There are many kinds of images in Buddhism. This diversity is due to Buddhism's long history and its reflection of the cultures and artistic traditions of the many countries in which it has flourished. In this talk I wish to look at the origin and meaning of some of these images.

My research for this talk has been drawn largely from three excellent books. These are:

• Venerable Sravasti Dhammika's book Middle Land Middle Way (published by Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy, Sri Lanka, 1992). This book, which is subtitled A Pilgrim's Guide to the Buddha's India, is a comprehensive guide for those who are interested in or who plan to visit the many places in India associated with the life of the historical Buddha.
• Images of the Buddha in Thailand by Dorothy H. Fickle, published by Oxford University Press, Singapore, 1989.
• Buddhist Art and Architecture, by Robert E. Fisher, published by Thames and Hudson, London, 1993.

I will be focussing on images from India and Thailand. Buddhist iconography took other directions in Tibet and East Asia but these developments are beyond the scope of this talk today. Similarly, I will be dealing only with images of Sakyamuni Buddha and not, for example, with Maitreya or Amitabha.

Images of the Buddha are important as aids to our practice - particularly to remind us of the virtues of the Buddha, to help us recall his life and teachings, or to provide a focus for our meditation.

For nearly five hundred years after the passing away of the Buddha, there were no statues of the Buddha. When artists wished to indicate the Buddha's presence, they did it with the use of symbols - an empty chair or throne, a tree, a stupa or a pair of footprints.

The first Buddha statues (buddharupa) began to be produced during the Kusana period, around 500 years after the passing away of the Buddha. This development probably reflects the impact of Greek culture, which after the conquests of Alexander had significant influence on the rulers and other members of the elite classes in the regions now known as Afghanistan, Pakistan and north-western India. Art historians have noted the similarities between the earliest statues of the Buddha and contemporary statues of the Greek god Apollo, which could be seen in temples all over the Greek world, and which would have been familiar to the artists who began crafting the first statues of the Buddha.

Buddha statues usually sit in the lotus posture (padmasama) or stand upright, and occasionally, lie down. The lying statue represents the Buddha's final Nirvana. Statues sitting on a chair or throne are usually not of Sakyamuni Buddha but rather of Maitreya, the Buddha of the next era, or of other figures such as bodhisattvas or non-Buddhist deities. Later, Thai artists introduced another variation by crafting statues of the Buddha walking.

The Buddha is represented as a human being with one head and two arms, in contrast to the multi-headed, multi-armed images of many Hindu deities in India and the Vajrayana deities of Nepal or Tibet. Although depicted as a human being, the Buddha is treated as a very special human being, even a transcendent or supernormal one.

The gestures performed by the hands of a Buddha image (mudras) have specific meanings that refer to some event in the life history of the Buddha or denote a special characteristic of the Buddha. The six gestures that are most important throughout Asia are:

• Both hands resting in the lap is the gesture of meditation (dhyanamudra). Traditionally the two hands are resting right over left on the lap.
• The earth touching gesture (bhumisparshamudra) consists of one hand in the lap and the other placed on the knee with the tips of the fingers touching the ground. According to the Lalitavistara, an important Sanskrit sutra, the Buddha just after his enlightenment touched the earth and called upon it to witness his great victory. This gesture therefore represents the Buddha's enlightenment, and is often described as 'calling the earth to witness'. The right hand is palm inward touching the knee and fingers reaching to the ground, while the left hand remains in the lap in the gesture of meditation.
• The hand raised with the palm facing outward is the gesture of imparting fearlessness (abhayamudra). The hand is held out at chest or shoulder level, palm facing out, and originally signified teaching but later came to mean reassurance.
• The newer teaching gesture (vitarkamudra) is similar except that the thumb and forefinger are joined.
• The gesture of the turning of the wheel of the Dhamma (dharmacakramudra) consists of both hands raised in front of the chest. This signifies preaching, and especially the preaching of the first sermon. The Buddha holds his two hands before his chest, the right hand palm outward, with the thumb and forefinger joined, touching one of the fingers of the left hand, held palm inward, also with thumb and forefinger joined.
• The hand lowered with the palm facing outward is the gesture of bestowing blessings or of giving charity (varadamudra). The hand is extended downward, palm out.

