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| Book Review: "The Lotus in the Buddhist Art of India" | ||
| 作者 | Crowley, Vivianne |
|---|---|
| 出處題名 | The Middle Way: Journal of the Buddhist Society |
| 卷期 | v.78 n.4 |
| 出版日期 | 2004.02 |
| 頁次 | 245 |
| 出版者 | The Buddhist Society |
| 出版者網址 | http://www.thebuddhistsociety.org/ |
| 出版地 | London, England, UK [倫敦, 英格蘭, 英國] |
| 資料類型 | 期刊論文=Journal Article; 書評=Book Review |
| 使用語言 | 英文=English |
| 關鍵詞 | Mahayana; Buddhist Art; Buddhism in India |
| 摘要 | by Teoh Eng Soon, privately published and obtainable from The Shaw Centre, Singapore 228208, 2003, ISBN 9810477457, pp. 292, $86. Dr Teoh Eng Soon has written many books on reproductive medicine, but wrote his first book on Suddhism 40 years ago while still an undergraduate and president of the University of Malaysia Buddhist Society. In The Lotus in the Buddhist Art of India, he has returned to writing about Buddhism. This beautifully illustrated text records his reverential journey around India seeking images of the lotus within Buddhist art. He traces the first appearance of the lotus in Buddhist iconography to the columns of Ashoka in the third century BCE. These were modelled on Doric and Corinthian columns and were surmounted by lotus heads. With the development of the Mahayana tradition, artists began to depict the Buddha seated on a lotus throne. They had borrowed, Teoh Eng Soon comments, the imagery of the Indian mother goddess Sri and other deities. The lotus flower began to appear as a halo around the head of the Buddha during the fourth to sixth centuries CE. Teoh Eng Soon is the author of an earlier work on orchids, and his love of plants is evident in the first chapter, in which he describes the origin, evolution and geographical spread of the plant. His journey into Buddhist art begins with a description of the lotus on Buddhist monuments at Sanchi. He guides the reader with by way of beautiful photography through the many appearances of lotus imagery on the stupas. Other sites covered in detail include Amaravati, Bharhut, Bodhgaya, Nagarjunakonda and Sarnath. In Buddhism, the lotus, which grows out of muddy water, into a glorious beauty, becomes a symbol of purity and enlightenment. As well as cataloguing the image of the lotus in art, Teoh Eng traces references to the lotus in Pali, Sanskrit and other texts, such as the Pali text of the Psalms of the Brothers: As a lotus born within a lake, By water nowise is defiled, but growth gragrant, beautiful, So is the Buddha in this world. Born in the world and dwelling there, But by the world nowise defiled, E'en as the lily by the lake. The authors traces the lotus imagery through other texts. Pure Land Discourses describe the Pure Land as decorated with lotus ponds of pink or red, white, blue and yellow lotuses, and there is, of course, the Lotus Sutra. In The Lotus in the Buddhist Art of India, Teoh Eng Soon has succeeded in inspiring readers to look further at Buddhist iconography as a source of inspiration and insight. |
| ISSN | 00263214 (P) |
| 點閱次數 | 718 |
| 建檔日期 | 2009.09.30 |
| 更新日期 | 2020.11.04 |
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