Gestures of the Buddha 02
By Richard Barrow 
Thursday 13th March, 2008 | 382 words | Category: Thai Buddhism | 2 feedbacks »
In part one of this series of photos showing the different postures of the Buddha, I showed you two different ways he sat down cross-legged. Today I want to show you a more unusual way of sitting. They call it sitting in the Western fashion. But first, the Buddha image on the left. Here he is kneeling down with his left palm facing up on his left thigh. His right hand is placing the empty tray on the water. Like many of the images we see in temples, this is illustrating an episode in his life. This is where the tray manages to float upstream without sinking. The image on the right is the Buddha image for people born on Wednesday evening. This is my image though I don't see it too often. The Buddha is receiving a honeycomb from a monkey and a water pot from an elephant. There is a good example of this image at Wat Pho in Bangkok.
Here are two more Buddha images showing him sitting in the Western fashion. These ones are not often seen. The first image shows the Buddha seated with his left hand in his lap and his right hand at chest level with the thumb and index finger joined to form a circle. This illustrates a miracle where the Buddha created a replica of himself. The second image shows the Buddha travelling in a boat. His hands are palm down on his thighs. Sometimes his right hand is open at chest level.
Here are two more different postures of the Buddha. The one on the left shows him standing. He is joining the three worlds of heaven, earth and hell. The one on the right shows him walking to Sangassa.
This last Buddha image for today is really unusual if you look closely at his feet. At first I thought it illustrated an incident where the Buddha was desperate to use the rest room. But apparently I was wrong. The Buddha is standing and making an impression of his right foot on the ground. This explains how we sometimes see Buddha's footprints at some temples.
I will be continuing this series of different postures of the Buddha at thai-blogs.com soon. I have some more unusual Buddha images to share with you.
Do you have any questions about Thailand? Maybe you are planning a holiday or just want to learn more about Thai culture. Have all of your questions answered for free at ThailandQA.com. These forums are part of the family friendly Paknam Web Network.
Tags: buddha images
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2 comments
It look like in the first pic his left hand is not palm up or his thumb would be on the outside.
Thanks for the great info. I have never seen any of these pics or the background.
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