Monks clean Zentsuji Temple’s Buddha statue ahead of New Year
In preparation for the New Year, monks at Zentsuji Temple in the city of Zentsuji, Kagawa Prefecture, conducted the annual tradition of brushing the dust off a statue of Yakushi Nyorai, or the “Medicine Buddha,” earlier this month. Enshrined as…
Thousands of Buddhist temples filled this sacred skyline
Entering a golden age a thousand years ago, Myanmar’s Bagan empire was home to dazzling structures that attracted pilgrims for centuries. ByJulius Purcell For centuries, visitors to a bend of the Ayeyarwady River in central Myanmar (Burma) have been greeted…
Buddhist statues get annual dust-down at World Heritage Horyuji temple in Nara (Japan)
IKARUGA, Nara — Buddhist statues at the World Heritage-registered Horyuji temple here were dusted down on Dec. 8 in an annual December cleanup to prepare for the coming year. Monks including head priest Shokaku Furuya held a ceremony at 10…
The History of Budai, the Laughing Buddha
You may wonder why the Buddha is so often depicted as chubby and laughing. The Laughing Buddha is understood as a particular Buddha who is not the Buddha who founded Buddhism. This particular Buddha is named Budai (sometimes spelled Pu-tai)…
Mysterious legends surround Gwanchok Temple’s ‘Future Buddha’ statue
By Dale Quarrington You might not know the name of the statue. And you might not know the name of the temple where the statue is housed. In fact, you might not even know the city or the province where…
On the Ponniyin Trail: Here are the five places that tread the path of the Cholas in Sri Lanka
The Chola dynasty— one of the longest-ruling dynasties in world history—has once again caught the public imagination. Filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin Selvan I, or PS1, which is based on Tamil literature’s most-visited text by Kalki Krishnamurthy, brings to life Tamil…
Gandhara, the ancient kingdom that gave world its first Buddha sculptures
The anthropomorphised Buddha made way for narrative reliefs depicting his life, replete with iconography borrowed from Graeco-Roman and subcontinental cultures. Gandharan Sculpture: A genre of sculpture that arose and developed between 100 BCE and 700 CE in the ethnically diverse…
Buddhist sites: Religious tourism in Pakistan
RELIGIOUS tourism is an important part of the tourism industry and is also called special interest tourism. It is usually related to the followers of specific faiths who visit sites that are considered holy sites. Religious sites are not only…
Treasures of Afghan History, Art and Culture
The Guimet National Museum of Asian Arts in Paris is displaying the fruits of a century of partnership between France and Afghanistan. A relaxed Buddha, made of unbaked clay, from around the seventh century, discovered by Jean Carl in 1937…