Sometimes Buddha statues have small figures of devotees at their sides, with hands raised to their chest and palms joined in the gesture of worship (anjalimudra).

The people of Thailand have introduced certain peculiarities in the use of gestures on Buddha images:

• Frequently a standing image displays the teaching gesture with both hands. The original meaning of this double gesture is not known, but it came to signify the Buddha's descent from Tavatimsa Heaven where he had gone to preach to his mother.
• The gesture of reassurance, abhayamudra, when performed by the right hand alone means that the Buddha is forbidding his relatives to dispute, a reference to an incident when the Buddha settled a quarrel over the division of irrigation water.
• The same gesture performed by the left hand alone means halting a sandalwood image (referring to the story of the Buddha restraining with his left hand a statue of himself that was advancing toward him to pay homage).
• Performing the abhayamudra with both hands signifies the calming of the waters, a reference to an incident when the Buddha was sojourning with the Kassapa brothers and was able to restrain the flooding Neranjara River.

The yogic posture, which suggests meditation, became a fundamental position for a Buddha image. The self-sufficiency and tranquillity of such a seated figure reflects the detachment from worldly concerns that typifies a Buddha once he has attained enlightenment. The yogic posture can be depicted in three different ways:

• Throughout most of northern India and also in northern Thailand and in some cases on the Thai peninsula, the legs are fully crossed, with each foot lying on the opposite thigh in the 'adamantine pose' or vajrasana. For Buddhists, vajra has the meaning of adamantine (diamond), representing the indestructibility of sunnata (emptiness) that is imperishable and unborn or uncreated.
• At other times, especially in southern India, Sri Lanka, and South-East Asia, including most of Thailand, the right leg merely lies atop the left one in the 'hero pose' or virasana, sometimes called paryankasana. Viriya, energy or heroism, is one of the five spiritual faculties or powers (bala) in Buddhism, and one of the seven factors of enlightenment. It is also generally considered to be identical to the factor of right effort in the eightfold path. Therefore this pose calls to mind the great effort and determination exercised by the Buddha in reaching enlightenment.
• Very occasionally the Buddha sits in 'the European pose' with his legs hanging down (pralambapadasana). Such a pose often signifies that he is at that moment actively engaged in the phenomenal world, preaching, teaching, or advising his followers, although such activities can be indicated with one of the yogic postures as well.

Most images of the Buddha display a few supernatural features. These are examples of certain supernatural signs which were common in Indian iconography to all Great Persons (mahapurusha), whether Universal Emperors (chakravartin) or Buddhas. There were 32 major signs and eighty minor ones. According to legend, just after the birth of the infant Siddhartha, he was visited by the sage Asita, who saw the signs on the body of the child and realised his extraordinary nature. Some of these signs are:

• A mark between the eyebrows or on the forehead (urna) is usually sculpted as a round dot, and is a mark of excellence.
• A lump on the top of the head (ushnisha) which originally denoted the headgear of a prince, but gradually came to signify a protuberance on the head of the Buddha, a symbol of his great spiritual power and luminosity as well as his wisdom and knowledge. In East Asian symbolism, rays of light can emanate from both the urna and the ushnisha.
• Wheels on the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet.

As time went on, more and more supernatural signs were incorporated into the images:

• The idea that the Buddha's hands are like a net resulted in the depiction of a web between his fingers.
• The long fingers began to be interpreted as fingers of equal length.
• The golden colour of the skin is depicted in many paintings, as well as through the gilding of images.
• Several of these supernatural signs became common in the art of Sukhothai in Thailand, such as the projecting heels and the arms extending to the knees.
• A general characteristic of a Buddha image is the arrangement of the hair in tiny snail-like curls that twist in a clockwise direction. According to legend, when the Buddha-to-be left his home, he cut off his hair with own sword, and thenceforth it curled up in this fashion and never required cutting again. Turning in a clockwise or sunwise direction is an auspicious sign in Indian thought.

There are several characteristics of Buddha images that are not specified in any text, and yet are almost universally portrayed:

• One of these is the length of the ears. The exaggerated size of the ear suggests the Buddha's supernatural ability to hear everything in the universe. Or the long earlobes may be due to the heavy earrings that the young Siddhartha would have worn as a young man of wealth and privilege prior to his renunciation.
• Another traditional mark that is not mentioned in the texts is the series of three lines on the neck. These have been interpreted both as beauty marks and as signs of greatness.

