Sakyamuni Buddha
The fundamental image around which the cult has developed is that of its founder, the Buddha, represented in the essential moments of his religious career. These moments are often evolved solely through the language of gestures (mudras) and postures (asanas) devoid of all context. Nonetheless, his image did not figure at all in the earliest, anecdotal presentations preserved on bas-reliefs. Because the Buddha as a personality was deemed to have passed outside of history altogether at his parinirvana, or death, his presence was instead symbolized by such motifs as the rich turban of the prince Siddhartha, the throne of the Blessed One, his footprints marked with the Wheel of the Law, the begging bowl (patra), or the Bodhi Tree (the Enlightenment). Similarly, the First Sermon among the monks in Banaras is evoked by the triratna (“three jewels,” a three-pointed motif representing the Buddha, his Law, and his Community) surmounted by the Wheel (symbolizing by its movement the transmission of the dogma) and surrounded by deer. Most important of all, the parinirvana of the Buddha is recalled by the stupa, the domical shrine believed to have contained the precious relics of the Master. Together with the image of the Buddha, the stupa, as an actual monument or an iconic representation (and through such transformations as the dagoba, or step-pagoda, and the Tibetan chorten; remains at the center of the cult and its visual imagery
From the outset of Indian Buddhist art (third-second centuries BCE), the legendary accounts of the Buddha’s previous incarnations and earthly life (jataka and avadana) are reflected in sanctuary paintings and bas-reliefs representing the palace life of the young prince Siddhartha. These depict scenes from the moment of his miraculous conception as a white elephant visiting Queen Maya (his mother) to the time of his “Great Departure” from the life of a householder, mounted on his horse, kanthaka. As the Buddha came to assume a supernatural aspect, the figure of the Great Departure sometimes appeared as an astral figure (clearly solar, as seen on the central medallion of the ancient sanctuary cupolas). Be decked with princely garments, jewels, and an elaborate headdress, the future Buddha is often difficult to distinguish from other bodhisattvas, such as Maitreya.
The representation of the Buddha that rapidly became universal probably originated in Gandhara or Mathura between the first century BCE and the first century CE; it shows the monk wearing the robe and mantle of the bhiksu (mendicant), with his head encircled by a nimbus, probably the result of Hellenistic influences. Among the thirty-two auspicious marks (laksanas) that designate a Buddha, the most characteristic ones are the urna, the circular tuft of hair on his forehead; the usnisa, the bump in his skull that looks like a bun of hair; the distended earlobes; the wrinkles on his neck; his webbed fingers; and his gold skin coloring. His posture, the serenity of his features, and his half-closed eyes suggest the depth of his meditation and detachment from the exterior world. This body language rapidly became conventionalized, although, as seen especially in the mandalas of the Esoteric (Vajrayana) tradition in Tibet and East Asia, it hardly remained free of complexity.
Two of the major events following the Great Departure are the Buddha’s Enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree and his First Sermon among the monks in the Deer Park in Banaras. But the ultimate evocation of his earthly life is the symbology of the parinirvana, where the Master is shown lying on his right side upon a cushion in the presence of the Malla princes, the bodhisattva Vajrapani, and his own disciples, all of whom are in mourning.
The Transcendent Buddha
With the Mahayana, the supernatural vision heralded in the Great Miracle of Sravasti culminates in the myriad Buddhas of the universe, which began to appear in the third and fourth centuries CE and were subsequently painted over and over on sanctuary walls and sculpted or modeled on temples and stupas. This concept of the Buddha’s omnipresence is often combined with that of the lotus as cosmic image: each lotus petal constitutes a world, and each torus is occupied by one of the myriad Buddhas, evoking the universe past, present, and future.
Monks and Patriarchs
The monks are often dressed in the tattered monastic robes prescribed by the Buddha himself. The robe is attributed to certain of the ten disciples of Sakyamuni, among whom the youngest, Ananda, and the oldest, kasyapa, often appear as acolytes in representations of the historical Buddha. The arhat (chin., lo-han) are ascetics who have attained the highest degree of sanctification possible in Hinayana soteriology and are the designated protectors of the Law; they are portrayed as old men with pronounced features. Among the “eminent monks” and patriarchs, two groups are distinguished by their wild appearance, very close to that of the sorcerers: the five Masters of the Law as well as the mahasiddhas (“perfected ones”), eighty-four of whom, according to Tibetan tradition, haunt the cemeteries where the adepts of Tantrism complacently thrive. The bla-ma (lama, teacher in the Tibetan tradition), by contrast, is depicted serenely.
Bodhisattvas and Minor Deities
The bodhisattva Maitreya has played a very significant role since the beginning of the Christian era, and for this reason he was rapidly designated in sculpture by specific attributes and often by his posture as well. Like the other bodhisattvas he wears the lavish garb of the Indian princes but frequently carries the water vase of the brahmans (kamandalu) in his left hand, while in his right hand he either holds the long-stemmed blue lotus or makes the gesture of instruction (vitarka); sometimes he carries a miniature stupa in his tiara and can be seated in European fashion, with his legs crossed in front of his chair. In painted sanctuary decoration he is often depicted enthroned in the Tusita Heaven, from which he must descend in order to reincarnate himself as Sakyamuni’s successor.
The image of Avalokitesvara (Kuan-yin in China, Kannon in Japan) also emerges early on, although his powers and therefore his iconography gain more precision with the texts of the Mahayana, At first he can be confused with Maitreya since they both carry a flask containing the elixir of life (amrtakalasa) and a lotus. His relationship with Amitabha Buddha is indicated by the presence of a little meditating Buddha in his tiara, as an assistant to Amitabha, he appears in the triad with the bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta and is included in the great painted scenes of the paradise of Amitabha. Avalokitesvara is shown with little Buddhas of transformation in his aureole. According to the Saddharmapundarika Sutra he is the protector one invokes against the ten perils (snakes, ferocious beasts, robbers, poisons, storms, and so forth); these are often depicted with him on bas-reliefs and paintings.
Of the many forms he can take in both painting and sculpture, some, influenced by the Indian pantheon, are very particular: that of Avalokitesvara “who faces all” with his eleven heads arranged in a pyramid above his shoulders in order to extend his protection to all directions (the towers of faces in Bayon at Angkor Thom convey the same concept). Reflecting another aspect of his multiple powers as Lord of the World (Lokesvara), he is portrayed with four, six, or eight arms indicating a mudra. The same aspect is summoned by Kuan-yin “of a thousand hands and a thousand eyes” that encircle him in an aureole; each had, with an eye marked on the palm, holds a significant attribute: the stupa, rosary, jewel, flask, lotus, and so forth. In Far Eastern art, Kuan-yin comes to assume female forms.
With the diffusion of the Mahayana texts, other personalities of the bodhisattvas of salvation also appear as statues, on bas-reliefs, or in paintings decorating constructed and rock-cut sanctuaries, as well as in the illustrations of votive tablets and manuscripts. Manjusri and Samantabhadra can often be identified by the animals they ride, generally the golden lion and the white elephant respectively. To the youthful Manjusri one can attribute the book, as to the master of the word, with the gesture of instruction. Devotion to the bodhisattva Ksitigarbha has widely diffused his image in art: as a monk, standing or seated with shawl, ringing stick (khakkhara), and pilgrims’ bowl, he is enthroned, usually in the midst of the kings of the hells, as master of the six paths of rebirth.
Other Celestial Attendants
Vajrapani, the faithful companion of the Blessed One, was present in all the scenes of the Buddhist legends of the Lesser Vehicle from the very beginnings of the religion. He rapidly abandoned the aspect of the Herculean athlete (the Gandhara reliefs), however, for the costume and armor of a knight carrying the thunderbolt (vajra), the symbol of his protective power, received from Indra. The esoteric forms of Tantric Buddhism were to give Vajrapani a terrifying aspect that multiplied itself into many ferocious vajradharas. Alongside the Blessed One and presiding more or less visibly over his destiny are the titular divinities of Hinduism, Indra and Brahma, one wearing his characteristic diadem, the other with his bun in a tiara. Later, with the evolution of the Mahayana, Siva was to join them in his terrible aspect of Mahesvara.
The guardian-kings of the four directions (lokapalas) appear quite early in the entourage of the Master, in the episode of the offering of the four bowls after the Awakening. In the older paintings and reliefs they are often present up to the parinirvana shown in a princely aspect, with aureoles like the other figures of the Buddhist pantheon; soon, however, they appear as warriors wearing armor. The best known among them is Vaisravana, guardian of the North and master of a host of animal-headed yaksas. Dhrtarastra, guardian of the East, leads the gandharvas, celestial musicians like the kinnaras, half-human, half-bird. In the same fashion Vrupaksa (West) and Virudakha (South) reign over the graceful, flying apsaras and over the dwarf ganas, all of them celestial beings from Hinduism. They are often depicted as mounts or pedestals under the feet of the guardian-kings. The guardians of the doors (dvarapalas) were to retain their athletic physiques but rapidly took on the terrifying aspect commonly adopted by protective divinities to vanquish and convince, which was further accentuated by Tantrism. Also figuring among the supernatural spirits and guardians are the ten devarajas, or celestial kings, and the guardians of the Law, the most famous of which is probably Mahakala, the “big black,” who is shown in his monstrous Tibetan-Nepalese form with his lips curled back to show his menacing teeth.
