Background on the conception of the shaven-headed image of the Buddha

 

 

Background on the conception of the shaven-headed image of the Buddha

 

 In the early days of Buddhism, the creation of statues of the Buddha’s likeness was prohibited.

The Gandhara Region became the grounds on which Buddhism first flourished. These lands were ruled by the Kushan Emperor, Kanishka the Great (127-150 AD), of the Kushan Tribe, which established the Kushan Empire. It was King Kanishka who spread the teachings of Mahayana Buddhism from Gandhara to China by means of the Silk Road. With the dissemination of Mahayana Buddhist thought too came the methods of Buddhist prayer and practice, along with the reading of the Buddhist sutras.

Gandhara / the Roman Empire / the Kushan Empire / the Later Han Empire

In the ancient days of Buddhism — some 2,200 years ago — visual depictions of the Buddha were strictly prohibited. As such, the creation of statues of the Buddha was not allowed. However, ancient peoples had a lasting desire to lay their eyes on an image of the Buddha.

Owing to this longing — and breaking a taboo held for 500 years — a statue of Buddha was finally born.

Sirkap (now an archaeological site in Pakistan) was an ancient city in the eastern Gandhara region. Alexander the Great, conqueror of all Eurasia, was responsible for the city’s planning and development, intending it as a Greek settlement. One hundred years after Sirkap’s construction, the city fell under the rule of the Kushan Empire following their conquest of the Gandhara region. Consequently, Buddhism was introduced to the Greek population residing there.
 

As a result, one of the earliest-known statues of the Buddha — the Seated Buddha from Gandhara(excavated in the west end of Gandhara) — features an amalgamation of Greek and Asiatic artistic styles, and was influenced by Ancient Greek sculpture. Similar to the features common in Hellenistic sculptures, the Seated Buddha from Gandhara was carved with large, long ears and curly hair held up in a topknot. It is postulated that the topknot hairstyle appearing on this statue eventually metamorphosed in China into the crown-like protuberance atop the Buddha’s head that is common in modern depictions. Such it was that in Gandhara, the lands where ancient Buddhism flourished — breaking a 500-year taboo — a figure of the Buddha was born.

 

[The Seated Buddha from Gandhara]

When the Buddha renounced secular life to become a monk, he cut off his hair, shaving his head bald. This fact is recorded in many sutras.

In the Causality of Past and Present Sutra (過去現在因果経), Vol. 2, Prince Siddhartha says, “Now that I have cut my hair and beard, please let me cut off all defilements of mind and sinful hindrances.” Responding to this action, Indra, King of the Devas, took the hair from Siddhartha and disappeared, after which many heavenly beings sprinkled incense powder and flowers upon Siddhartha from the air, praising him and saying, “Excellent, excellent.”

 

 

The Vasala Sutta (Sutta Nipata 1:7) contains a scene in which a brahmin, seeing the Buddha come to his residence for alms, speaks the words, “Stay there, you shaveling! Stay there, you wretched monk!”

 

According to Vinaya Pitaka, Vol. 4 (Mahavagga), the Buddha, seeing a monk with long hair, spoke to him, “Cut your hair and beard off of your own doing, or have them cut off.”

 

 

In the Samannaphala Sutta (Digha Nikaya Vol. 2), during the dialogue with King Ajatashatru, the Buddha said that to become a Buddhist monk is to cut off one’s hair and beard, clothe themselves in orange-colored robes, and go forth from their household to cultivate Enlightenment.

 

As the Buddha renounced not only his royal status as a prince, his wealth, and his honor, but even his hair — truly a part of his own body — shaving off one’s hair is recognized as a holy and precious action. Owing to this display of sacrifice made by the Buddha, the shaving of one’s hair has become a Buddhist precept within monkhood.

 

[The statue of the First Turning of the Wheel of the Illustrious Law (初轉法輪)]

Curly hair and a protuberance on the crown of the Buddha are typical features of a Buddha statue.

      Throughout the history of Buddhism, Buddha statues have been made with the Buddha possessing curly or wavy hair, and a hairstyle similar to a conch-like shape, or a topknot. Buddhist scholars have theorized that it would have been difficult to apply the shaved head of a sinner to the Buddha’s image in India and that the current unique depiction of the Buddha was borne from the likeness of the Greek-influenced Gandhara Buddha statue

      According to an alternative theory, the historical image of the Buddha was formed based on a passage found in the sutras that states that the Buddha — with his thirty-two physical marks — possesses conch-like hair that is dark blue and worn wrapped up on the right side of his head.

 

According to Buddhist texts, the thirty-two marks of a holy man — or the Wheel-turning Monarch — documented in Ancient Indian writings are a symbol of holiness, and that the Buddha was born with these marks upon him. There is a view that the Buddha is often expressed in imagery as possessing curly hair and a protuberance on his crown to symbolize the Buddha’s sacred and great appearance of the thirty-two major and eighty minor marks of a holy man.

The appearance of the Buddha is recorded in detail in the following texts: Majjhima-nikaya, Vol. 11; the Sutra of Past and Present Causes and Effects, Vol. 1; the Abhiniṣkramaṇa Sūtra, Vol. 9 (Sutra of the Great Renunciation); the Lalitavistara Sutra, Vol. 3 (Sutra of Extensive Play); the Mañjuśrī-paripṛcchā Sutra; etc.

 

The Statue of Seokguram Grotto

Various images of Buddha as found across Southeast Asia

The Buddhas in the Absolute Realm in Selflessness all have their heads shaved.

The Buddha-recitation Samadhi, the practice diary of Great Monk Gwangmyong Manduk, describes in detail the appearance of the Buddha as follows:

 

“A monk wearing a golden, long-sleeved robe and a red kasaya robe, with his hair shaved and holding a staff with rings suspended from it in his hand, came forth from the Buddha statue.”

 

“Shakyamuni Buddha spoke to me, saying, "The Triad Buddha from the Western Pure Land of Utmost Bliss has come here. Give your greetings to them." I prostrated before them wholeheartedly. The Triad Buddha all wore golden, long-sleeved robes and red kasaya robes; all had their heads shaved."

 

All those she met in Samadhi were Buddhas, and all appeared before her with their heads shaved.

                              

Hyonjisa enshrines the image of the Buddha with a shaved head, an image which has never existed in any temples or countries of the Saha world.

All images of the Buddha found in the statues and paintings of Hyonjisa — those proclaiming that the Buddha abides in the Absolute Realm — have their heads cleanly shaved. The notion of the “shaven-headed Buddha” speaks to the profound thought of Yongsan Buddhism, the New Buddhism of the 21st century. It will be of supreme merit and virtue to meet, praise, worship, and make offerings to such genuine Buddhas.