Enlightened – The Realm of the Buddhas

Intro

Enlight­ened The Realm of the Buddhas From 20 November 2020

The Buddha seated on a lotus throne is one of the oldest and to date best-known representations of Buddhism.

Buddhists in a temple in Thailand © Peter Thiele, Berlin

At present, more than 380 million people identify as Buddhists. In some countries, such as Thailand, Buddhism is the majority religion. Images of the Buddha are to be found across the globe and enjoy great popularity.

Buddha Shakyamuni as a prince, Tibet, 16th c. Metal, fire-gilded, semi-precious stones © Museum der Kulturen Basel, IId 13889, collected by G.W. Essen, purchased 1998

The model for this statue is in the Jokhang temple in Lhasa, Tibet. It is one of the rare cases in which Buddha Shakyamuni is shown as a prince: he is wearing the regalia and precious robe of a worldly ruler. But, at the same time, his calm and inward-looking expression is a sign of meditative contemplation.

Buddha Shakyamuni, Sri Lanka © Peter Thiele, Berlin

Up to this day, Buddhist teachings are very much alive and the source of many new images of the Buddha. Practically everyone knows what a Buddha looks like. What significance and function do Buddha images have? Who was the Buddha and what is his message? The emergence and spread of Buddhist teachings are reflected in the many depictions of the Buddha up to the present.

Taibai once asked Baso: “What is Buddha?”
Baso replied: “Spirit is Buddha.”

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© Museum der Kulturen Basel

Disclaimer | Copyrights

Project management

Museum der Kulturen Basel: Andrea Mašek

maze pictures GmbH: Siri van den Berg, Ann-Sophie Wilkening, Maria Hermann

Editors

Concept and texts: Stephanie Lovász, Ursula Regehr, Silvia Greber

Dramaturgy: Herbert Schwarze, Chantal Eschenfelder

Web Design and programming

Agenturfuerkrankemedien (AFKM), coordination Christoph Perl

Maps: Stefan Köther

Photography

Objects: Omar Lemke © Museum der Kulturen Basel

In situ: Peter Thiele © Peter Thiele; Entrance of the Monasterial Tibet Institute Rikon © Tibet-Institut Rikon

Detailed Information

Creative Commons licences

Photo Bodhi Tree © Biswarup Ganguly own work, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-3.0, picture detail

Photo Shwedagon Pagoda © Halavar, own work, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, picture detail

Photo Brahma and Indra © Art Institute of Chicago, CC0 Public Domain Designation, picture detail

Graphic Dharmachakra © Christopher J. Fynn, own work, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, picture detail, colours changed

Key Visual

Buddha Shakyamuni, Myanmar, 19th c., IIb 7, collected by J.R. Geigy-Merian, gift 1854, © Museum der Kulturen Basel

Chapter Covers

Photo Buddha’s footprint © Renate Herbst, Darmstadt

Head of a Buddha, Gandhara, probably 3rd/4th c., IIa 667, collected by A. Sarasin-Iselin, gift 1934 © Museum der Kulturen Basel

Photo Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya, India © chaostrophy, own work, via flickr.com, CC BY-SA 2.0, unchanged

Calligraphy performance of artist Sanae Sakamoto © Konrad Scheuber

Zoom-ins

Buddha Shakyamuni as a prince, Tibet, 16th c., IId 13889, collected by G.-W. Essen, purchased 1998 © Museum der Kulturen Basel

Buddha Shakyamuni, Thailand, before 1950, IIb 1634, collected by L. Paravicini, gift from estate 1951 © Museum der Kulturen Basel

Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Tibet, 15th c., IId 13927, collected by G.-W. Essen, purchased 1998 © Museum der Kulturen Basel

Buddha Maitreya, Tibet, 9th/10th c., IId 13895, collected by G.-W. Essen, purchased 1998 © Museum der Kulturen Basel

Koans

Koan 1 & 2 From: Zenkei Shibayama, Zu den Quellen des Zen. Die berühmten Koans des Meisters Mumon aus dem 13. Jahrhundert. Mit Einführung und Kommentar, 1976, München: Otto Wilhelm Barth Verlag

Koan 3 From: Mumonkan, Die Schranke ohne Tor. Meister Wu-men’s Sammlung der achtundvierzig Koan. Aus dem Chinesischen übersetzt und erläutert von Heinrich Dumoulin, 1975, Mainz: Grünewald

Koan 4 From: Genro Oryu, Imai Fukuzan (ed.), Koan-Sammlung. Shumon kattoshu („Verwickelte Ranken“), Tetteki tosui („Eiserne Flöte“), Shonan Kattoroku („Der Zen-Weg der Samurai“), 2016, Frankfurt: Angkor Verlag

Koan 5 is attributed to the Chinese Chan monk Linji Yixuan.

Illustration Kensho © Tagebuch eines Zen-Lehrlings, Zeichnungen und Text von Sato Giei, Pfullingen: Neske 1988