Jade Buddha to visit India in November 2012

New Delhi, Nov 29 (IANS) The Jade Buddha for Universal Peace - sculpted in green jade - is preparing for a symbolic homecoming in India next year.

The fabled icon - which has been touring the world - dominated conversations at the sidelines of a Global Buddhist Congregation in the capital.

The seated Buddha with a smiling face will come to India in the last of leg of the world peace tour in November 2012.

It will come to Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh where Gautama breathed his last attaining 'parinirvana'. The local host, Thich Nu Tri Thuan - a Buddhist nun of Vietnamese origin - is excited.

Thuan, who is associated with the Linh Son Vietnam Chinese Buddhist Temple in Kushinagar, is preparing to host a global prayer meet when the Jade Buddha comes to her shrine for a few days.

The Jade Buddha is 2.5 metres high and weighs 4 tonnes. It sits on a 1.4 metre high alabaster throne and is valued at $ 5 million. The statue is modelled on the Buddha inside the Mahabodhi Stupa in Bodh Gaya.

It was consecrated at the Sydney Entertainment Centre in 2009 - six years after the project began in the US and Canada in 2003. The icon is believed to the biggest icon of Buddha carved from a single block of jade stone.

'The story of Jade Buddha marks a new kind of cycle to carry the faith forward. The green jade icon is travelling around the globe to propagate world peace and to reach out to new segments of people,' Thuan told IANS at the world Buddhist conclave here.

'It is rebirth of Buddha and the icon's arrival to India marks its homecoming. Jade is a symbol of peace and prosperity - and wherever the jade Buddha goes it is said to usher peace,' she said.

In India, its arrival would renew the karmic connect that Buddhist shares with India - the land of Buddha's birth and death, the nun said.

Thuan, known as the 'unofficial mother Teresa of Kushinagar', came to India in 1989. She has helped set up 20 schools for poor children in Kushinagar and its adjoining areas in Uttar Pradesh.

The tale of jade Buddha is a story of universality, the essence of modern day Buddhist, the nun said.

'The jade Buddha was carved from a single jade-stone, christened the Polar Pride, mined in Canada. It was sculpted by Australian and Thai jade sculptors in Thailand and its face was designed by a master Thanka painter from Nepal. The stone was a mystical find,' Thuan said.

The myths surrounding the jade icon vary. Witnesses say 'strange mandala lights appear to surround the Buddha when it is photographed' while others believe that a 'Buddhist lama was blessed with a divine vision of the icon and the location of the stone'.

According to the jade Buddha fact sheet by the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion in Australia, the final resting place of the icon, the project began in 2003 when American Buddhist practitioner Ian Green received a call from a jeweller in California, Cheyenne Sun Hill, who said 'he was Buddhist and he was looking for a temple to build a jade Buddha from the polar pride'.

Green spoke to his spiritual master Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who divined that the 'jade Buddha will illuminate the world'.

The Jade Buddha which travelled across Europe this year will come to Asia in 2012.

Read More @ Source



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scholars discuss relevance of Buddha in modern world

Image
New Delhi, Nov 27 ( IANS ) More than 900 Buddhist scholars , leaders and practitioners from 46 countries Sunday began deliberating the relevance of Gautama Buddha 's teachings, 2,600 years after his enlightenment, at a four-day Global Buddhist Congregation here. The venue at Hotel Ashok sported a riot of saffron, burgundy and ceremonial colours as monks and senior lamas from 46 countries like Nepal, Vietnam, Korea, Mongolia, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Germany flooded the premises. In a televised message, Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama , who will attend the convention Nov 30, to deliver the valedictory address, said: 'There have been many opportunities for Buddhists to come together and to discuss issues of common concerns.' 'The congregation has provided a much-needed and crucial opportunity. Now, and in the future, we need to encourage and foster an exchange of knowledge and experience among our different traditions and improve communication a
Keep reading

Buddhist temple in Westminster destroyed in early-morning fire

Image
Enduring bitter cold Monday morning, a Westminster firefighter battles a blaze at the Lao Buddhist Temple. The building was a total loss. (Steve Nehf, The Denver Post) WESTMINSTER — Brutal cold mixed with cold reality for members of the burned-out Lao Buddhist Temple of Colorado on Monday as they mourned the potential loss of artifacts saved by generations of worshippers. "It's not good, it's not good at all," said an exhausted Tom Pong as dusk fell over the remnants of the temple. "There is lots of history, over 100 years of it, and it could be lost forever." Pieces charred or melted by the fire — which started just before 6 a.m. — included several Buddha figures. Worries about asbestos prevented Pong and other members of the temple from going inside to assess the damage. The temple is part of an older building that the congregation bought in the early 1980s and then expanded on a 6-acre parcel at 10685 Dover St. The older section has asbestos,
Keep reading

Danish Buddhist leader, Lama Ole, to visit in Snohomish

Image
SNOHOMISH -- An unconventional guest is coming to Snohomish County next week. Ole Nydahl, a 70-year-old Danish leader of Diamond Way Buddhism, is visiting followers here in the Pacific Northwest. Nydahl's school of thought can be described as an adaptation of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism to the Western culture, said Daria Novoselova, who will be hosting Nydahl's meeting with students in her Snohomish home. Nydahl, who is known as Lama Ole, is expected to arrive Monday. He is scheduled to give a talk at the University of Washington later that day. Novoselova, 29, felt drawn to Diamond Way Buddhism as soon as she met Nydahl. She remembers that very first lecture. She was 16 and living in Yekaterinburg, Russia, when her older brother brought her along to the lama's talk. "I immediately felt at home," she said. "I had all these ideas about the world, and, suddenly, everything came together." At the end of that lecture, she accepted a blessing
Keep reading