Buddha in art

• 1. Introduction

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  Buddha in art begins with an absence. For the first centuries of Buddhism, artists largely or entirely avoided showing the person of the Buddha. Worshippers saw symbols and relics standing in his place. Then the figure appeared, and it eventually became one of the most familiar sights in the religion's temples and shrines. What made artists change course? How can a viewer tell which moment of a life, or even which Buddha, a statue shows? And why are some famous smiling figures not Gautama Buddha at all? The answers lie in places like Gandhara, and in earlobes, hands, and robes.

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• 2. Gandhara Meets Greece

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  In the first century CE, in North India, the image of the Buddha began to emerge. Two regions shaped it, Gandhara and Mathura. Gandhara absorbed influence from Ancient Greek art, which produced what is now called Greco-Buddhist art. Its Buddha is anatomically well proportioned and realistic. Gupta art became one of the most influential traditions, and the later Amaravati style followed it. From India, the depiction of the Buddha spread to the rest of Asia.

  The figures of India, Sri Lanka, Javanese Sailendra art, and Cambodian art usually show a well-proportioned body. Sometimes the Buddha is shown emaciated instead, recalling his years of ascetic practice. Clothing changes with place. In East Asia it tends to follow local monastic dress, with the arms covered. In the hotter regions of India, as in the art of Mathura, he often wears very thin robes, or appears topless, with most of the body uncovered.

  Yet across all these regions, a short list of bodily features kept recurring, and one of them preserves the memory of a princely life.

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• 3. Marks of a Buddharupa

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  Five features serve as general guidelines for a Buddharupa, the term for an image of the Buddha. The fingers and toes are elongated in proportion to the body. The nose is long and aquiline. The earlobes are stretched long, the shoulders are broad, and the head carries a protuberance.

  The long earlobes are vestiges of the time when he lived as a prince and wore extravagant jewelry. The bump on top of the head is called the ushnisha. It represents spirituality, wisdom, and awakening. Cultures differ in how they interpret the texts about the life of Gautama Buddha, but these marks give a viewer a starting point.

  Faces and bodies tell a viewer who is portrayed. To learn which moment is shown, the place to look is the hands.

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• 4. The Language of Hands

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  Every statue or painting of the Buddha illustrates a mudra, which is a hand gesture. There are large numbers of them, but five are among the oldest and most common. In Mahayana Buddhism, each of these five has also become identified with one of the five transcendental Buddhas, known as Dhyani Buddhas or Pancha Buddhas. That identification complicates the work of saying exactly who a figure is.

  The Dharmachakra mudra belongs to Vairochana. Both hands are held against the chest, with the thumb and forefinger tips of each hand joined. It is a gesture of teaching.

  The Bhumisparsa mudra, meaning touching the earth, became the gesture of Akshobhya. In it, the Buddha touches the ground with his right hand. He is calling on mother earth to witness his attainment of enlightenment. This gesture is related to the Maravijaya attitude.

  The Varada mudra belongs to Ratna Sambhava. The right hand lies open near the right knee with the palm toward the receiver and the fingers pointing down. The left hand holds an alms bowl. In Sanskrit, Varada means granting a boon.

  The Dhyana mudra belongs to Amitabha. The left hand rests palm up on the lap, and the right hand lies on top of it, also palm up. The two thumbs touch, and sometimes a bowl sits above the palms. This meditating gesture stands for deep meditation and the unity of wisdom and compassion.

  The Abhaya mudra belongs to Amoghsiddhi. It is usually the left hand, palm turned outward with all fingers pointing up. It signals fearlessness and protection. Its meaning is read as an interpretation of preaching, and fearlessness is said to come from following the Bodhisattva path.

  A hand gesture rarely works alone, since the posture around it decides how it reads.

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• 5. Standing, Seated, Reclining

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  The earliest images most often show the Buddha standing. Over time, seated meditating postures came to predominate. These are essentially the lotus position of yoga. A seated figure often represents one specific moment in the Buddha's life, and the hand gesture or the attributes he carries identify which moment it is.

  Then there is the Reclining Buddha, a statue of him lying down. Such images usually show the moment of his death. They represent his Parinirvana, his departure into final nirvana.

  Single figures were not the only format, because artists also arranged whole sequences of scenes.

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• 6. A Life in Scenes

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  The Eight Great Events are the best known of the standard groupings that sets of narrative scenes tend to follow. Other sets exist, and some are much larger. Originally these sequences were common in reliefs. They were probably also painted, though few such paintings have survived. In more recent times they have mostly been painted.

  Within a scene, the Buddha may take various poses. Even so, he tends to appear in the same standing, seated, or lying positions. The viewer identifies the moment from other figures nearby or from a mudra.

  The Buddha was never the only sacred figure on the wall, and over the centuries the crowd around him grew.

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• 7. Beyond Gautama

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  As forms of esoteric Buddhism developed, the array of Buddhist sacred persons expanded, and other figures became more prominent. The main figure in an image may be another being who has attained Buddhahood, or a bodhisattva. This is especially so within the traditions of Mahayana Buddhism. Over the centuries such images have become increasingly common, and they may now outnumber images of the historical Buddha.

  Theravada Buddhism is a different case. There this shift happened much less, and figures of the historical Buddha remain the most common main images in temples and shrines to the present.

  Many people know the Happy Buddha or Laughing Buddha, who is a different historical figure. Budai, a Chinese Buddhist monk also known as Hotei, is depicted as fat and happy, almost always smiling or laughing. He is associated with Maitreya, the future Buddha, and should not be confused with images of Gautama Buddha.

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