Buddha's skin colour

[David N. Snyder]

Hi there. According to the Pali Canon, the historical Buddha is said to have "Blue Eyes".

We can still find blue/green eyes amongst Northern Indians today.

Few samples:

If you accept the literal word of the 32 marks (and there is no indication to do so according to the Pali Canon), then the color is clearly not as light as the photos you have shown in your post.

His skin is the color of gold (Pali: suva n nava no; Lakkhana sutta)

A 'golden' color is closer to brown and could even be 'golden-brown.'

But most importantly, color is meaningless and does not matter.

[Kare]

Sigh...The whole Aryan Invasion theory has now been pretty much disproved. The whole idea of the pre Aryan Invasion dark skinned natives and the light skinned invaders has been effectively traduced as myths invented by Europeans.

Disproved is a strong word. I would rather say that it has been rejected by Indian nationalists and by others who do not want to hurt the feelings of Indian nationalists. The fact remains that Indo-european languages are spoken all over North India. No serious linguist suggest that these languages arose in India. Therefor, someone must have brought the language into the country. I don't know and I don't care what colour their skin was, but due to climatic conditions people from northern areas generally have a lighter skin colour than those who live in southern areas. And to suggest that people in Northern India one day suddenly said to one another: "Hey, that language they are speaking up northwest across the mountains sounds real cool - let's learn that language and start using it!" - is not very credible. Some people arrived from the northwest (call them Aryans or not), and their numbers or influence was sufficient to spread their language.

[Kusala]

Hi there. According to the Pali Canon, the historical Buddha is said to have "Blue Eyes".

We can still find blue/green eyes amongst Northern Indians today.

Few samples:

If you accept the literal word of the 32 marks (and there is no indication to do so according to the Pali Canon), then the color is clearly not as light as the photos you have shown in your post.

His skin is the color of gold (Pali: suva n nava no; Lakkhana sutta)

A 'golden' color is closer to brown and could even be 'golden-brown.'

But most importantly, color is meaningless and does not matter.

Hi David. I believe some of 32 marks is worth noting, especially the "Blue Eyes".

It's quite common to find people in Northern India with blue/green eyes and fairer complexion than other parts of India.

It's not important, but it's worth noting IMO(In My Opinion). Nevertheless, I agree with you. Color is irrelevant.

The Dhamma transcends all...

[seniya]

I find this thread from an article on Dhammawiki.com (http://dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=T ... appearance) which says that "He (The Buddha) was about six feet tall (S.I,62)"

Does anyone know which sutta is S.I,62? Thank you....

[Nugget]

I read a sutta recently, the name of which escapes me, that mentions that the Buddha's face would become more clearly defined, and his body more golden, in response to his receiving angry words from someone. That the Buddha is golden as a result of giving homes to the homeless supports a notion I have that he has a connection to each of those wanderers.