I don’t know about you but when I imagine the Buddha, a jolly and plump smiling man come to mind usually with fortune cookies or toothpicks laying around his feet. That probably sounded a lot more racist than I meant it to, the point being, my only only experience prior to today with the image of the Buddha was the miniature statuettes of him beside the cashier of a Chinese restaurant -cough- Tong’s Dynasty free advertising -cough-. That being said, those mass produced Buddhas in Chinese restaurants are not necessarily entirely inaccurate. Besides being diminished to the mascot of what my Taiwanese roommate calls “fake Chinese food,” the Buddha was often portrayed the very way you see him on your regular visit to our friendly neighborhood Tong. For one thing, it is hard not to at least meet some of the specified characteristic features of the Buddha.
There are certain recurring symbols despite the variations of the depictions of Buddha across Indian, Chinese, Korean and Japanese cultures. Stokstad identifies four symbols as such: “Lotus flower: Usually shown as a white water lily, the lotus (Sanskrit, padma) symbolizes spiritual purity, the wholeness of creation, and cosmic harmony. Lotus throne: Buddhas are frequently shown seated on an open lotus, either single or double, which is a representation of nirvana. Chakra: An ancient sun symbol, this wheel symbolizes both the various states of existence (the Wheel of Life) and the Buddhist doctrine (the Wheel of the Law). Its exact meaning depends on its number of spokes” (75).
The Seated Shakyamuni Buddha from Korea may not be the Buddha we are familiar with from our frequenting Tong’s but there are obvious parallels in the imagery. The image above is hardly a drastic departure from the archetypal stereotypical Buddha. Thee are several canonical attributes consistent with the lakshanas in the above portrayal of Buddha. The meditative pose for one thing is characteristic of most representations of the Buddha. The ushnisha headdress, urna on the forehead, as well as elongated earlobes are some of the attributes specified by the lakshanas to be seen in this artifact.
8617_p51 001On the other hand this later Korean depiction is noticeably leaner than preceding representations.