Once Upon Many Times: Legend & Myth in Himalayan Art - Research Paper Example

“Research / Visual Analysis Paper - Once Upon Many Times: Legend & Myth in Himalayan Art” For centuries, metal casting has been part of Tibetan folk art. The sculptors believe that each stroke on the metal is cast for eternity. The Tibetan artists developed a style and craft of their own which was distinctively Tibetan. The shapping of copper is a complicated process. It is so difficult and time-consuming that sometimes many artists spent all their lives making them but did not live to see them completed. Shakyamuni Buddha is one of the sculptures in the collection Once Upon Many Times at the Rubin Museum of Art. The sculpture belongs to the Tibetan art and is dated year 1000. It is an example of the dedication of the Tibetan artists, as it took 99 years for it to be finished. The sculpture is made of copper, copper inlay and silver inlay and is 5.63 inch high. It is a small piece of art, and its dimension made even more time consuming and difficult its perfection and completion. The piece of art depicts Shakyamuni Buddha performing the earth-touching gesture… the moment when the Buddha-to-be called the earth to witness his right to achieve enlightenment. 1 In the Buddhist art, the images of Buddhas and other deities must follow strict rules as officially prescribed for their faces, gestures, the ornaments they wear and the objects they hold. Buddha himself did not like to be venerated as a person and was reluctant to accept images of himself. In our sculpture, the Buddha wears the usual necklaces and robe as symbols of respect; he sits on a very carefully designed and ornamented cushion, which symbolises the attendance group and the face of a lion represented on the cushion symbolises the regal and equally powerful alignment - Budhha as the ruler of the spiritual world. The cushion and the lions are amongst the well known symbols used to represent the Buddha. A Buddha statue is often used as a tool for meditation. Buddha statues come in a variety of poses and styles - Meditation, dispelling fear, teaching pose, reclining Buddha, and earth touching pose are just a few of the popular Buddha statue positions. Our Buddha sits in the semi-Lotus position, denoting concentration, with his left hand invoking, while his right hand falls and points towards the earth. The most often represented position and the most powerful in significance, The Lotus position is comonly used for meditation and relaxation. As taught by Buddha himself, the purpose of this state of mind is to eliminate all desires from our lives so to be able and reach Nirvana, the state of existence where suffering does not exist and the cycle of life is completed. It is the state of mental discipline, soul purity and human righteousness. Below Buddha, the figurine depicting a female holding a vase represents devotion. According to the Tibetan traditional art, it is usual to use different metal inlays. For example the brass statues, same like our piece of art, the Buddha’s eyes are inlayed with silver. In Tibetan sculpture, the contrasting colours of different metal alloys can be utilized to emphasize particular details of statues. The colors used for the sculpture are “white brass” – the yellowish areas of Buddha’s body and throne symbolises the pride transformed into wosdom and meditation, while the “red brass”, the copper color of Buddha’s robe symbolises life force and preservation2. With the same thematic, but with the Buddha as central image, surrounded by smaller, lesser deities, the Once Upon Many Times collection turns the attention to Thangka entitled “The Eight Great Events of Buddha’s Life”3. Thangka Paintings are one of the best example of tibetan art. They are religious objects, not simple decorations, and they are models on which meditators can reflect. The Buddha’s life is often depicted through the Eight Great Events. After the Buddha’s death, the Buddha’s disciple Kasyapa had important scenes from the Buddha’s life memorialized. These scenes were eventually codified into paintings and engravings of the Eight Great Events commonly seen in East Asia today. The Eight Great Events of Buddha’s Life is a rare scroll, showing scenes of the major events in Buddha’s life. The scenes are not depicted as the real event happening, but they are materialized in an illustration of the commemorative places where the events took place and where shrines are. The painting was inspired by the Sanskrit Praises (stotras) to the Caityas at the Eight Great Places of the Buddha written in the late 10th century. The painting, now part of a private collection in Switzerland, dates from the 13th century and it was frame-painted on the traditional Tibetan loose cotton, the usual procedure and material used for the representation of buddhist life and events, with a size of 41 ¾ x 30 ¾ inch. Despite their delicate nature, the thangkas are known for their durability and their special property to retain color and the “fresh” aspect – and what could have been more suitable for the eternal Buddha than a thangka? The colors used in the paiting are purely natural, mineral and organic pigments and