Symbolism in Buddhism

Paper Summary:

For this paper, two Buddha statues from Japan and one from Java are used to demonstrate the remarkable similarity in style and gesture in the statues, similarities used within the cultures of both places to create belief in the miracles with which Buddha statues are often credited.

From the Paper:

"Fortunately, depictions of Buddha, across cultural boundaries, are remarkably similar, making it easier to understand what it is about the images that seems to be "magical." This is especially remarkable as it cannot be said that the artists creating the Buddha images could have gotten their images from each other, as might be said of the medieval painters who created Jesus Christ with blond hair and blue eyes. The creators of the Buddha sculptures of, for example, India and Japan were separated by centuries in some cases. Even contemporaneous artists were separated by vast expanses of land and water, far greater than the distances between painters in medieval Europe. Still, the early images in Japan were said to have been imported from the mainland, as were those in Sri Lanka and Java. (Onmarkproductions.com) In fact, it went beyond that: they were practically cloned. The study of the Kamakura Buddha, below, is one indication of this."

More papers on Symbolism in Buddhism:

• Term Paper # 104662 : "The Stupa and Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka"
• Analytical Essay # 134049 : "The Stupa in Theravada Buddhism"
• Essay # 99207 : "Religion in Japanese Culture"

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