Prajna and Tara, female counterparts of these divinities, soon made their appearance, and their powers were rapidly defined. Their complementary energies can often be seen in the representation of divine couples embracing on paintings and bas-reliefs, especially in Nepal and Tibet. Among the protective divinities, Dakini and other tutelary goddesses with fierce aspects can be found in portable paintings (tankas); the terrifying Lha-mo appears on Tibetan bronzes, where she wears a necklace of skulls and rides on a bloody human corpse.
The ancient Hindu myth of the bird Garuda fighting the serpents to steal their soma, the elixir of life, has been adopted along with other Buddhist myths about hybrid beings as a theme of rebirth: Garuda can be an eagle, a falcon, a bird with a human head, or a man with a falcon’s beak. The hamsa (wild goose or duck) can evoke for the adept an intermediary state of the transmigrating soul. The Nagaraja (king of the nagas, or water serpents) in his princely aspect, his head capped or encircled by a hood of serpents, is found in all of the representations and legends dealing with the domain of the waters; in the Far East, the serpents become dragons.
Source : Buddhism and Asian History by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings
Etymologically, the Sanskrit/Pali word Buddha means “one who has awakened"; in the context of Indian religions it is used as an honorific title for an individual who is enlightened. This metaphor indicates the change in consciousness that, according to Buddhism, is always characteristic of enlightenment. It suggests the otherness and splendor associated with those named by this epithet in various Buddhist traditions. Buddha is also related etymologically to the Sanskrit/Pali term buddhi, which signifies “intelligence” and “understanding.” A person who has awakened can thus be said to be “one who knows.”
Within the traditional Buddhist context Buddha is an appellative term or title-that is, a term or title that is inclusive in character. As with all titles of office (e.g., king), the term Buddha denotes not merely the individual incumbent but also a larger conceptual framework. As an appellative, Buddha describes a person by placing him or her within a class, instead of isolating and analyzing individual attributes. It emphasizes the paradigm that is exhibited, rather than distinctive qualities or characteristics.
The designation Buddha has had wide circulation among various religious traditions of India. It has been applied, for example, by Jains to their founder, Mahavira. The definition of the inclusive category has varied, however, and Buddha has been used to describe a broad spectrum of persons, from those who are simply learned to those rare individuals who have had transforming and liberating insight into the nature of reality. Buddhists have, in general, employed the term in this second, stronger sense.
Buddhists adopted the term Buddha from the religious discourse of ancient India and gave it a special imprint, just as they have done with much of their vocabulary. It seems, however, that the early Buddhists may not have immediately applied the term to the person-the historical Gautama-whom they recognized as the founder of their community. In the accounts of the first two Buddhist councils (one held just after Gautama’s death, the other several decades later) Gautama is spoken of as bhagavan (“lord,” a common title of respect) and sastr (“teacher”), not as Buddha. However, once the term Buddha was adopted, it not only became the primary designation for Gautama but also assumed a central role within the basic structure of Buddhist thought and practice.
We will begin our discussion by focusing on the question of the historical Buddha and what-if anything-we know about him and his ministry. This issue has not been of particular importance for traditional Buddhists-at least not in the way that it is formulated here. But it has been of major significance for modern scholars of Buddhism, and it has become of great interest to many contemporary Buddhists and others who have been influenced by modern Western notions of history.
We will then turn to the term Buddha as it has been employed within the various traditions that constitute classical Buddhism. As an appellative term utilized in classical Buddhist contexts, Buddha has had three distinct, yet interwoven, levels of meaning. It has referred, first of all, to what we will call “the Buddha”-otherwise known as the Gautama Buddha or the Buddha Sakyamuni (“sage of the Sakyas”). Most Buddhists recognize Gautama as the Buddha of our own cosmic era and/or cosmic space, and they honor him as the founder of the existing Buddhist community. As a perfectly enlightened being, Gautama is understood to have perfected various virtues (paramitas) over the course of numerous lives. These prodigious efforts prepared Gautama to awake fully to the true nature of reality just as other Buddhas had awakened before him. The preparation also gave him-as it did other Buddhas-the inclination and ability to share with others what he had discovered for himself. Following his Enlightenment, Gautama became a teacher who “set in motion the wheel of Dharma” and oversaw the founding of the Buddhist community of monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen.
The second level of meaning associated with Buddha as an appellative term has to do with “other Buddhas.” Many Buddhas of different times and places are named in Buddhist literature. Moreover, anyone who attains release (moksa, nirvana) from this world of recurring rebirths (samsara) can be called-in some contexts at least-a Buddha. Buddhas, then, are potentially as “innumerable as the sands of the River Ganges.” But all Buddhas are not equal: they process different capabilities according to their aspirations and accomplishments. The enlightened insight of some is greater than that of others. Some attain enlightenment only for themselves (e.g., pratyekabuddha), others for the benefit and welfare of many (e.g., samyaksambuddha). Some accomplish their mission through earthly careers, others through the creation of celestial Buddha fields into which their devotees seek rebirth.
Finally, the term Buddha as an appellative has a third level of meaning that we will designate as Buddhahood-a level that provides its widest conceptual context. This level is constituted by the recognition that the Buddha and other Buddhas are, in a very profound sense, identical with ultimate reality itself. Consequently, Buddhists have given the more personal and active connotations associated with the Buddha and other Buddhas to their characterizations of absolute reality as dharma (salvific truth), sunyata (“emptiness”), tathata (“suchness”), and the like. At the same time, the term Buddhahood has on occasion given a somewhat depersonalized cast to the notions of the Buddha and other Buddhas. For example, early Buddhists, who were closet to the historical Buddha, were reluctant to depict Gautama in anthropomorphic forms and seem to have intentionally avoided biographical structures and iconic imagery. They used impersonal and symbolic representation to express their perception that the Buddha whose teachings they had preserved was fully homologous with reality itself. In some later traditions the pervading significance of this third level of meaning was expressed through the affirmation that the Buddha’s impersonal and ineffable dharmakaya (“dharma body”) was the source and truth of the other, more personalized manifestations of Buddhahood.
THE HISTORICAL BUDDHA
The scholars who inaugurated the critical study of
Buddhism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were deeply
concerned with the question of the “historical Buddha.” But their views on the
subject differed radically. The field was largely divided between a group of
myth-oriented scholars, such as Emile Senart, Heinrich Kern, and Ananda
Coomaraswamy, and a group of more historically oriented philologists, such as
Hermann Oldenberg and T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids. The myth-oriented
interpreters placed emphasis on the study of Sanskrit sources and on the
importance of those elements in the sacred biography that pointed in the
direction of solar mythology; for these scholars, the historical Buddha was, at
most, a reformer who provided an occasion for historicizing a classic solar
myth. In contrast, the historically oriented philologists emphasized the texts
written in Pali, as well as those elements in these texts that they could used
to create (or reconstruct in their view) an acceptable “historical” life of the
Buddha. From the perspective of these scholars, the mythic elements-and other
supposedly irrational elements as well-were later additions to a true
historical memory, additions that brought about the demise of the original
Buddhism of the Buddha. Such pious frauds were to be identified and discounted
by critical scholarship.
More recently, scholars have
recognized the inadequacy of the older mythic and historical approaches. Most
scholars working in the field at present are convinced of the existence of the
historical Gautama. The general consensus was well expressed by the great
Belgian Buddhologist Etienne Lamotte, who noted that “Buddhism would remain
inexplicable if one did not place at its beginning a strong personality who was
its founder” (Lamotte, 1958, p.707). But at the same time scholars are aware
that the available tests provide little information about the details of
Gautama’s life.
The difficulties involved in saying anything significant about the historical Buddha are illustrated by the lack of certainty concerning the dates of his birth and death. Since different Buddhist traditions recognize different dates, and since external evidence is slight and inconclusive, scholars have ventured diverging opinions.
Two chronologies found in
Buddhist texts are important for any attempt to calculate the date of the
historical Buddha. A “long chronology,” presented in the Sri Lankan chronicles,
the Dipavamsa and the Mahavamsa, places the birth of the historical Buddha 298
years before the coronation of King Asoka, his death 218 years before that
event. If we accept the date given in the chronicles for the coronation of
Asoka (326 BCE), that would locate the Buddha’s birth date in 624 BCE and his
death in 544. These dates have been traditionally accepted in Sri Lanka and
Southeast Asia and were the basis for the celebration of the 2500th
anniversary of the Buddha’s death, or parinirvana, in 1956. However, most
modern scholars who accept the long chronology believe, on the basis of Greek
evidence, that Asoka’s coronation took place around 268 or 267 BCE and that the
Buddha’s birth and death should therefore be dated circa 566 and circa 486,
respectively. These later dates are favored by the majority of Buddhologists in
Europe, America, and India.
A “short chronology” is attested
to by Indian sources and their Chinese and Tibetan translations. These sources
place the birth of the Buddha 180 years before the coronation of Asoka and his
death 100 years before that event. If the presumably reliable Greek testimony
concerning Asoka coronation is applied, the birth date of the Buddha is 448 and
the date of his death, or parinirvana, is 368. This short chronology is
accepted by many Japanese Buddhologists and was spiritedly defended by the
German scholar Heinz Bechert in 1982.
