Although some believe the best way to gain enlightenment is to eat just one grain of rice a day, all the living monks at Kenchoji, that we visited for Culture Day, were pleasantly plump. Do you think the two statues are of the same man?
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Posted By Blogger to jules' pics at 11/05/2010 01:16:00 AM
3 comments:
I could well believe the statues were of the same man. Over in Shonai, in Yamagata Ken there's a few 'living' mummies on display, guys who started out plump and then starved themselves to death. Pretty disturbing and impressive at the same time!
Well, actually, the second one seems to be daruma (dharma). I've never seen him depicted with a halo, so the other must be someone else. I don't have the memory for Buddhist statues that I ought (Miroku Bosatsu or either of the Daibutsu excepted).
Sorry to take the speculation seriously--I know it wasn't meant so.
No the speculation was meant as seriously as anything else. It is hard for us to work out what things are, as the words are scriddled in arty kanji.
From googling, I think the thin guy is supposed to be a starving Buddha, so might represent the original guy (Siddhārtha Gautama) who founded buddhism. He tried a touch of starvation before realising there might be better ways to enlightenment - hence the middle way - and the pleasantly plump monks.???
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