I found this statue...

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Palzang Jangchub
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Re: I found this statue...

Post by Palzang Jangchub »

It's the same in Nepal if you're on the up-and-up. The government there wants to ensure that you're not stealing their cultural heritage by absconding to another country with antiques. As long as you get the buddharupas examined and proven to be modern, you should be good to go.

Usually the seller is supposed to give you a document (like a full bill of sale, or sometimes even just a stamp with a wax seal). You then take it to a gov't office where they specialize in telling the antique from the modern. It's actually a great way to see all sorts of statues all in one place!

Can't say I blame them. I'd be upset if folks swept in and raided my museums and archaeological sites too! It happened under colonial rule, and I'm sure people still try to get away with it to hock stuff on sites like eBay. That's why I prefer to either source statues myself when I travel somewhere overseas, or else to go through a reputable Dharma center.
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"The Sutras, Tantras, and Philosophical Scriptures are great in number. However life is short, and intelligence is limited, so it's hard to cover them completely. You may know a lot, but if you don't put it into practice, it's like dying of thirst on the shore of a great lake. Likewise, a common corpse is found in the bed of a great scholar." ~ Karma Chagme

དྲིན་ཆེན་རྩ་བའི་བླ་མ་སྐྱབས་རྗེ་མགར་ཆེན་ཁྲི་སྤྲུལ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ཁྱེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ།།
རྗེ་བཙུན་བླ་མ་མཁས་གྲུབ་ཀརྨ་ཆགས་མེད་མཁྱེན་ནོ། ཀརྨ་པ་མཁྱེན་ནོཿ
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石正 Marcus
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Re: I found this statue...

Post by 石正 Marcus »

MindTheGap wrote: Wed Apr 20, 2016 4:43 pm When I first found him, my first thought was, "That sort-of looks like Avalokiteśvara...". Maybe if I have that resonance with the image, Avalokiteśvara is whom it represents to me. I could easily find a small rock crystal and add a small rosary of seed beads to the statue.
There is usually a statue of Avalokiteshvara in most Thai temples, usually in the courtyard, sometimes in the main hall in a corner somewhere and it usually takes a Chinese, Guan Yin form, mainly due to the influence of Chinese-Thais. There are also a few temples in Thailand dedicated to her, such as Avalokitesvara’s Great Compassion Stupa of 10,000 Buddhas Temple, headed by a female nun, in Ladphrao, Chokchai 4, in the north of Bangkok.

But this statue, as everyone has already pointed out, does not look to be anything more than a tourist trinket. However, who knows? And if it has meaning to you and resonates with you, that is great. Do bear in mind though, that representations of the Bodhisattva show her with long hair and jewelery, both significant, and when she has multiple arms you usually get one set in meditation pose and another in prayer pose. However, there are exceptions on top of exceptions and what matters isn't a set of rules but your own connection and resonance. I think it is wonderful that you have found and given honour to this image! Intention is everything!
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Ogaf
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Joined: Sat Sep 30, 2017 4:05 pm

Re: I found this statue...

Post by Ogaf »

You will also find many Chinese Mahayana temples in Thailand, due to many generations of Chinese-Thai immigrants. Guan Yin is very popular with many going vegetation for a couple of weeks each year to honour her and make merit. I would suggest trying to find a Chinese Mahayana bodhisattva with the same arm and implement combination, as it might be a Thai style statue of one.

More generally,

You'll find a Tara temple at Sathira Dhammasthan, the temple and charity run by Mae Chee Sansanee. She also gives out tiny statues of Green Tara where ever she goes to teach:
http://www.sdsweb.org/new/projects_view&id=21

You'll also find Medicine Buddha at Songdhammakalyani, the nunnery of Dr Dhammananda Bhikkhuni:
http://www.thaibhikkhunis.org/ORD61/006 ... 20768].jpg

Phakchok Rinpoche has a group of Thai students:
http://www.mongkol.org/

Then you have Wat Bhoman Khunaram in Bangkok which was/is a Vajrayana/Chinese monastery of the Riwoche lineage:
https://trinleychodron.wordpress.com/20 ... -the-past/

Karmapa TTD has a retreat centre on the way in Thailand:
https://manjushri.center/

but anyway, I'm getting a bit off topic lol

O
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SunWuKong
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Re: I found this statue...

Post by SunWuKong »

MindTheGap wrote: Tue Apr 19, 2016 8:55 pm
Upper left hand holds a lotus or an utpala
Upper right hand holds a sutra (?)
Middle left hand holds a conch (?)
Middle right hand holds a mace.
Bottom left and right hands rest on the knees, palms up.

this sounds like Avolokistisvara (misspelled), one of the earliest venerated bodhisattvas in Indian Mahyana Buddhism
"We are magical animals that roam" ~ Roam
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