Although there seems to be little
chance of resolving the long chronology/short chronology question in any kind
of definitive manner, we can say with some certainty that the historical Buddha
lived sometime during the period from the sixth through the fourth centuries
BCE. This was a time of radical thought and speculation, as manifested in the
pre-Socratic philosophical tradition and the mystery cults in Greece, the
prophets and prophetic schools of the Near East, Confucius and Lao-tzu in
China, the Upanisadic sages and the communities of ascetic wanderers (sramanas)
in India, and the emergence of “founded” religions such as Jainism and
Buddhism. These intellectual and religious movements were fostered by the
formation of cosmopolitan empires, such as those associated with Alexander in
the Hellenistic world, with the Ch’in and Han dynasties in China, with Darius
and Cyrus in Persia, and the Maurya dynasty in India. Urban centers were
established and soon became the focal points around which a new kind of life
was organized. A significant number of people, cut off from the old sources of
order and meaning, were open to different ways of expressing their religious
concerns and were quite ready to support those engaged in new forms of
religious and intellectual endeavor.
The historical Buddha responded
to this kind of situation in northeastern India. He was a renouncer and an
ascetic, although the style of renunciation and asceticism he practiced and
recommended was, it seems, mild by Indian standards. He shared with other renunciants an ultimately
somber view of the world and its pleasures, and he practiced and recommended a
mode of religious life in which individual participation in a specifically
religious community was of primary importance. He experimented with the
practices of renunciants-begging, wandering, celibacy, techniques of
self-restraint (yoga), and the like-and he organized a community in which
discipline played a central role. Judging from the movement he inspired, he was
not only an innovator but also a charismatic personality. Through the course of
his ministry he gathered around him a group of wandering mendicants and nuns,
as well as men and women who continued to live the life of householders.
Can we go beyond this very
generalized portrait of the historical Buddha toward a fuller biography?
Lamotte has advised caution, observing in his Histoire that writing the life of
historical Gautama is “a hopeless enterprise.” There are, however, a few
details that, though they do not add up to a biography, do suggest that there
is a historical core to the later biographical traditions. These details are
presented in almost identical form in the literature of diverse Buddhist
schools, a reasonable indication that they date from before the fourth to third
centuries BCE, when independent and separate traditions first began to develop.
Some of these details are so specific and arbitrary or unexpected that it seems unlikely that they were fabricated. These included the details that Gautama was of the ksatriya caste, that he was born in the Sakya clan (a more distinguished pedigree could have been created), that he was married and had a child, that he entered the ascetic life without the permission of his father, that his first attempts to share the insights that he had gained through his Enlightenment met with failure, that his leadership of the community he had established was seriously challenged by his more ascetically inclined cousin, and that he died in a remote place after eating a tainted meal. But these details are so few and disconnected that our knowledge of the historical Buddha remains shadowy and unsatisfying. In order to identify a more meaningful image of Gautama and his career we must turn to the Buddha who is explicitly affirmed in the memory and practice of the Buddhist community.
The Buddha
The general history of religions strongly suggests that the death of a founder results in the loss of a charismatic focus. This loss must be dealt with if the founded group is to survive. In his classic article “Master and Disciple: Two Religio-Sociological Studies,” Joachim Wach suggests that “the image” of the beloved founder could produce a unity sufficient for the group to continue (Journal of Religion 42, 1962, p.5).
Each founded religion has developed original ways of preserving the image of their master: Christians with the Gospels and later artistic expressions, Muslims with badith and Miraj stories of Muhammad’s journeys to heaven, and so on. Buddhists it seems, have addressed this crisis with the assumption-explicitly stated in the words of a fifth-century CE Mahayana text known as the Saptasatika-prajnapara-mita – that “a Buddha is not easily made known by words” (Rome, 1923, p.126). This recognition has not proved to be a restraint but has instead inspired Buddhists to preserve the image of Gautama through the creation and explication of epithets, through a variety of “biographical” accounts, and through a tradition of visual representation in monumental architecture and art. The image of the founder became, in Joachim Wach’s phrase, “an objective center of crystalization” for a variety of opinions concerning the nature and significance of his person.
The
creative preservation of the image of the Buddha was closely related to
evolving patterns of worship-including pilgrimage, contemplation, and
ritual-in the Buddhist community. This reminds us that the various ways
of portraying the Buddha are the result of innumerable personal efforts
to discern him with immediacy, as well as the product of the desire to
preserve and share that image.
Epithets
Certainly one of the earliest and most ubiquitous forms in which Buddhist have expressed and generated their image of Gautama Buddha was through the medium of epithets. For example, in the Majjhima Nikaya (London, 1948, vol. 1, p.386), a householder named Upali, after becoming the Buddha’s follower, acclaims him with one hundred epithets. The Sanskrit version of this text adds that Upali spoke these epithets spontaneously, as an expression of his faith and respect. Over the centuries the enumerations of these and other epithets focused on the extraordinary aspects of the Buddha’s person, on his marvelous nature. In so doing they became a foundation for Buddhist devotional literature, their enunciation a support of devotional and contemplative practice.
Countless epithets have been applied to the Buddha over the centuries, but Buddha itself has been a particular favorite for explanation. Even hearing the word Buddha can cause people to rejoice because, as the Theravada commentary on the Samyutta Nikaya says, “It is very rare indeed to hear the word Buddha in this world” (London, 1929, vol. 1, p.312). The Patisambhida, a late addition to the Theravada canon, explored the significance of the word Buddha by saying that “it is a name derived from the final liberation of the Enlightened Ones, the Blessed Ones, together with the omniscient knowledge at the root of the Enlightenment Tree; this name “Buddha” is a designation based on realization” (The Path of Purification, translated by Nyanamoli, Colombo, 1964, p.213). Sun Ch’o, a fourth-century Chinese writer, explicated the Buddha epithet in a rather different mode, reminiscent of a Taoist sage: “’Buddha’ means ‘one who embodies the Way’…It is the one who reacts to the stimuli (of the world) in all pervading accordance (with the needs of all beings); the one who abstains from activity and who is yet universally active” (quoted in Erik Zurcher’s The Buddhist Conquest of China, Leiden, 1959, p. 133).
Particular epithets accentuate specific qualities of the Buddha that might otherwise remain unemphasized or ambiguous. Thus the epithet “teacher of gods and men” (satthar devamanussanam) is used in the Mahaniddesa, another late canonical text in the Theravada tradition, to display the Buddha as one who helps other escape from suffering. The techniques used-exploiting ordinary polysemy and puns and deriving elaborate etymologies-are favorites of Buddhist commentators for exposing the significance of an epithet.
He teaches by means of the here and now, of the life to come, and of the ultimate goal, according as befits the case, thus he is Teacher (satthar).
“Teacher (satthar)”: the Blessed One is a caravan leader (satthar) since he brings home caravans. Just as one who brings a caravan home gets caravans across a wilderness….gets them to reach a land of safety, so too the Blessed One is a caravan leader, one who brings home the caravans; he gets them across….the wilderness of birth. (Nyanamoli, p. 223).
Some of the epithets of the Buddha refer to his lineage and name: for example, Sakyamuni; “sage of the Sakya tribe,” and his personal name, Siddhartha, “he whose aims are fulfilled.” Some refer to religio-mythic paradigms with which he was identified: mahapurusa means “great cosmic person”; cakravartin refers to the “universal monarch.” The possessor of the seven jewels of sovereignty who sets in motion the wheel of righteous rule, some-such as bhagavan-convey a sense of beneficent lordship. Others-such as tathagata (“thus come,” or “thus gone”)-retain, at least in retrospect, an aura of august ambiguity and mystery.
Various epithets define the Buddha as having attained perfection in all domains. His wisdom is perfect, as are his physical form and manner. In some cases the epithets indicate that the Buddha is without equal, that he has attained “the summit of the world.” Andre Bareau concluded his study “The Superhuman Personality of the Buddha and its Symbolism in the Mahaparinirvanasutra,” which is largely an examination of the epithets in his important text, by stating that through these epithets the authors “began to conceive the transcendence of the Buddha….Perfect in all points, superior through distance from all beings, unique, the Beatific had evidently taken, in the thought of his followers, the place which the devotees of the great religions attributed to the great God whom they adored” (Myths and Symbols, edited by Charles H. Long and Joseph M. Kitagawa, Chicago, 1969, pp. 19-20).
The epithets of the Buddha, in addition to having a central place in Buddhist devotion are featured in the buddhanusmrti meditation-the “recollection of the Buddha.” This form of meditation, like all Buddhist meditational practices, had as its aim the discipline and purification of the mind; but, in addition, it was a technique of visualization, a way of recovering the image of the founder. This practice of visualization by contemplation on the epithets is important in the Theravada tradition, both monastic and lay, and it was also very popular in the Sarvastivada communities in northwestern India and influential in various Mahayana traditions in China. It was instrumental in the development of the Mahayana notion of the “three bodies” (trikaya) of the Buddha, particularly the second, or visualized, body that was known as his Sambhogakya (“body of enjoyment”).
Buddhas of the Past and Future
Quite early, Gautama is perceived as one of several Buddhas in a series that began in the distant past. In the early canonical literature, the series of previous Buddhas sometimes appears as a practically anonymous group, deriving probably from the recognition that Gautama could not have been alone in achieving enlightenment. It is thus not surprising that in texts such as the Samyutta Nikaya the interest in these previous Buddhas focuses on their thoughts at the time of enlightenment, thoughts that are identical with those attributed to Gautama when he achieved the same experience.
