Himalayan Buddhist Art, Essay Example

The consecration rituals described by Gombrich and by Bentor both entail the consecration of sacred objects. The central idea is that a given image or object must be transformed, imbued with the essence of the Buddha. By imbuing objects with the essence of the Buddha, practitioners transform them from the mundane to sacred loci of power.

Gombrich (1966) elaborated the particulars of Theravada Buddhist image consecration rituals in Sri Lanka, wherein images of the Buddha are ritually made alive (p. 24). It is important to note that prior to the rituals of consecration, images of the Buddha are not treated with any especial care: it is simply an object, fashioned from altogether ordinary materials (p. 24). However, the consecratory act is painting the eyes, or else carving the pupils: once this is done, the statue is considered alive, and is a hallowed artifact (p. 24). The ceremony for painting in the eyes is called n?tra pinkama, and it is considered a very powerful and very dangerous ceremony to perform (p. 24).

Before completing his Buddha image and consecrating it through n?tra pinkama, the Sinhalese craftsman must undergo several hours of preparatory ceremonies, in order to ward off the danger posed by a nebulously-menacing evil force (Gombrich, 1966, p. 24). This evil force is supernatural in nature, and is inflicted on humans who violate ritual taboos or fail to perform rituals correctly by the bälma, or gaze, of an affronted or simply malicious supernatural being (p. 24). In fact, a n?tra pinkama involves two different kinds of ceremonies, which occur at the same time: there is the pirit, wherein the Buddhist monks chant scriptures that are believed to be efficacious in warding off evil, and there is the ceremony carried out by the craftsman himself, which is intended to appease low-ranking supernatural beings (pp. 25-26). It is noteworthy that the Buddhist monks express disbelief in the efficacy of this ceremony: the belief in the ‘dangerous gaze’ of the statue is not even consistent with Buddhist doctrine, evincing its folkloric and traditional pedigree (p. 25). In fact, Gombrich notes that “many laymen hold the same view,” and it is really only the craftsman who avers the necessity of completing the ceremony in every detail (p. 25).

As Gombrich (1966) described, the craftsman’s ritual labors are intensive indeed: chanting “in a high rapid monotone with occasional melodic clausulae to mark the end of a text,” the craftsman spends an hour invoking the gods (p. 34). Having invoked the gods, the craftsman must then make offerings to both the planetary gods, and the four major deities ?akra, Brahm?, Vishnu, and Mah??vara (pp. 34-35). Next come offerings to the eight Bahiravas, a demon-like class of supernatural beings: food and drink are offered to them, and incense as well (p. 35). Walking around the altars in the prescribed fashion, the craftsman must make more offerings, and strike a specific tree three times with a sword, before making one final offering to Gana d?viy? (p. 34).

But before the craftsman can paint in the eyes, a monk must place a relic within the statue (Gombrich, 1966, p. 36). Of course, the statue itself is considered a relic in Buddhist belief: statues are a part of that class of relics which remind one of the Buddha (p. 25). However, this is the third and least-prestigious class of relics, after objects used by the Buddha and pieces of his body, respectively (p. 25). Accordingly, the placement of a relic of the first class inside a statue of the Buddha enhances the statue’s ritual power and legitimacy, giving a rationale for venerating it (p. 25). Nonetheless, it is indeed telling that the placement of the relic within the statue does not entail a special ritual or ceremony; in fact, it is not even a part of the eye-painting ceremony (p. 25). Gombrich’s conclusion is that the relic is not the real source of power: the eyes are (p. 25).

At the appointed time, the craftsman paints in the eyes of the Buddha image, with the aid of a mirror, as he dare not face the statue during this process (Gombrich, 1966, pp. 24-25). Having completed his work, the craftsman’s gaze is now dangerous: he must be blindfolded, and then led out of the temple (p. 25). In fact, before the ritual can conclude, there must be a brief ceremony called the ??nti karanaya, used to ameliorate any evil caused by any mistakes in the course of the n?tra pinkama (p. 36). These rites completed, at last the craftsman is led out of the temple, and the blindfold is removed from before his eyes when his dangerous gaze can be loosed upon a particular object, which he must destroy with the stroke of a sword (p. 25). In one case recounted by Gombrich, the craftsman carried a pot containing the evil, and was led to confront a tethered bull: after smashing the pot on the bull’s horns, he slashed at a number of trees known to exude milky sap, ritually killing them in place of the bull, given that “Buddhism forbids the slaughter of animals” (p. 36). In another version of the ceremony, the craftsman washes his head from a vessel of water before the blindfold is removed; the craftsman then shatters the vessel with a sword, ‘cutting’ the water (p. 36).

