Month: May 2019

  • Hindu statues, Buddhist temples: How and why Indian gods feature in Thai culture

    By Sirinya Pakditawan You may certainly have noticed that Hindu gods are very prominent in Thai culture. Thus, there are often images of these gods in Thai temples and at Thai shrines. In fact, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva are the three most important Hindu gods representing the recurring and continual cycles of birth, life, death […]

  • Professing Faith: Why are images of Buddha so different from one another?

    Cultural influences in India and China helped shape images of the teacher whose lessons are at the heart of Buddhism By Gregory Elder | Q: Why is it that pictures of the Buddha look so different from one another? In most pictures or statues, he is quite a plump guy and in others he is […]

  • Nepal pavilion with Buddha statue main attraction at Beijing Expo 2019

    KATHMANDU: The Nepal pavilion set up in ‘Beijing Expo-2019’ has been the attraction of the visitors.  The pavilion with a 15 feet tall statue of Gutam Buddha in meditation  posture in the middle, was inaugurated by President Bidya Devi Bhandari  on April 28 during her state visit to China has been visited by around  100,000 […]

  • Gump’s Buddha to be auctioned; the price of enlightenment

    The Gump’s Buddha, reported to be homeless in a December story in The Chronicle, will soon have a new home. The statue is going to be on the Christie’s auction block on May 29 in Hong Kong. Chris Jehle did the math of converting Hong Kong dollars to U.S. dollars and says the estimate of […]

  • A 15-foot-tall (kind of) Buddha statue coming to Hayes Valley

    Of course, this is NOT a Buddha.   After lighting up Patricia’s Green since May 2018, Charles Gageken’s 50-foot LED light sculpture SQUARED, an arboreal-inspired work noted for its 786 white cubes that change colors, will fell in favor of another piece, Tara Mechani, by local artist Dana Albany.   The sculpture, a futuristic female […]

  • Archaeologists unearth some 100 undiscovered temples in Cambodia

    Cambodian archaeologists have unearthed the remnants of nearly 100 previously undiscovered temples dating from the 6th and 7th centuries in Kratie province’s historical Samphu Borak area, former capital of the pre-Angkor Empire Chenla period. Thuy Chanthourn, the deputy director of the Institute of Arts and Culture of the Royal Academy of Cambodia, said the remnants […]