The most important early text on previous Buddhas is the Mahavadana Sutta, which refers to six Buddhas who had appeared prior to Gautama. This text implicitly contains the earliest coordinated biography of the Buddha, for it describes the pattern to which the lives of all Buddhas conform. Thus, describing the life of a Buddha named Vipasyin, Gautama narrates that he was born into a royal family, that he was raised in luxury, that he was later confronted with the realities of sickness, aging, and death while visiting a park, and that he subsequently took up the life of a wandering mendicant. After Vipasyin realized the truth for himself, he established a monastic order and taught what he had discovered to others. In the narratives of the other Buddhas, some details vary; but in every instance they are said to have discovered and taught the same eternal truth.
There is clear evidence that Buddhas who were thought to have lived prior to Gautama were worshiped in India at least from the time of Asoka through the period of Buddhist decline. In the inscription, Asoka states that he had doubled the size of the stupa associated with the Buddha konakamana, who had lived earlier than Gautama and was his immediate predecessor. During the first millennium of the common era, successive Chinese pilgrims recorded visits to Indian monuments dedicated to former Buddhas, many of them attributed to the pious construction activities of Asoka.
The Buddhavamsa (Lineage of the Buddhas), which is a late text within the Pali canon, narrates the lives of twenty-four previous Buddhas in almost identical terms. It may be that the number twenty-four was borrowed from Jainism which has a lineage of twenty-four tirthamkaras that culminates in the figure of the founder, Mahavira. The Buddhavamsa also embellished the idea of a connection between Gautama Buddha and the lineage of previous Buddhas. It contains the story that later came to provide the starting point for the classic Theravada biography of Gautama-the story in which the future Gautama Buddha, in his earlier birth as Sumedha, meets the previous Buddha Dipamkara and vows to undertake the great exertions necessary to attain Buddhahood for himself.
According to conceptions that are closely interwoven with notions concerning previous Buddhas, the appearance of a Buddha in this world is determined not only by his own spiritual efforts but also by other circumstances. There can only be one Buddha in a particular world at a given time, and no Buddha can arise until the teachings of the previous Buddha have completely disappeared. There are also cosmological considerations. A Buddha is not born in the beginning of a cosmic aeon (kalpa) when human beings are so well off and live so long that they do not fear sickness, aging, and death; such people, like the gods and other superhuman beings, would be incapable of insight into the pervasiveness of suffering and the impermanence of all things and therefore would not be prepared to receive a Buddha’s message. Furthermore, Buddhas are born only in the continent of Jambudvipa (roughly equivalent to India) and only to priestly (brahmana) or noble (ksatriya) families.
The idea of a chronological series of previous Buddhas, which was prominent primarily in the Hinayana traditions, accentuates the significance of Gautama by designating him as the teacher for our age and by providing him with a spiritual lineage that authenticates his message. This idea also provides a basis for hope because it suggests that even if the force of Gautama’s person and message has begun to fade, there remains the possibility that other Buddhas are yet to come.
The belief in a future Buddha also originated in the Hinayana tradition and has played an important role in various Hinayana schools, including the Theravada. The name of this next Buddha is Maitreya (“the friendly one”), and he seems to have come into prominence in the period after the reign of King Asoka. (Technically, of course, Maitreya is a Bodhisattva-one who is on the path to Buddhahood-rather than a Buddha in the full sense. However, the degree to which the attention of Buddhists has been focused on the role that he will play when he becomes a Buddha justifies consideration of him in the present context).
The wish to be reborn in the presence of Maitreya, whether in Tusita Heaven or when he is reborn among humans, has been a sustaining hope of many Buddhists in the past, and it persists among Theravadins even today. The comtemplation and recitation of the name Maitreya inspired devotional cults in north western India, Central Asia, and China, especially between the fourth and seventh centuries CE. But in East Asia his devotional cult was superseded by that dedicated to Amitabha, a Buddha now existing in another cosmic world.
Living Buddhas
In addition to the Buddha, pratyekabuddhas, previous Buddhas, the future Buddha, celestial Buddhas, and cosmic Buddhas, still another kind of Buddha was recognized by some Buddhists-what we shall call a “living Buddha”. Living Buddhas are persons in this world who have, in one way or another, achieved the status of a fully enlightened and compassionate being. In some cases these living Buddhas have attained Buddhahood through various, usually Esoteric, forms of practice; in others they are incarnations of a Buddha, ordinarily a celestial Buddha, already included in the established pantheon. The presence of living Buddhas tends, of course, to diminish to a new degree the significance of Gautama Buddha (except in rare cases where it is he who reappears). However, their presence also reiterates with new force two characteristic Mahayana-Vajrayana emphases: that the message of the Buddhas continues to be efficaciously available in the world and that the community still has direct access to the kind of assistance that only a Buddha can provide.
Like the notions of previous Buddhas and the Buddhas of other worlds, the concept of living Buddhas began to be elaborated in a context in which a new kind of teaching and practice was being introduced. In this case the new teaching and practice was Esoteric in character and was focused on ritual activities that promised to provide a “fast path” to Buddhahood. Thus the new kind of Buddha - the living Buddha – was both a product of the new movement and a mode of authenticating it. The analogy between the earlier development of the notion of celestial Buddhas and the later development of the notion of living Buddhas can be carried further. Just as only a few celestial Buddhas received their own individual mythology, iconography, and devotional attention, so too a limited number of living Buddhas were similarly singled out. It is not surprising that many of these especially recognized and venerated living Buddhas were figures who initiated new strands of tradition by introducing practices, revealing hidden texts, converting new peoples, and the like. A classic example of a living Buddha in the Tibetan tradition is Padmasambhava, the famous missionary from India who is credited with subduing the demons in Tibet, converting the people to the Buddhist cause, and founding the Rnin-ma-pa order. An example of the same type of figure in Japan is Kukai, the founder of the Esoteric Shingon tradition, who has traditionally been venerated both as master and as savior.
The notion of living Buddhas as incarnations of celestial Buddhas also came to the fore with the rise of Esoteric Buddhism. In this case there seems to have been as especially close connection with Buddhist conceptions of kingship and rule. In both the Hinayana and Mahayana contexts, the notion of the king as a bodhisattva, or future Buddha, was ancient, in the case of the rather common royal identifications with Maitreya, the distinction between the king as an incarnation of the celestial bodhisattva and the king as a living Buddha had been very fluid. With the rise of the Esoteric Buddhist traditions a further step was taken. Thus, after the Esoteric tradition had been firmly established in the Khmer (Cambodian) capital of Angkor, the king came to be explicitly recognized and venerated as Bhaisajyaguru, Master of Medicine. Somewhat later in Tibet, the Panchen Lamas, who have traditionally had both royal and monastic functions, were identified as successive incarnations of the Buddha Amitabha.
Source : Buddhism and Asian History by Joseph M. Kitagawa and Mark D. Cummings
At present there are 4 major schools: Nyingmapa, Kagyupa, Sakyapa and Gelugpa.
Gelugpa (Yellow Hat Sect)
Founder: Je Rinpoche (Tsongkhapa) (1357 – 1419)
Head Monastery: Ganden Monastery
The Six Greatest Monasteries: Drepung, Ganden, Sera, Tashilhunpo, Labrang, Ta’er (Kumbum)
Gelugpa is the newest and the largest school. Although the Dalai Lama belongs to this school, the actual patriarch of Gelugpa is Ganden Tripa, the elected head of the Ganden Monastery.
The founder of Gelugpa, Tsongkhapa, opened the doors and allowed a fresh breeze to blow into a Tibetan Buddhism world that had been corrupted by some sexually oriented Tantric practices. In the early 15th century, Tsongkhapa, who considered the ethical codes to be all-important, established the system that dictated that only those who had mastered exoteric Buddhism were allowed to proceed onto the esoteric Tantric Buddhist practices. With this religious reform and the introduction of the incarnated lama system that produced the Dalai Lama, Gelugpa developed dramatically. Among the major Buddhist schools, Gelugpa does not allow its monks to marry.
Prominent Figure 1: The Dalai Lama
H.H. the Dalai Lama Attends Prayer Meeting in Dharamsala
An Appeal to the Chinese People
Quotes by His Holiness the Dalai lama
The Government of Tibet in Exile
Revered as the embodiment of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the Dalai Lama is the leader of both politics and religious in Tibet. The most recent 14th incarnation is Tenzin Gyatso who assumed power in 1950
Prominent Figure 2: The Panchen Lama
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
Revered as the embodiment of the Buddha Amitabha, the Panchen Lamas’ based is the Tashilhunpo Monastery in Shigatse. A dispute over acknowledgement of the present incarnation, the 11th Panchen Lama, has led to a serious confrontation between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese Government.
Nyingmapa (Red Hat Sect)
http://www.palyul.org/eng_lama.htm
Founder: Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)
Head Monastery: Mondroling Monastery (Southern Treasures), Dorje Drak Monastery (Northern Treasures)
Nyingmapa means ‘old’ and as the name suggests, Nyingmapa is the oldest school. The Indian master Guru Rinpoche, who laid the foundations of Tibetan Tantric Buddhism in the 8th century, founded the school. With a strong influence from Bon, the Nyingmapa are still very active in eastern Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and other smaller areas.