Writing on Buddhist image veneration in the northern Thailand context, Swearer (2004) explained that Buddha images perform an essential function: though the Buddha is long dead, his images make him alive to his followers (p. 11). As Swearer explained, according to legend the first Buddha image was constructed by King Pasenadi, to serve as a kind of “ritual surrogate of the Buddha” (p. 11). The Sinhalese craftsmen’s belief in the dangerous gaze of the Buddha statues and the need for the n?tra pinkama may very well be rooted in Sinhalese folkloric tradition, inasmuch as it is incompatible with the doctrines of Buddhism, but the essential point remains: the newly-painted gaze of the Buddha images is dangerous, precisely because it is the eyes that make the statue alive. Gombrich (1966) did not specify any source of power beyond the eyes, but he didn’t have to: the painting of the eyes is a transformative, liminal act, one that takes the statue from a ritually inert construction to a ritually living entity (pp. 24-25). The statue becomes more than an image of the Buddha: it becomes a living proxy for him, a vessel that captures something of his nature. Powerful, indeed.

Bentor (1997) described the horseback consecration ritual, from Tibetan Buddhism, wherein an object is consecrated to become a particular buddha or yi dam (p. 235). Such objects include “images, scroll paintings (thang ga), reliquaries (stupas), books, and other sascred objects” (p. 234). The source of this great power is the Buddha, the all-pervasive enlightened being (p. 234). The purpose of the ritual is thus to provide a locus for this power: this is what makes consecrated objects sacred (p. 234). Unsurprisingly, then, the practitioner must use s?dhana, a tantric discipline, to transform themselves into a buddha/yi dam: after all, the enlightened being is all-pervasive, but its power can be drawn to a locus (p. 235). The consecration ritual is the logical extension of this idea, in that it is an object that is transformed, rather than oneself (p. 236). The ritual begins with arraying the necessary paraphernalia, i.e. implements and substances, on an altar, and then exalting them (p. 237). Ritual items and performers must be exalted in order to be able to perform the ritual efficaciously: put another way, they must be ritually pure (p. 237). The next step is for the performers to become yi dam, in order to do the same for the objects to be consecrated (p. 237). Here, Bentor noted that the consecration manual in question does not enumerate the details of generating yi dam status, “because any practitioner would be familiar with this requirement” (p. 237).

For the object to receive its offerings, the offerings must themselves be exalted (Bentor, 1997, p. 237). Specifically, the offerings must gain a true nature of “bliss and emptiness,” while retaining their ordinary appearance and appeal to the senses (p. 237). The same must be done for the ritual substances: as the receptacle must be bathed, the ritual vase and the water it contains must become purified, entering an ideal state wherein they are capable of purifying and consecrating the receptacle (p. 237). In a transformative act, “flowers are scattered on the receptacle” and empowered with the Ye dharma, a Buddhist scriptural verse concerned with interdependent origination (pp. 237-238). Again, the connection with the Buddha as the great enlightened being is emphasized, in that this verse is believed to encapsulate his teachings (p. 238). Through an elaborate ritual, the power of this verse is channeled into the receptacle (p. 238).

And now the real work begins: the performer visualizes the dissolution of the receptacle (Bentor, 1997, pp. 236, 238). As the receptacle dissipates into emptiness, it is replaced by the yi dam Dorje Jikje, “the wrathful form of the bodhisattva of wisdom, Manjusri” (p. 236). A series of purifications follows, with the aid of the “wrathful ones”, supernatural entities who aid the consecration by ensuring that it functions according to plan (p. 238). The receptacle is then bathed, a reenactment of “the early myth of the bath given to the newly born Buddha by the gods Indra and Brahma” (pp. 238-239). The performer must then bless the sense-fields, in order to ensure that their visualization of Dorje Jikje is a truly adequate vessel for Dorje Jikje himself in the course of the rest of the ritual (pp. 236-237). Bentor notes that although important, the opening of the eyes is secondary within the framework of the overall ritual in the Tibetan context (p. 239). Wisdom beings, bodhisattvas and others are invoked, and then the receptacle becomes a yi dam (p. 239). The yi dams and other enlightened entities which have taken up residence in the receptacle are asked to remain available through it, preserving it as a locus of power, and the ritual concludes (p. 240).

