The mystery of the Buddha statue of But Thap temple

The famous statue of Guan Yin, a thousand eyes and thousands of hands at But Thap pagoda, contains many "hermit" and deep philosophy. It tells us a lot about the aesthetic perspective, the ecology and the cosmic view of the Vietnamese people in the Later Lê period, the second half of the 17th century.

Statue of Guan Yin thousand eyes thousand hands at But Thap pagoda, Bac Ninh, carved and completed by Truong Tho Nam in 1656, in the late Le Dynasty. On the pedestal stands: Nam Dong Giao, Tho Nam - Truong Tien Sinh - engraved (temporarily understood: Nam Dong Giao is the address, Tho Nam is the nickname, Truong is a surname, the first is a false position, Phung is a worshiper). destiny heaven and earth up the statue to worship). According to some researchers, the word "engraved" is translated as engraved according to the king's will (but if the mandate of the king is carved, the statue must be kept in the capital, while the statue is worshiped). in a temple).

Statue of Guan Yin Bodhisattva celestial goddess label - folk called Guan Yin thousand eyes thousand hands, can be considered a miniature universe, was composed according to very strict rules. These are the rules of yin and yang of the Five Elements and the trigrams, which always include opposing categories but unified: Yang - Yin (good - evil, red - black, light - dark, heaven - earth). In order for readers to recognize the opposite sides of Truong Tho Nam's composition, please analyze the following:

1. The Guan Yin statue is made according to the tam dynasty, ie the relationship between the general and the human being. When looking at the statue, the circle behind is attached with nearly a thousand hands, each hand is engraved with an eye, which is the symbol of God. Heaven according to the concept here is the miniature universe. In the universe, the good is symbolized in the "false three- ray" ie the three bright ones including: the sun, the moon and the stars.

Since ancient times, the ancient Vietnamese were aware of the sun as the center of life, its miraculous power manifested in the middle of the Dong Son bronze drum. In this statue, the author also places Guan Yin face in the center of the statue. The sun is The most prominent Buddha Amitabha face, bright, full of compassion. The sun here is shown as dawn, the rays shining above but not radiating, meaning: The good is going up, with the power of victory, the symbol of social civilization. The bright sun also symbolizes the wisdom of Guan Yin Buddha throughout the world to dispel the darkness. Those who have acts of underhandedness cannot hide Buddha's eyes. To express this thought, the author carved the eye in the palm to symbolize thousands of stars in the galaxy. All figures on the statue are odd numbers, more than 900 hands and over 900 eyes. The author thinks that 1,000 is an even, negative, static, and undeveloped number. Numbers are odd, positive, dynamic and develop constantly. That means that in the universe there are countless stars watching the world.

2. On the sky, there are heaven, circle, dynamic, and positive, so the symbolic system is expressed for earth, static, and sound; square, connecting between heaven and earth is the people - Guan Yin character. Heaven, earth, people are the 3 supernatural forces in the universe, ceaselessly creative. The black dragon under the lotus court is the Black Dragon under the South China Sea, symbolizing Evil. The statue of Guan Yin has thousands of thousands of hands sitting on the lotus building, and the lotus is placed on the black dragon's head, symbolizing the good that always dominates the evil. The dragon's arms only supported the lotus gate to create a tight composition, it also said one thing: Evil also has an extraordinary power, only one head is enough for the whole statue to go up. . On the hat of Guan Yin has the first 3 floors, each floor has 3 heads, the 9th is Amitabha Buddha - symbolizing Nirvana. Thus, each head is a symbol of a heaven. The interesting thing is that Amitabha and the Heavenly bird in the back are attached to two heads (number 2 sounding, symbolizing the soul of the dead who escaped at ecstasy). Those three heads together remind us of the three world realms "past - present - future".

3. In the temples, the three throne houses are always placed in the highest throne. In the art of composition, Truong Tho Nam has linked phenomena to each other as a symbol: Both the large circle behind is attached to the Heavenly bird, forming the image of the Bodhi leaf whose mind is Buddha stalk of leaves. Buddhism takes the Bodhi leaf as a symbol. The moon image is placed in front of Buddha's mind as a mirror reflecting on his heart to consider whether daily action is right or wrong, good or evil, bright or dark . There is Heaven on Nirvana, where dwells. The rule of Amitabha Buddha, under hell is manifested in the four corners, that is, four big fat figures who are suffering from the sight to deter those who are mindful of doing evil.

4. In the layout of this statue, the arranged arms are complicated but very consistent in the method of regular expression. There are 3 basic methods to express the meaning of the hand position: The first is the hands clasped in front of the chest, which is the will of the people, the mind is doing good. Secondly, 42 arms attached on the sides of the statue radiate in many directions, meaning that if you want to win evil, you have to use both literature and martial arts (the right arms symbolize the text, the arms on the left symbol for martial arts) ). The third is Guan Yin's hand that holds the moon in front of his mind, symbolizing self-examination. In order to cultivate enlightenedly, sentient beings must have patience, cultivate this life into another life, the longer the cultivated tree is, the thicker the blessing. Two arms on the thighs of Buddha symbolize the will to create results.

5. Statue of Guan Yin was born in a mature historical situation: Author Truong Tho Nam received and raised the art of this statue to the top by communicating with Indian sculpture art, the background of sculpture Cham carving, especially the arms of Buddha as the pure arms of Cham girls. The costume of Quan Am was transformed by the author into a shape, a very romantic Vietnamese composition that he received from the Ly - Tran art through the description of lotus. Sen Ly was able to touch dragons on petals, lotus in Le's time was carved according to Le's flames - the fire of the anti-foreign tradition.

In Asia, Buddhism originated so the theme "Guan Yin thousand eyes thousand hands" was carved in some countries, but the work by genius sculptor Truong Tho Nam composed the most complete content about the world. Consciousness and humanity from a traditional Buddhist point of view, have an artistic form that achieves great perfection. This statue won a special award when participating in the International Buddhist Art Exhibition in India in 1958.

Painter, sculptor Le Dinh Quy