The Nyingmapa order has been persistent in keeping the tradition of taking religious training without renouncing the world. It also has a system of discovering Terma (Concealed Teachings), the whereabouts of which are revealed by revelations or visions. This adds a mystical flavor to the order.
Prominent Figure 1: Guru Rinpoche (Padmasambhava)
The Indian founder of Tibetan Buddhism used his strong Tantric Buddhist power to subdue the local deities who interfered with the construction of Sanye Monastery, which was being built by Shantaraksita, a venerable exoteric Buddhist philosopher also from India. He is also famed for rushing from place to place in Tibet and systematically transforming the local Bon deities into Buddhist protectors, thus making into a Buddhist country. Although many of the accounts of his life and exploits have passed into myth and legend, Guru Rinpoche remains overwhelmingly popular among the Tibetan people regardless of which schools’ teachings they adhere to.
Prominent Figure 2: Longchen Ranbjampa (1308 – 63)
In the 14th century Longchen Rambjampa reorganized the teachings of the order to defend against the criticisms made by the other increasingly influential Buddhist schools. He introduced the teachings of the Dzogchen which are still regarded as the principal teaching, of the present-day Nyingmapa.
Kagyupa
http://www.samye.org/karmapa.htm
Founder: Marpa (1012 – 96)
http://www.kagyuoffice.org/kagyulineage.marpa.html
Head Monasteries: Tsurphu Monastery (Karma Kagyupa Black Hat Sect), Yangpchen Monastery (Karma Kagyupa Red Hat Sect), Drigung Til Monastery (Drigung Kagyupa), Sangak Choeling (Drukpa Kagyupa), Taklung Monastery (Taklung Kagyupa), Jomonang Monastery (Jonang Kagyupa).
Maybe because the founder himself was a Buddhist lay practitioner, the Kagyupa has not developed as well-coordinated within the school. It is roughly divided into 6 major subdivisions from which a number of smaller group have been derived. The largest of these, the Karma Kagyupa, is known to have introduced the ‘Incarnated Lama System’ into Tibet. Another major one, the Drukpa Kagyupa, is the national religion of Bhutan. The Kagyupa has a strong Tantric Buddhist flavor.
Prominent Figure: Milarepa (1052 – 1135)
Regretful over killing a large number of people with black magic, Milarepa decided to become master Marpa’s pupil. Only after long, relentless and extremely arduous training did he receive the teachings. Later, he became a Buddhist ascetic and wandering minstrel. Milarepa is one of the historical figures who are beloved among Tibetans.
.
Sakyapa
Founder: Konchok Gyalpo (1034 – 1102)
Head Monasteries: Sakya Monastery, Ngor Monastery, and Gongkar Choede.
In the 11th century the Khon family of Sakya established Sakyapa with the construction of Sakya Monastery. Later in the 13th century, the leader of the order became the mentor to the Mongolian Emperor and seized enormous power across Tibet. While many of the other Buddhist schools practice the ‘Incarnated Lama System,’ the head of the Sakyapa is a hereditary position. The present Sakyapa though is not directly descends from the Khon family.
Prominent Figure 1: Sapan (Sayka Pandita (1182 – 1251)
The greatest monk and scholar in the history of the Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. Sapan is also credited with spreading Tibetan Buddhism to Mongolia.
Prominent Figure 2: Phakpa (1235 – 80)
A nephew of Sapan, Phakpa became the Emperor’s mentor and created the Mongolian script of Phakpa.
Source: Mapping the Tibetan World by Gavin Allwright, Atsushi Kanamara, Yukiyasu Osada
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama, also known as the Gyalwa Rinpoche (that translates as the ‘Precious Protector’) is considered to be the embodiment of enlightenment and perfection. The protector is, above all, a teacher, one who shows his followers the path. What creates some confusion is that the person who is occupying the office of the Dalai Lama is at the same time an incarnation of his predecessor-the successor to a celestial dynasty and also a mortal human being. He is not like God, supreme and unapproachable. He is, in fact, the embodiment of the bodhisattva ideal. To appreciate his role in the life of Tibet and his significance as the most reversed Buddhist monk, it is necessary to review the birth and evolution of the institution.
In the fourteenth century, a Tibetan monk, Tsong Khapa, reformed Tibetan Buddhism with great zeal and established a new Gelugpa sect (that became famous as the ‘Yellow Hats’ due to their distinctive headgear). It was Sonam Gyatso, the third ‘pope’ in this sect, who received the title of Dalai Lama from the Mongolian ruler Altan Khan. The word dalai in Mongolian means ocean, and the honorific was a tribute to the vast knowledge of the king’s spiritual preceptor.
The fifth Dalai Lama won fame as a military commander brought about the secular unification of Tibet. He was also a delicate diplomat and secured Tibet's independence by maintaining a delicate balance between the two powerful neighbours - the Mongols and the Chinese.
It was the fifth Dalai Lama who referred to his tutor as panchen. Panchen is the hybrid abbreviation of two words – the pandit and chenpo – meaning, scholar and great, respectively. It was this lama who built the famous monastery at Tashilunpo in AD 1445 which became the seat of the Panchen Lama, who acquired great political power in the eighteenth century. It was not long before the Chinese started playing one Tibetan Lama against the other and subverted the country’s independence. The Cheng emperors made the Panchen Lama the ruler of Tsang in western Tibet.
Of the many remarkable Dalai Lamas, the sixth has been controversial for being known as a man given to a life of pleasure, a writer of romantic verses in youth. He was eventually assassinated. The seventh Dalai Lama, in contrast, was recognized as a saint in his lifetime. In the meantime, the Chinese authorities argued that while the Dalai Lama was the spiritual head of the Tibetan people, Panchen Lama wielded political power. Several Dalai Lama (from the eighth to the twelfth) died young in the midst of conspiracy, intrigue and political designs over Tibet.
By the beginning of this century, Tibet was criss-crossed by imperial rivalties involving Russia, China and Great Britain. The thirteenth Dalai Lama issued a declaration of Tibetan independence and attempted social reforms. When he died in 1937, it was generally recognized that his contribution to the Tibetan people was substantial. Then, events went against the fate of the country; and after the civil war in China and the communists coming to power, Tibet came under severe pressure.
The present Dalai Lama (the fourteenth), Tenzin Gyatzo, was driven into exile in 1959, when the Chinese ‘liberated’ Tibet amidst violence. Henceforth the role of the Dalai Lama became greatly politicized. He, besides being the spiritual leader, is also the symbol of Tibetan people’s dissent and protest against oppression. The Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him is a token of the esteem he is held in, worldwide. The fourteenth Dalai Lama’s exiled home is at the Dharamsala, in India, a place singularly identified with the Tibetan refugee community and its spiritual-political leader.
His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet
Ocean of Wisdom - a Lineage spinning 600 years
Source: Buddhism by Pushpesh Pant
Reincarnation and Incarnated Lamas
All living things eternally repeat the cycle of life and death in the ‘Six Realms’ (Hell, Hungry Ghost, Animal, Human Being, Asura, and Deva Realms) according to their deeds in their previous life. As long as one is born as a living thing, all kinds of agony ensue. Escaping this circle of reincarnation is what is called ‘emancipation from worldly attachment’ or ‘enlightenment’. In the ‘Six Realms’ only human beings are allowed to train for enlightenment, so it is considered a precious opportunity to be born as a human.
In the incarnated lama system, which is unique to Tibet, when a high-ranking monk or nun dies, he or she is born again and the child is sought out and educated as a successor. Sometimes the high-ranking lamas leave a prophecy that they will be reborn in a certain place or an oracle is relied on in cases where there are no clues. Such lamas could have actually reached enlightenment and chosen not to be born again into this world but they have decided to return to the world to help the people still suffering and confused. The idea is based on the altruism of the ’Greater Vehicle’ of Buddhism. The most famous one is the Dalai Lama, revered as the living embodiment of Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion.
Source: Mapping the Tibetan World by Gavin Allwright, Atsushi Kanamara, Yukiyasu Osada
Losar – Tibetan New Year
For Buddhist across the Himalayan kingdom the biggest festival of the year is the New Year. Called Losar in Tibet, this three day celebration of the start of the lunar year is commemorated by festive delicacies, visiting friends and making temple and monastery offering. Children get new clothes, women set aside their chores and deck themselves in their finery and men huddle over mahjong tables for hours hoping the New Year will usher in new luck.
Early in the morning many families visit their local monastery or temple to make offerings and receive blessings. Inside, huge plumes of incense fill the air. Outside in the temple courtyards brand new prayer flags are strung up, splashing the blue sky with colour. People and lamas gather there and, at a predetermined moment, toss handfuls of tsampa into the air, then at each other. Nobody objects despite being dressed in their finest clothes. Only smiles abound.
In Sikkim the festival is called Lossoong, and is a two day worship of the mountain god, Kanchenjunga, who is responsible for bringing rains and blessing the land.
There are variations in the way the festival is celebrated throughout the Himalayas, but the essence of it remains the same for Leh to Lhasa, Kathmandu to Thimphu - a celebration of happiness and prosperity, of lives renewed and hope resurrected.
Tsampa, the offering for New Year, is Tibet’s a staple food. Throwing the tsampa high into the air in one joyous burst symbolizes the removal of all the bad luck and bad memories of the outgoing year. As the tsampa falls, a new year begins on a slate wiped clean. Another tradition welcoming the New Year is to put up new lines of prayer flags.