With the ritual complete, the receptacle is no longer simply an object: it is a dwelling place for “buddhas, bodhisattvas, and yi dams”, a locus of sacral power in the world of samsara (Bentor, 1997, p. 240). Moreover, a consecrated image or object is believed to be “a form of emanation body of the Buddha, that form of the Buddha that is visible to ordinary beings” (p. 234). More specifically, consecrated images and objects compose the third class of emanation bodies, “made emanation bodies”, which facilitate the enlightenment of others (p. 234). As such, they may be used for all manner of things: as an aid to meditation, prayer, worship and the like, or as an amulet of protection and blessing (p. 240).

As Jackson and Jackson (1984) explained, the basic concept is one of embodiment: sacred thangka paintings, for example, manifest enlightenment (p. 9). The main reasons that thangka are commissioned, as listed by an artist, give a great deal of insight into their purpose: “(1) sickness or troubles, (2) death in the family and (3) the need for an image in connection with a particular religious practice” (p. 9). By commissioning thangka, Tibetan Buddhists believe that they earn merit, a positive force yielding benefits and happiness (p. 9). Although the basic idea here is that good deeds will not go unrewarded, the concept is actually far more sophisticated: the ultimate goal of doing good, the lamas teach, was Buddhahood (p. 10). It therefore follows that the individual who commissions a thangka with the desire for enlightenment, in addition to any given everyday desire, will reap the greatest benefits (p. 10). And this makes sense, because thangka are not mere good-luck charms or amulets: they are embodiments of the Buddha.

On that note, the question that becomes this analysis is the outsider’s response. How is the outsider to view the claims on display here? Should they be accepted or rejected, and on what criteria? The first key point is to understand what these alleged powers mean to the believers themselves: how do they understand them, where do they come from, and what do they do. A great deal of light can be cast on why people believe as they do, simply by focusing on what and how they believe. One must first understand what is claimed if one is to make a determination about how to analyze and understand it. Moreover, this is the very essence of the anthropological and critical artistic endeavor: to understand human customs, culture and art from the emic or insider’s point of view.

Next, one must ask oneself: what reason do I have to believe in these things? The fundamental issue here is really a question of how one understands the universe, and how one goes about trying to ascertain truth. For me, the answer is through empirical science and logic, the use of reasoning. Am I rejecting a priori the possibility of the supernatural phenomena claimed by Buddhists, or members of any other tradition? No, I am simply coming to a conclusion, the best one possible from the knowledge that is available to me. Perhaps the best stance is a kind of friendly agnosticism towards practitioners’ claims: keep an open mind, and focus on understanding the practice or ritual through their eyes.

The consecration of sacred images is a profound artistic tradition, one that entails something more than the creation of art: it is also an expression of spirituality, of beliefs about the universe and how it functions. The eye-consecration ceremony in Sri Lankan Theravada Buddhism, for example, demonstrates a great deal of fear about the magic of the image coming to life, a fear which is dramatized, controlled and dispersed by the ritual. Tibetan image consecration rituals rely on a broadly similar concept: the idea that certain things can be given sacred power. Of course, the key difference is that with image consecration, the purpose is to make the power of buddhas, bodhisattvas, etc. available to human beings at need, whether for votary purposes or protection: the images become loci of sacral power, artistic embodiments of the nature of the enlightened being.

References

Bentor, Y. (1997). The horseback consecration ritual. In D. S. Lopez (Ed.), Religions of Tibet in Practice (pp. 234-254). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Gombrich, R. (1966). “The consecration of a Buddhist image.” The Journal of Asian Studies, 26(1), pp. 23-36. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/

Jackson, D., and Jackson, J. (1984). Tibetan Thangka painting: Methods and materials. New York: Snow Lion Publications.

Swearer, D. K. (2004). Becoming the Buddha: The ritual of image consecration. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.