the whole aspect of the painting is a “live” one. As most of the Buddhist art, the painting is highly geometric, the arms, legs, eyes, nostrils, ears and other ritual elements are laid out on grid of angles and intersecting lines, aiming for a representation of perfection. Upon Buddha’s death, after the incineration, the remains have been collected divided into eight parts (relics) which are kept in the eight shrines. The shrines are meant to preserve and continuously inspire Buddha’s life, accomplishments and teaching over the ages, from generation to generation. The eight major events of Buddha’s life are represented in the painting through their commemorative places – the descent from Tushita Heaven and the birth, the Four Encounters, the Renunciation, the Ascetism, the Taming of Mara, the 1st Turning of Wheel at Deer Park and in the middle, the Parinirvana – the complete transcendence. Buddha’s descent from the Heaven of the Contented (Tushita Heaven) symbolises his “godly” provenience and is the place before his final rebirth. Surveying the world from Tushita, the Buddha saw the time had come for him to take a human birth and at last become a “teacher”. He was conceived on the full moon night in July and that night his mother, Maya, dreamt that a white elephant carrying a white lotus in its trunk came and entered her womb through her right flank. Born and raised in a wealthy family, with The Four Encounters Buddha realizes he is not pleased with his life of pleasure. The young prince encounters the painful miseries of human life and leaves. It is the Renunciation to an easy, comfortable life for one of meditation and concern of all the aspects of life and human behavior that brings pain, sufference and decline . For the next six years (the Ascetism) he spent time with and practiced the systems of meditation taught by two leading ascetics of the time. Buddha recounts the Awakening through his encounter with demon Mara - personification of the power of all kinds of experience to seduce and trap the naive mind. Buddha lifted his right hand and touched the ground calling on the very earth as his witness. This is the "earth-touching gesture" illustrated in so many statues and pictures of the Buddha through the ages.  It signals the defeat of Mara and the Buddha's complete awakening. As the Buddha touched the earth Mara tumbled from his elephant and his armies fled in disarray. In a deer park outside Benares the Buddha approached the five who had been his companions when he practiced austerities and gave them instruction in the path to the ending of suffering that he had discovered. In this way he set in motion the Wheel of Dharma, and soon, there were six awakened ones in the world. For the Buddha this was the beginning of a life of teaching that lasted some forty-five years4. The predominant color of the painting is red, which symbolizes life protection and perpetuation, force and preservation, in contrast with the yellow color of the body of Buddha. In Buddhism, meditating on the color red transforms the delusion of attachment into the wisdom of discernment5. It symbolises the balance between mind, spirit and body, the control of senses and body over spiritual supremacy. Same as in the previously discussed object of art, Buddha’s position is performing the earth-touching gesture. The hands position and significance is translated by mudras – “symbolic sign based finger patterns, used to evoke ideas symbolizing divine powers”6. This mudra is formed with all five fingers of the right hand extended to touch the ground, and symbolizes the Buddha’s enlightment under the Bodhi tree. The right hand, placed upon the right knee and complemented by the left hand which is held flat in the lap, symbolizes the union of method and wisdom – samasara and nirvana, and also the understanding of the conventional and final truths. In the painting also Buddha sits on the throne - reference to his royal ancestory and to the idea of spiritual kingship.On the sides of Buddha’s head two cukoos are depicted. Cuckoos are the favorite birds in Tibetan folklore, and they symbolize the summer and the ability to force offsprings to dominate. The arch-backed support which surrounds the image of Buddha on his throne, known as torana and reveals the abstract majesty in which enlightened beings are perceived. Buddha’s eyes, as usual are depicted as looking in all four directions, symbolizing the omniscient mind of a Buddha7. “The awakened” became a Buddha not by birth but by his own efforts, after a period of undergoing intensive spiritual exercises and developing to perfection the qualities of generosity, discipline, renunciation, wisdom, energy, endurance, truthfulness, determination, benevolence and perfect calmness. Instead of placing an unseen Almighty God over man, and giving man a subservient position in relation to such a conception of divine power, the Buddha demonstrated how man could attain the highest knowledge and Supreme Enlightenment by his own efforts. He thus raised the worth of man. Bibliography “The Chicago Manual of Style Online”. http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html (accessed Nov 4, 2011) Read More