Conservancy for Tibetan Art & Culture
Source: Roof of the World by Paul Rozario
Philosophy and Teaching
This great born, built cell by cell
From appearance and fixed notions,
Is destroying your happiness,
For attachment to seemingly concrete objects
Is always a cause for suffering.
But these objects of desire
Have no real existence.
Events have no more reality
Than clouds swirling through the sky.
How then can birth, life or death
Harm or profit us in any way?
When both the knower and that which is known
Are essentially emptiness,
How can the pure nature of mind
Be affected in any way at all
Orders and Practices
Through the grace of the guru’s instruction
We have blended creative and fulfillment meditation.
We have destroyed all distinction between samsara and nirvana.
We have united vision and action in perfect harmony.
We know no distinction between acceptance and rejection.
Dwelling in the blessed unity of
vast space and pure awareness,
we know no separation between self and others.
When body and mind are pure, thought is firm. When one obtain (firm) thought, he becomes free from all bonds. – Chandgaya Uponishad
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time – T.S. Eliot
Source: Buddhism by Pushpesh Pant
‘He abused me, he beat me, he defeated me, he robbed me. In him who harbours such thoughts hatred will not cease.’
‘Life is uncertain, death is certain’:- The Buddha
‘Much talking is a source of danger,
Though silence misfortune is avoided,
The talkative parrot in a cage is shut,
While birds that cannot talk fly freely.’ :- Tibetan Yogi
Source: How to live without fear and worry by K.Sri Phammonanda
The Wheel of Life
Travelling throughout the Himalayan kingdom, you are bound to see the Wheel of Life if not on a thangka, then at least at entrances to Buddhist monasteries. The wheel is a visual reminder of how our desire traps us in the endless cycle of birth, death and rebirth.
Hideous in his crown of skulls, Yama, the Lord of Death, grasps the wheel with his leering mouth. The outermost circle of the wheel depicts the twelve experiences common to life. In the intermediate wheels are six sections representing the six realms of rebirth. The three upper realms of rebirth house the gods, titans, and humans; the three lower ones are for hungry ghosts, hell, and animals respectively. In the innermost circle are three animals: the cock, the snake and the pig. They symbolize desire, anger and ignorance and are painted chasing each other’s tails in an endless cycle.
Thangka Paintings
Thangka paintings are traditional cloth paintings of Buddhist images. They can vary from the size of a book to pieces large enough to drape across the façade of a three-storey building. The smaller sizes are mounted on a brocade background and rolled up around wooden handles, like a scroll. The word thangka in Tibetan actually means ‘something rolled up’. Thangkas are convenient to carry in Tibet, the land of nomads. The larger thangka paintings are usually unfurled only once a year at temple festivals, such as the annual festivals at Shigatse’s Tashilhunpo Monastery. Thangkas may depict the Buddha, saints or the Wheel of Life, but the mandala is perhaps a more common subject.
Mural Paintings
The decorative painting of Tibetan monastery walls is a specialized school of art. Murals are a dense abstraction of ever-changing geometric and floral patterns, swirling clouds, lotus flowers, swastikas and auspicious symbols, all in a phantasmagoria of colour. Elaborate portraits of bodhisattvas, guardian deities, Guru Rinpoche and Milarepa fill the walls with their threatening or forgiving faces.
Here, as in thangka painting, there exists a strict and complex iconography. Usually there is a central figure surrounded by other figures or scene from the central figure’s life. It is in these surrounding figures that the artist is allowed the most latitude of style and content. In the mural depicting Milarepa's life in Bhutan's Paro Dzong, for example, the surrounding scenes are so large and elaborate that they share the mural in equal proportion with the central portrait.
The paintings are often a team effort. Once the apprentices have completed the basic figure, the master fills in the details, especially the hands and face.
Tibetan Sand Paintings
Tibet’s artists work in all the traditional materials: stone, wood, metal and cloth. But they also work in butter, flour and sand. Sand paintings reflect the Buddhist belief in the impermanence of all life. When they are completed they are typically allowed to remain a few days, and then simply brushed away into nonexistence.
Composed out of any number of colours blended with sand, they are a complex, minutely detailed work executed by a group of monks over a number of days. They are usually laid out in conjunction with a religious observance.
Source: Himalayan Kingdom Roof of the World by Paul Rozario
BODHISATTVA PRACTICE
Nakamura Hajime
The career of the bodhisattva is traditionally held to begin when the devotee first conceives the aspiration for enlightenment (bodhicitta) and formulates a vow to become a Buddha and work for the weal of all beings. The uttering of this vow has profound axiological consequences for the bodhisattva: henceforth, it will be the vow that will be the ultimate controlling factor in one’s karmic destiny, inaugurating one on a path of spiritual perfection that will take aeons to complete. The specific contents of this vow vary from case to case: all bodhisattvas take certain vows in common, among which, of course, are the resolve to postpone one’s own enlightenment indefinitely while endeavoring to save others, to freely transfer merit to others, and so forth; but the sutras also record vows specific to the great figures of the Buddhist pantheon. Amitabha, for instance, while the bodhisattva Dharmakara, is said to have formulated a series of vows in which he resolves to create a “Pure Land” where beings can be reborn to hear the Dharma preached by a Buddha. The Dasabhumika Sutra enumerates ten “great aspirations” (mahapranidhana) of the bodhisattva among which are the resolve to provide for the worship of all Buddhas, to maintain the Buddha’s Dharma, to bring all beings to spiritual maturity, and to practice the paramitas. Similarly, Queen Srimala and the bodhisattva Samantabhadra are each said to have given issue to ten vows.
Ultimately, the bodhisattva path calls for the practitioner to perfect a series of six or ten virtues called paramitas, “perfections.” The (probably earlier) enumeration of six virtues, found in such texts as the Prajnaparamita Sutras or the Lotus, consists of dana (“giving”), sila (“morality, the precepts”), ksanti (“patience, forbearance”), virya (“effort”), dhyana (“contemplation”), and prajna (“transcendental insight”). Later texts such as the Dasabhumika Sutra add upaya (“skill in means”), pranidhana (“resolution,” i.e., the bodhisattva vow), bala (“strength”), and jmama (“knowledge”).
The paramitas were meant as an explicitly Mahayana counterpart to the older scheme of spiritual development-sila, dhyana, and prajna-that prevailed among the Hinayana practitioners, but lists of paramitas are not unknown to the Hinayana scriptures. For instance, enumerations of paramitas were used in all traditions as a scheme for interpreting the jataka tales, now regarded as instances of the Buddha’s accomplishment of the Perfections. The paramitas as a systematic outline of bodhisattva practice are treated inter alia in Santideva’s Bodhicaryavatara.
Another enumeration of bodhisattva practices is afforded by the thirty-seven so called bodhipaksya dharmas, or “principles conducive to enlightenment.” These comprehend four smrtyupasthanani, or “states of mind fullness”; four prabanani, or “abandonments”; four rddhipadah, or “elements of supernatural power”; the five indriyani, or “moral faculties”; five balani, or “moral powers”; seven bodhyangani, or “components of perception”; and the Noble Eightfold Path. This list the Mahayana holds in common with the Hinayana, save for the fact that the Mahayana adds to it the practice of the paramitas and the enumeration of ten bodhisattva stages, known as the bodhisattva bhumis.
The classic enumeration of the bhumis occurs in the Dasabhumika Sutra, although a variety of alternate schema also exist. Here, the bodhisattva path is conceived of as an ascent through levels of spiritual accomplishment that, in this text at least, are symmetrically linked with the practice of the ten paramitas. The list clearly betrays an older enumeration of but seven bhumis, as is evidenced by the fact that at the seventh bhumis the practitioner is held to have undertaken those disciplines sufficient to win nirvana, although his vow constrains him to remain in samsara. Traditionally, the seventh bhumis is also regarded as the stage at which no spiritual retrogression is possible: from this level the enlightenment of the bodhisattva is inevitable.
The bodhisattva bhumis of the Dasabhumika are as follows:
1. Pramudita (joyful). Rejoicing in bodhi and in the fact that he shall succor all beings, the bodhisattva perfects himself in dana.
2. Vimala (“pure”). Perfecting himself in morality (sila), the bodhisattva is free from all impurities.
3. Prabhakari (“light giving”). The bodhisattva brings the light (of his insight) to the world and perfects himself in ksanti.
4. Arcismati (“radiant”). Perfecting himself in virya and in the thirty-seven bodhipaksya dharmas, the bodhisattva’s practice burns away ignorance.
5. Sudurjaya (“difficult to conquer”). Endeavoring to perfect in dhyana and in the practice of the Four Noble Truths, the bodhisattva is not easily conquered by the forces of Mara, the tempter of the Buddhas.
6. Abhimukhi (“face to face”). Perfecting himself in prajna and insight into pratitya-samutpada, the bodhisattva stands “face to face” with nirvana.
7. Duramgama (“far-going”). With this stage, the practical aspects of the bodhisattva’s career are brought to fruition. Able now to comprehend reality just as it is, the bodhisattva stands at the “basis of existence” (bhuta-kotivihara) and is said to perfect himself in upaya, the “skillful means” necessary to help beings to salvation (although the text also calls for the bodhisattva to cultivate all ten paramitas at this stage).
