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Calling All Artists - Realistic Buddha Image Project

BhikkhuJayasaraBhikkhuJayasara Bhikkhu Veteran
in Arts & Writings

jayantha.tumblr.com/post/143214150578/calling-all-artists-realistic-buddha-image

A little while back I had put a request on my tumblr for someone to draw a favorite scene of mine from the suttas, and someone responded in spectacular fashion : http://i.imgur.com/dzEtBFl.jpg

Well I’m doing it again. We are replete with images of the Buddha online(and in statue form), but all of them depict the Buddha quite falsely with hair - (http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2010/12/30/the-buddha-was-bald/) and with these wild 32 marks of the great man(which are quite honestly suspect) like the long ears and such, braided hair, halos around his head or body and stuff like this.

What I want to get at is portraying him in the essence of what he really may of looked like, focusing on his humanity on not aspects of near divinity.

What i’d love to see is a picture of a bald Indian man in robes who looks like the Buddha of the Sāmaññaphala-sutta [DN #2] , where a king came to see the Buddha but could not differentiate him from the other monastics there.

Any and all artists are welcome to participate, whatever medium so long as you can get it as a decent .jpg/gif file. I give no other specifics as I don’t want to confine people’s creativity too much. Please submit to jayantha@protonmail.com and thanks!

Comments

  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran

    Looking for the morning star....sorry, I couldn't resist.

    lobster
  • howhow Veteran Veteran
    edited April 2016

    The most adaptable presentation is probably just a simple mirror.

    Swaroop
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    I drew an exact picture a few months ago. I'll see if I can find it....Give me a day....

  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran

    Hmm... I'm sure he didn't look the same the whole time he was here.

    Could it possibly be that he had some hair when he woke up under that tree and decided to shave it off later?

  • SwaroopSwaroop India Veteran

    What i’d love to see is a picture of a bald Indian man in robes who looks like the Buddha of the Sāmaññaphala-sutta [DN #2] , where a king came to see the Buddha but could not differentiate him from the other monastics

    Let me see if I can find my bathing robe. Then I can post a selfie. =)

    personBunks
  • SwaroopSwaroop India Veteran

    @Jayantha what about the long ears? The Buddha was a prince. And wearing heavy gold ornaments and artificially enlarging the ear lobes was the 'in' thing rich people did in those times.

  • SwaroopSwaroop India Veteran


    There are still old ladies in my town with those

  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    That's all; well and good, @Swaroop but what @Jayantha means is the symbolic representation of good health and spirtual repleteness the long earlobes represent.

  • SwaroopSwaroop India Veteran


    So you want your authentic Buddha to look like this @Jayantha ?

    lobster
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator

    That is the Buddha when he practised excessive abstention which nearly killed him. It was after this, forged 'The Middle Way'. I'm under the impression @Jayantha just wants a picture of the Buddha as a normal, shaven-headed guy....

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