Old Buddha

[clw_uk]

Why is there never a statue or picture of Buddha as an old man?



I did fine one on google but cant find it now

[David N. Snyder]

Why is there never a statue or picture of Buddha as an old man?

Good question. I'm guessing that the people who requested the sculptures or whoever made them, preferred the younger looking Gotama - Buddha. He did live to the age of 80, so I imagine he may have had some wrinkles in later life. In Theravada we don't see him as being immune to the frailties of old age and disease; just that he did not suffer.

[Individual]

I think it has to do with the nature of Indian art. Indian art emphasizes simplicity and symbolism, which is a sharp contrast to western art which favors accuracy and\or aesthetic pleasure. The main feature of old age -- wrinkles -- is likely extremely uncommon in any Indian statue of anybody. Statues likely are made which symbolically represent an old person (ex: Buddha shortly prior to his death) but because of the lack of detail, you can't tell.

[BlackBird]

Someone told me that the Buddha image was influenced by Greek culture of making statues.

Maybe we could comission an "old Buddha" someday Craig?

[jcsuperstar]

there's statues of a skinny starving siddhartha (which i really want one of) maybe thats what you saw and not an old buddha?

and the greeks were the 1st to make buddha statues so the earliest images we have of him are very beautiful greek god/hero looking images.

[David N. Snyder]

Technically, these are "old" images of Buddha since it is depicting the parinibbana, when he was 80 years old. But the face still looks like a young Gotama-Buddha.

[jcsuperstar]

well having a gold face and all its understandable he wouldnt wrinkle

[puthujjana]

there's statues of a skinny starving siddhartha (which i really want one of) maybe thats what you saw and not an old buddha?

Do you mean these statues?

Ascetic pratices can make one look old...

[clw_uk]

Wow thanks for the pics



On an image of Buddha as an old man, its a shame there arent any statues of him at old age. For me it would make it more life like

[Kare]

Wow thanks for the pics



On an image of Buddha as an old man, its a shame there arent any statues of him at old age. For me it would make it more life like

Why don't you make one? Or ask some sculptor to make one? People seem to have felt free to make Buddha images in a large variety of shapes already, so the Buddha as an old man should be perfectly acceptable. None of the images are real portraits, anyway. They are just visual expressions of a concept.

This saying from the Mahaparinibbanasutta might serve as a starting point for conceiving the image:

"Now I am frail, Ananda, old, aged, far gone in years. This is my eightieth year, and my life is spent. Even as an old cart, Ananda, is held together with much difficulty, so the body of the Tathagata is kept going only with supports."