8. Acala (“immovable”). The bodhisattva, unmoved by thoughts either of emptiness or phenomena, cause or non cause, cultivates pranidhana and manifests himself at will throughout the various levels of existence.
9. Sadhumati (“stage of good beings”). The bodhisattva acquires the four pratisamvids (analytical knowledges) and perfects himself in bala.
10. Dharmamegha (“cloud of the Dharma”). Just as space is dotted with clouds, so is this stage dominated by various trances and concentrations. The bodhisattva acquires a radiant body befitted with gems, and works miracles for the aid of beings. Perfecting himself in jnana, he obtains the ten “deliverances” of the bodhisattva.
The Dasabhumika maintains that the bodhisattva enters the first bhumi immediately upon giving rise to bodhicitta. Other schemes, however, call for variety of intervening stages. One popular outline consists of fifty-two bodhisattva stages: ten degrees of faith, ten “abodes,” ten degrees of action, ten degrees of “diversion” (alt., the transfer of merit), the ten bhumis, and two subsequent stages of highest enlightenment. Then again, some schools, particularly in East Asia, decried the tendency to divide the path into ever finer increments and insisted on the suddenness of the enlightenment experience. The Ch’an and Zen sects, for instance, virtually ignore the formal outline of the bhumis in their insistence that enlightenment is a sudden, radical break in consciousness. The Esoteric traditions as well, while still prescribing a rigorous and detailed path of spiritual training, insist that Buddhahood can be attained “in this very body”; they thus minimize the importance of the traditional bodhisattva path, with its inconceivably long period of spiritual preparation necessary to attain Buddhahood.
BUDDHIST MEDITATION
Winston L. King
Meditation as a mean of religious discipline and spiritual attainment is not unique to Buddhism, but in its character and in its irreplaceable centrality to the gaining of ultimate salvation Buddhist meditation has a distinctive nature all its own. Basically, meditation is here conceived as a regimen of carefully structured steps of concentration on chosen objects, which concentration is designed to lead in the end to a “going out” (nirvana) from the eternally recurring cycle of birth and death (samsara) in which every sentient creature is enmeshed.
The meditative quest of Gautama (Pali, Gotama) under the Bodhi Tree, by which he became an enlightened one, or a Buddha (from bodhi, “enlightening knowledge”), remains the classic archetype of the discipline and experience. In the Theravada (Pali canon) account, Gotama thereby discovered that attachment to individualized existence (tanha) was the cause of rebirth; in the Mahayana account, he discerned that the Buddha nature is inherent in all sentient beings.
ORIGINS
The precise historical origins and components of the Buddhist meditative techniques are difficult to pin down. The Pali canon portrays Gotama as having vainly sought deliverance from samsara by means of then-current Indian ascetic and meditative methods. These he ultimately rejected as wrong and insufficient in their extreme asceticism and in their goal of distinctionless union with the absolute (Brahman). But although Buddhism denied the reality of the Upanisadic Self (atman), and although the stated purpose of the new Buddhist meditation was to gain an existential realization of the unreality of the self (anatta) and to transcend an existence characterized by impermanence (anicca) and suffering, or innate unsatisfactoriness (dukkha), the aim of Buddhist practice remained spiritually kin to the Upanisadic quest of the Self: “The Self, which is free from evil, ageless, deathless, sorrowless, hungerless, thirstless, whose desire is the Real….He should be searched out.”
Substitute nirvana-the going out of, or from selfness and thirst for continued being-for the Upanisadic Self, and one has a good description of the thrust toward the Buddhist goal, as well as an intimation of its methodology. So too, though the Yoga system developed independently of Buddhism and remained within the Brahmanic –Hindu fold, the yogic methodology that was developing during the early Buddhist period certainly contributed techniques, and probably followers, to the spreading Buddhist movement.
NIRVANA
Thomas P. Kasulis
About twenty-five centuries ago in northern India, Siddhartha Gautama achieved nirvana. That event ultimately changed the spiritual character of much of Asia and, more recently, some of the West. That something indeed happened is an indisputable fact. Exactly what happened has been an object of speculation, analysis, and debate up to the present day.
Nirvana is both a term and an ideal. As a Sanskrit word (nirvana in Pali), it has been used by various religious groups in India, but it primarily refers to the spiritual goal in the Buddhist way of life. In the broadest sense, the word nirvana is used in much the same way as the now standard English word enlightenment, a generic word literally translating no particular Asian technical term but used to designate any Buddhist notion of the highest spiritual experience. Of course, Buddhism comprehends a diverse set of religious phenomena, a tradition with sacred texts in four principal canonical languages (Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese), and a spiritual following throughout the world. Not surprisingly, then, when referring to the ultimate spiritual ideal many Buddhist groups prefer to emphasize their own distinctive terms instead of nirvana.
1. Nirvana is the release from ignorance about the way the world is. Because we do not understand the nature of human existence and the laws affecting human life, we live in either a state of outright suffering or in a state of disharmony. Nirvana is ultimately acknowledging and living by the truths of our world. In that respect, its orientation is this-worldly.
2. The knowledge achieved by nirvana is not merely intellectual or spiritual. Nirvana is achieved through a process of psychological and physical conditioning aimed at reorienting and reversing ego-centered forms of thinking and behaving. Nirvana is achieved through and with the body, not despite the body.
3. One is not alone on the Path. There is support from texts, philosophical teachings, religious practices, the Buddhist community, the examples of masters, and even the rocks and trees. Most of all, there is power of compassion that one receives from others and that grows stronger the more it is offered to others.
4. Nirvana is achieved by penetrating and dissolving the slashes or virgules separating humanity/nature, self/other, subject/object, and even nirvana/samsara. The particular pairs of opposition vary from place to place and time to time as Buddhism attacks the special dichotomies most destructive in a given culture during a specific period. Nirvana entails a recognition of the inherent harmony and equality of all things.
5. Nirvana has an intrinsically moral aspect. By eliminating all egocentric ideas, emotions, and actions, the enlightened person approaches others with either complete equanimity wherein self and others are treated exactly the same or with a compassionate involvement in alleviating the suffering of others wherein self is subordinated to the needs of those less fortunate. Morality can be considered the alpha and omega of nirvana. That is, the Path begins with accepting various rules and precepts of behavior, whereas nirvana culminates in the open, moral treatment of other people and things.
6. Although in any given context, one viewpoint is emphasized over the other, generally speaking, nirvana can be understood from either a psychological or ontological perspective. Psychologically viewed, nirvana is a radical change in attitude such that one no longer experiences the negative influence of egocentric thinking. If this perspective is misunderstood and overemphasized, however, it leads to a psychologism that holds that truth is simply in the mind without any connection to an external reality. The remedy for this distortion is to assert the ontological aspect of nirvana.
Ontologically speaking, nirvana is the affirmation of the inherent goodness of the world and even of human nature. In this sense, nirvana is not merely a kind of experience (as depicted by the psychological view) but is also the content or even ground of an experience. If this ontological viewpoint is overemphasized, on the other hand, it can lead to the distorted idea that diligence and practice are arbitrary or even unnecessary. The remedy is, conversely, to neutralize that distortion with more emphasis on the psychological side of nirvana.
In short, both the psychological and ontological views contain truths about the nature of nirvana, but if either position is developed in such a way as to exclude the other, the result is a distortion of the Buddhist Path. For this reason, the two views coexist throughout Buddhist history, one view always complementing the other and checking any distortions that might arise out of a one-sided perspective.
The Eight Auspicious Symbol
The Mani mantra is the most widely used of all Buddhist mantras, and open to anyone who feels inspired to practice it -- it does not require prior initiation by a lama (meditation master).
The six syllables of the mantra, as it is often pronounced by Tibetans -- Om Mani Padme Hum -- are here written in the Tibetan alphabet:
from left to right the syllables are:
|
|
Ma |
Ni |
Pad |
Me |
Hum |
The vowel in the sylable Hu (is pronounced as in the English word 'book'. The final consonant in that syllable is often pronounced 'ng' as in 'song' -- Mani Padme Hung. There is one further complication: The syllablePad is pronounced Pe (peh) by many Tibetans: Mani Peme Hung.
The six syllables purify the six realms of existence in suffering.
