Images are believed to be repositories of potency
and are often draped with orange robes resembling
those worn by monks and worshiped with offerings of
flowers, incense, and candles. Moreover, certain im-
ages are revered for miracles associated with them or
legends surrounding their discovery. At many monas-
teries worshipers can purchase small squares of gold
leaf to attach to images as acts of merit, and certain
images, such as the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok, reg-
ularly receive offerings of special food thought to be
their favorite from devotees requesting favors, such as
a relative’s good health.
Throughout Southeast Asia during the festivities re-
volving around the solar New Year in mid-April, im-
ages are carried in procession on elaborately decorated
carts or trucks and bathed with fragrant water. Thus,
even in a Theravada context, Buddha images are
treated in ways similar to those of statues of Hindu
deities in India.
The most frequently seen postures and hand posi-
tions (MUDRA) in the Theravada tradition are those
depicting key events in the Buddha’s life: meditating —
seated cross-legged with hands folded in the lap; the
enlightenment—a similar seated posture, but with the
right hand at the right knee, fingers pointing down-
ward toward the earth; teaching—standing with hands
extended; and in nirvana or death—lying on the right
side, head supported by the right hand.
In Southeast Asia, the most popular posture by far
is that of enlightenment, the posture known either as
“touching the earth” or “victory over MARA” (the per-
sonification of darkness and delusion). In many
monasteries, murals depicting this event cover the wall
behind the main Buddha image. A central meditating
figure of the Buddha is surrounded by Mara’s army—
a variety of demonic characters, some human, some
animal, some hybrid—flinging arrows and other
weapons. Below the Buddha is a standing female fig-
ure of the Earth Goddess, whom the Buddha has called
to witness his enlightenment. She wrings out her long
hair and from it flows the water that has collected from
the acts of generosity that Gautama performed in his
past lives, each time consecrating his donation by
pouring water from an urn onto the ground. Thera-
vada Buddhists sometimes replicate this practice when
they present offerings to the monks.
See also:Amulets and Talismans; Buddha, Life of the,
in Art; Merit and Merit-Making; Southeast Asia, Bud-
dhist Art in; Sri Lanka, Buddhist Art in
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Lives of the Buddha: Siamese Paintings and Jataka Tales.New
York and Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1972.BONNIEBRERETONTHICH NHAT HANHThich Nhat Hanh (Nguyen Xaun Bao, 1926– ), a Viet-
namese Buddhist monk and peace activist, coined the
term ENGAGEDBUDDHISMin the 1960s to describe the
antiwar movement in his country. Nominated for the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1967 by Martin Luther King, Jr.,
Nhat Hanh led the Buddhist delegation to the Paris
peace talks and organized rescue missions to save the
“boat people” fleeing Vietnam in the 1970s. Exiled
from Vietnam since the 1960s, Nhat Hanh has taught
MEDITATIONand reconciliation to thousands of fol-
lowers in the West. He founded the Tiep Hien Order
(Order of Interbeing), has established retreat centers
in Europe and North America, and has published moreTHICHNHATHANH