In Chinese restaurants I always see statues of Buddha with long earlobes. I sometimes ask the folks who work there what significance this has. So far, even the Buddhists (three now) have no idea. Do you? —Eric Bottos, via e-mail
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Some basics. First, buddha is a title, not a name, similar to Christ, messiah, or saint; it means “awakened one” or “enlightened one.” The Buddha, also called the historical Buddha, was the prince Siddhartha Gautama, who achieved buddhahood somewhere around 500 BC, and he’s consistently portrayed as svelte and serene. Buddhism has two main sects: In Mahayana Buddhism (predominant in China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and Mongolia), everyone has the potential to attain total enlightenment, and some besides the big-B Buddha actually have; Mahayana temples often contain statues of these small-B buddhas. Theravada Buddhist temples (mostly in southeast Asia), however, tend to display statues of the historical Buddha only.
Second, though Buddhism and its symbols originated in India, the iconography now varies widely by region and sect. The following elements are fairly universal:
– The fingers are long, slender, and usually finely webbed to indicate that the Buddha can “catch” people, similar to the Christian idea of Jesus the fisherman. Webbing also has the practical advantage of making the statue’s delicate fingers less likely to break off.
– Fearlessness mudra. Upraised hand lifted above thigh, palm facing out, fingers pointing up, usually with middle finger slightly forward; means “fear not” and is a sign of protection.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): illustration by Slug Signorino.
