After passing the Chinese Giant Guardians, the Tha Tian
entrance gate, I went straight into the Temple of Reclining Buddha. Like any
other temple, you need to take your shoes off to enter, and all visitors must
wear appropriate clothing, that means no exposed shoulders or skin above the
knee. Then, straight from the entrance the first thing I found was the side of
Buddha’s head sitting nicely on his right arm. The size of his head is amazing,
and the elongated reclining body made the statue even more impressive. It
stands 15 meters tall and 46 meters long, covered in gold leaves shining
majestically in the rather dark room, making its presence dominating the whole room.
Not sure about the weight of this gigantic Buddha statue, but the entire statue
had a brick core, which was molded with plaster before finally being gilded.
His fish-shaped eyes made of white mother of pearl looked
like lost in a thought. The crown on his head, or Ushnisha , symbolizes his
Enlightenment, and the small dot between his eyebrows, or Urna, symbolizes
a third eye,
which in turn symbolizes vision into the divine world. His long
earlobes symbolize a conscious rejection of the material world in favor of
spiritual enlightenment.
After walking together with so many vistors along the 46
meters long reclining body we reached his feet, which are also gigantic in
scale, 3 meters high and 4.5 meters long! The base of these feet are also
inlaid with mother-of-pearl, engraved with carvings to display the symbols of
Buddha. On the soles of his feet, there are 108 auspicious signs such as flowers,
dancers, white elephants, tigers, and altar accessories by which Buddha can be
identified. At the center of each foot there is a circle representing a chakra
or 'energy point'. Many visitors were immersed in the beauty of this golden
Buddha and the symbolism it represented.
Although the reclining Buddha looks like someone relaxing on
a sofa, it is actually a representation of Buddha’s last moments on earth
during his illness. It represents the moment he was about to enter parinirvana,
the nirvana after death. He is lying on his right side with his blissful face
resting on a cushion as he supports his head with his hand.
As a way of commemorating his passage to the afterlife, his
disciples built a statue of him in this pose. This is now the grand, golden
statue that lies inside Wat Pho. Decades later, more versions of reclining
Buddhas were created all over South East Asia.
THE END
Source: Wikimedia
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