing skills. Draw her/him. That is a very powerful practice. Such a drawing is a true representation of Self/Buddha Nature worthy of your shrine if not yet built. At times practically everything is 'the Buddha' or awakened one . . .
. . . when you wish upon a star
You could say that...After all he was a guide of sorts.....:)
No, @Cinorjer, it wouldn't burst my bubble if he looked like that -- tbh, I would easily picture him like that, but without the beard and long hair.
And that is a great idea, @Lobster.
Vis-a-vis the passport thing, they do say that if you actually look like your passport photo then you've not actually well enough to travel....
That's what I wanted to mention!
If Gautama looked anything like Keanu Reeves in "Little Buddha" I'm more sold on Buddhism than I already am...
Well, affluent people would invite him over to stay on their premises along with his sangha, and he had good breeding, and education...
I insist on Keanu Reeves...
people who are contented, expressing a deep inner joyful peace, tend to be beautiful on the outside too. Not in the conventional, modern 'good-looking' sense, but they exude an attitude, and bear a countenance which reflects their inner condition.
Conventionally, HH the DL is not a beautiful person, but people love looking at his face.
Mother teresa was absolutely not beautiful in the conventional sense, but she was a masterpiece, (until her later years, then her countenance became clouded. And it showed....)
Clichéd as it may sound, Beauty is actually from within, and I reckon, by this account, the Buddha must have been lovely to behold....
Well said @federica
Good grief, there's an image for everything.... may as well dispense with words altogether!!
I heard that they actually found the Buddha's body and conducted an autopsy. They found that since he did much walking while barefoot he had a very thick layer of skin on the bottoms of his feet. And due to his poor diet, he had very brittle bones and most likely had horribly bad breath. What did all of these things combined make him?
A super-calloused, fragile mystic cursed with halitosis.
I absolutely love this little story. And after the Buddha said he'd accept the man as a monk if he acquired the kit needed (you had to supply your own robe and begging bowl) the story concludes with this:
Then Ven. Pukkusati, delighting & rejoicing in the Blessed One's words, got up from his seat, bowed down to the Blessed One and, keeping him on his right, left in search of robes and a bowl. And while he was searching for robes & a bowl, a runaway cow killed him.
Didn't see that coming, did you?
What the Buddha looked like is a matter of speculation, but what does come across from the suttas is somebody with tremendous presence, somebody who had a deep and lasting effect on the people he met.
Oh @lamaramadingding you are living up - or down to your name!
Neither did Ven. Pukkusati.