For example, the syllable purifies the neurotic attachment to bliss and pride, which afflict the beings in the realm of the gods.
|
|
Purifies |
Samsaric Realm |
|
|
bliss / pride |
gods |
|
Ma |
jealousy / lust for entertainment |
jealous gods |
|
Ni |
passion / desire |
human |
|
Pe |
stupidity / prejudice |
animal |
|
Me |
poverty / possessiveness |
hungry ghost |
|
Hung |
aggression / hatred |
hell |
Source: http://www.dharma-haven.org Explanation of the Mantra of Chenrezig the Bodhisattva of Compassion Source: T.J. Tsarong
Mantra
Om
Ma
Ni
Pad
Me
Hum
Color
White
Green
Yellow
Blue
Red
Black
Buddhas of Six Realms
White Buddha (Lhawang Gyajin)
Green Buddha (Thagzang Ri)
Yellow Buddha (Shakya Thubpa)
Blue Buddha (Sengye Rabten)
Red Buddha (Khabarma)
Black Buddha (Chokyi Galpo)
Six Symbols of the Buddhas
Lute
Armour & Sword
Begging Bowl & Staff
Book Of Wisdom
Vessel with Nectar
Fire & Water
Attainment of Six Perfections
Meditation
Morality
Diligence
Wisdom
Generosity
Patient
Release from Suffering of Rebirth into Six Realms of Existence
Suffering of Transmigration & Death in God Realm
Suffering of Oppression & Aggression in Demi-god Realm
Suffering of Sickness, Old-Age & Death in Human Realm
Suffering of Hunger, Thirst, Fatigue & Fear in Hungry Ghost Realm
Suffering of Stupidity & Fear in Animal Realm
Suffering of Heat & Gold in Hell Realm
Clears Six Mental Afflictions
Pride
Envy Spitefulness
Craving Attachment
Greed Avarice
Ignorance Stupidity
Anger Hatred
Attainment of Six Spiritual Feats
Attaining Best of Spiritual Feats
Attaining Common Spiritual Feats
Attaining Subjugation of Disease and Harmful Influences
Attaining Longevity & Accumulation of Karmic Merits
Attaining Power Over Men, Wealth and Food
Attaining Complete Destruction of Enemies & Obstacles
Attainment of Chenrezig's Six Qualities
Attaining his Body
Attaining his Speech
Attaining his Mind
Attaining his Wisdom
Attaining his Virtuous Qualities
Attaining all his Accomplishments
Attainment of Knowledge of Six Paths
Knowledge of Path of Accumulation
Knowledge of Path of Preparation
Knowledge of Path of Seeing
Knowledge of Path of Meditation
Knowledge of Path of No-More Learning
Knowledge of Path of All-Knowing
Cham, or a dance performance, is a feature of many festivals in Tibet. At its most basic cham depicts the exorcism of malign spirits. The authority presiding over this performance is a Black Hat lama who is the only dancer to remain unmasked. The Black Hat is surrounded by lamas wearing masks that transform them into manifestation of various guardian deities. A human effigy made from dough, wax or even paper, represents the evil force the lamas are assembled to combat.
Cham is a spectacular drama that takes place over several days. Massive long trumpets drums and cymbals accompany the solemn movements of the dancers around the effigy. Each motion and gesture of the dancers has significance. At the climax of the dance the effigy is destroyed and evil symbolically vanquished.
Cham has been interpreted as having several levels of meaning. Some view it as a representation of the ancient struggle between an anti-Buddhist king of the Yarlung valley and the monk who eventually slew him. Some see the dance as dramatising the establishment of Buddhism in Tibet. Others see it as a metaphor for the struggle within each of us against evil.
Source: Himalayan Kingdom Roof of the World by Paul Rozario Tibetan
Tibetan
belongs to the Tibeto-Burman linguistic group of the Sino-Tibetan
language family, with Burmese its closet relative. It’s spoken by over
six million people, mainly in Tibet, but also in neighbouring Nepal,
and Bhutan, and used by Mongolians to study Buddhism.
There are many different Tibetan dialects and, due to differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, it can be difficult for people from different regions to understand one another. The main provinces, U-tsang, Amdo and Kham – all of which have been renamed by the Chinese – have theirs own dialects (and sub – dialects). Other Tibetan dialects can be found in bordering countries. However, greater social interaction among Tibetan from various regions in recent times has led to the development of a standard Tibetan language. In contrast to any of the traditional dialects, it’s much closer to classical Tibetan.
Written Tibetan was devised in the seventh century AD by Thumi Sambhota, the minister of the famous Tibetan ruler, King Sontsen Gampo. He was one of 15 scholars sent to by the king to compile Tibetan scripts so that Buddhist literature could be translated into Tibetan. Under the guidance of his main Indian teachers, Brahmin Lipikara and Devavidyasinha, Sambhota learned a number of classical Indian languages. He developed the Tibetan language based on the Sanskrit characters of the Devanagari script (used for many Indian languages). He also compiled grammar texts which are still the primary source for studying Tibetan grammar today.
Since its introduction, the writing system has barely changed, although the spoken language has evolved considerably. As a result, written and spoken Tibetan are quite different.
Hello: ta-shi de-lek
Goog Morning: nga-to de-lek
Thank You: tu-jay-chay
Excuse me; Please: tu-jay-sig
Goodbye (Staying): ka-lee pay
Goodbye (Leaving): ka-lee-shuSource: Tibetan Phrasebook by Sandup Tsering
Mandalas represent the cosmos, whose chaos is overcome by its geometric design. In the centre of the mandala is a focal element that represents the centre of the cosmos. A common central figure is Avalokiteshvara. Through meditation, the two-dimensional mandala emerges as a three-dimensional cosmos, with the central figure ordering the chaos around it.
The word mandala derives from the Sanskrit word for ‘circle’. Mandalas developed as aids to meditation, representing not only order and harmony, but also the multiple layers of mystery found in our human existence. Many see in them universal images that reflect basic human instincts. This has given them an attraction that has spread far beyond the Tibetan Plateau.
Chortens and Mani Walls
The Tibetan name for stupa is Chorten. Chortens were built to hold the cremated remains of the Buddha, so old is their history. They are still used as a repository for religious relics, holy scriptures or the remains of lamas and holy men. Chortens may look simple, but they have a highly developed iconography. The base is a three-dimensional mandala and represents the earth. The dome signifies water, while the spire rising above, fire. Near the top of the spire the sun and moon represent air and space. At the very top, a seed symbolizes enlightenment.
Mani, or jewel, walls line the trails of even the highest Himalayan mountains. Every stone in these walls boldly displays the mantra ‘om mani padme hum’. Each mani stone is carved or commissioned by an individual to gain karma for the next life. When stone is carved, the mantra goes skyward to the Buddha, who is referred to in the prayer as the jewel in the lotus. By placing the stone in the open breeze the prayer continues forever. Rarely taller than a man, mani walls are collections of mani stones, and become longer as each pilgrim adds his or her own stone offering. These stones and walls are reminders of the path to enlightenment. Like a chorten, they should always be passed to one’s right.
Source: Himalayan Kingdom Roof of the World by Paul Rozario
On Buddha’s Trail
From Birth to Nirvana
Lumbini: Buddha’s birth place located in present –day Nepal. Here, Queen Maya delivered her celestial child after a symbolic dream.
Sarnath: This site, located near Benares in Uttar Pradesh, is where the Buddha delivered his first sermon after becoming the Enlightened One.
Vaishali: Located in Bihar, this is the first place Buddha visited after leaving home as an ascetic.
Bodh Gaya: One of the most sacred Buddhist sites located in Bihar. Here under the great Bodhi tree, Buddha attained enlightenment.
Kishinagar: Located in Nepal. This is where the Buddha died and attained Mahaparinirvan, the great cessation of being.
Nalanda: A place in Bihar which emerged as an important Buddhist university and religions centre in the 4th-5th century A.D. Ruins of monasteries still survive.
Rajgir: Located in Bihar, Gautam came here during his search for an enduring truth and returned later as the ‘Buddha’ to preach some memorable sermons.
The Buddha Quotes:
1. "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think we become."
2. "All wrong-doing arises because of mind. If mind is transformed can wrong-doing remain?"
3. "Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared."
4. "Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment."
5. "However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?"
6. "Even death is not to be feared by one who has lived wisely."
7. "Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without."
8. "In the sky, there is no distinction of east and west; people create distinctions out of their own minds and then believe them to be true."
9. "If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."
10. "The only real failure in life is not to be true to the best one knows."
11. "Words have the power to both destroy and heal. When words are both true and kind, they can change our world."
12. "Neither fire nor wind, birth nor death can erase our good deeds."
13. "Fill your mind with compassion."
14. "The Four Reliances
First, rely on the spirit and meaning of the teachings, not on the words;
Second, rely on the teachings, not on the personality of the teacher;
Third, rely on real wisdom, not superficial interpretation;
And fourth, rely on the essence of your pure Wisdom Mind, not on judgmental perceptions."
15. "We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make our world."
16. "To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent."
17. "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."
18. "Pay no attention to the faults of others, things done or left undone by others. Consider only what by oneself is done or left undone."
19. "Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one getting burned."
20. "Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others."
21. "He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind."
22. "An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind."
23. "Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten."
24. "On life's journey Faith is nourishment, Virtuous deeds are a shelter, Wisdom is the light by day and Right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life nothing can destroy him; if he has conquered greed nothing can limit his freedom."
25. "One of his students asked Buddha, are you the messiah? No, answered Buddha. Then are you a healer? No, Buddha replied. Then are you a teacher? The student persisted. No, I am not a teacher. Then what are you? asked the student, exasperated. I am awake, Buddha replied. "
The Hunt for Bamiyan's Third Buddha
Mt. Kailash, Tibet (Places of Peace and Power)
Borobudur: Pathway to Enlightenment
Buddha Purnima around the World
Pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of the Buddha
Source: Buddhism by Pushpesh Pant
Neighborhood
Explore friends, family, friends & family, or entire neighborhood.
Recent Comments
-
Anila Tenzin Kelden said:
durant près de deux mois, j'ai franchi cette porte... quel bonheur... read more
on DSC00796 -
-
Patitofeo said:
[esto es genial]Hi from Spain! I like so much reading about buddihism since I were in Tibet, India and Cambodia. Your photos... read more
on Buddhist Iconography
hi lovely picture read more
on Potala Palace - Festival Night