An outstanding characteristic of the Buddha mentioned frequently in the texts was his radiance. This could be suggested in a variety of ways. In Indian art an image of the Buddha often includes both a halo behind the head and a mandorla surrounding his body. In both Indian and Thai art, a flame or a jewel may rise from the ushnisha. In East Asian paintings, rays of light are seen issuing from the urna or ushnisha. The luminosity of his skin is said to have rendered his clothing transparent. On images, therefore, the robe is sometimes visible only at the neckline, wrists, and ankles. The golden hue of a painted image or the gilt of a bronze can also suggest his supernatural radiance.

The Buddha's robe (civara) is usually depicted in one of two styles - in open style with one shoulder exposed, or in closed style with the robe covering the whole upper part of the body. When depicted in this second way, the end corner of the robe is usually held in the left hand and the under-robe (antaravasaka) can be seen around the ankles. In standing statues from the Gupta period, the outer robe often clings to the body allowing the belt (kayabandhana) holding the under-robe to be seen.

This is the emblem of the Buddha's enlightenment, and of his first sermon, which is called the Dhammacakka Sutta, in which the Buddha is said to have put the Wheel of the Law in motion. The wheel often has eight spokes, calling to mind the eightfold path, or twelve spokes, calling to mind the twelve links in the chain of dependent origination.

Tibetan Buddhism makes use of a form of the wheel called bhavacakka (the wheel of becoming) to represent existence in the cycle of samsara, the experience of suffering in the cycle of birth and rebirth. The bhavacakka has six segments to show the six realms of existence, with the three causes of the cycle (craving, ignorance and hatred) represented by animal symbols in the centre.

The lotus is rooted in the mud but grows through the water into the light of the sun. It grows in the mud but is not sullied by it. It symbolises the possibility of reaching enlightenment by breaking through the fetters of existence. It also calls to mind that Buddhist practice has its roots in the truth of suffering but teaches us the way to transcend suffering.

Most sitting and many standing images of the Buddha are shown resting on a lotus platform or throne. The lotus is also the identifying attribute of in the bodhisattva Avalokitesvara (Kuan Yin).

This is an auspicious symbol in Buddhism, found frequently in temples and on objects of art. It is a revolving cross, symbolising the ceaseless activity of the universal life principle evolving the cosmos. In Buddhism, it is taken to represent the wheel of the law or teaching (dhammacakka). In Buddhism, as indeed in Hinduism, the swastika is in the opposite direction to the symbol used by the Nazis in Germany.

The tree under which the Buddha gained enlightenment in Bodh Gaya is believed to have been a pipal tree (ficus religiosa). A cutting from the original tree is said to have been planted in Anaradhapura in Sri Lanka as a gift from the Indian Emperor Asoka to the king of Ceylon in the 3^rd century BCE. A cutting from this tree was in turn planed at Bodh Gaya to replace the original, destroyed by invaders in the 7^th century CE, and its offshoot, destroyed in a storm in the 18^th century CE. Many bodhi trees in temples throughout the world are descendants from these ancient trees.

The cintamani, or wish-granting jewel, is a mythical object that is said to have the power to produce whatever one desires. It is often shown in the hand of a Buddha or bodhisattva.

The word 'stupa' originally had the literal meaning of 'hair knot'. The stupa is the most characteristic feature of Buddhist architecture. Stupas were originally erected as burial mounds over the mortal remains of the historical Buddha and of other important Buddhist figures. Not every stupa contains relics - some are purely symbolic. In south-east Asia, stupas have three levels which symbolise morality (the platform), concentration and meditation (the usually bell-shaped structure on top of the platform), and wisdom or enlightenment (the spire).

Nagarajas, snake kings or snake queens, are water deities which were venerated in pre-Buddhist times and which became prominent images in early Buddhist art. Nagas are often shown as guardians of temples and places where Buddhist texts are stored. The nagaraja Muchalinda is sometimes depicted as shading the Buddha's head and coiled under his seated body, reflecting a story that Muchalinda protected the meditating Buddha when floodwaters were rising around him.