INTG20140310 Minutes (371)), a Second Document Is Attached to This Message: the List of the 108 Auspicious Signs Found in Buddha's Footprints

INTG20140310 Minutes (371)), a Second Document Is Attached to This Message: the List of the 108 Auspicious Signs Found in Buddha's Footprints

Informal Northern Thai Group Bulletin March 09, 2014 ATTENTION! TWO TALKS IN MARCH: 11 AND 25 MARCH 1. MINUTES OF THE 371TH INTG MEETING. FEBRUARY 18, 2014: “FOLLOWING BUDDHA’S FOOTPRINTS (BUDDHAPĀDA)”. A TALK BY JACQUES DE GUERNY. 2. NEXT MEETING: TUESDAY, MARCH 11, 2014, 7:30 PM: “THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF STAND-ALONE MOVIE THEATERS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: A VISUAL NARRATIVE”. A TALK BY PHILIP JABLON. 3. 2ND MARCH MEETING: TUESDAY, MARCH 25, 2014, 7:30 PM: “ETHNIC DIVERSITY OF LAOS: A MUSEUM PERSPECTIVE”. A TALK BY TARA GUJADHUR 3. FUTURE INTG MEETINGS. 4. INTG CONTACTS: CONVENOR, SECRETARY, WEBSITE. 1. MINUTES OF THE 371TH INTG MEETING, FEBRUARY 18, 2014 “FOLLOWING BUDDHA’S FOOTPRINTS (BUDDHAPĀDA)” A TALK BY JACQUES DE GUERNY 1.1. PRESENT : Hans Bänziger, Saengdao Bänziger, Dianne Barber-Riley, Mark Barber-Riley, Frederic Bourdier, Kay M. Calavan, Michael M. Calavan, Roger Casas, Peter Daxy, Hilary Disch, Ron Emmons, Louis Gabaude, Anne Marie Garretta, Michel Garretta, Pierre-Antoine Garetta, Trevor Gibson, Ivan Hall, Sjon Hauser, Frédéric Hurteau, Anthony Irwin, Jiraporn Klasson, Brenda Joyce, Mahajirasak Jiraddhammo, George Olson, Mony Pen, Poonsouk na Chiengmai, Surya Smutkupt, Edward van Tryll, Meyer Walter, Rebecca Weldon, Spencer Wood, Layle Wood, a total of 32 at least. 1.2. The 371th Talk : “FOLLOWING BUDDHA'S FOOTPRINTS (BUDDHAPĀDA). A TALK BY JACQUES DE GUERNY. You are invited to read this sketch of Jacques de Guerny's talk with an eye on the PowerPoint presentation by the speaker: Buddhapada-deGuerny.pptx. However, due to its "weight", I cannot send this PowerPoint presentation as an attachment. I have put it in my Dropbox and you can access to it with the following link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/t3cdckmqz77rkwo/Buddhapada-deGuerny.pptx There, you will have two possibilities: either you download the document on your computer or you copy it to your own Dropbox. Downloading may take some time. Full screen viewing of this PowerPoint presentation will be better (In PowerPoint, click on the "Slide show" command on the lower left side). In the text of the talk below, references between brackets such as "(Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 04)" refer to the slide nr. 4 in the PowerPoint document called "Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt". Besides the Minutes (INTG20140310 Minutes (371)), a second document is attached to this message: The list of the 108 auspicious signs found in Buddha's footprints. It has been gracefully sent par Claudio Cicuzza, translator of Buddhapādamaṅgala, the pāli text explaining the 108 signs and transmitted in Thailand. The list is extracted from his book A mirror reflecting the Entire World - The Pali Buddhapādamaṅgala or "Auspicious Signs on the Buddha's Feet" - Critical Edition with English Translation. Bangkok and Lumbini, Fragile Palm Leaves Foundation, Lumbini Internatioanl Research Institute (Material for the Study of the Tripiṭaka, Volume 6), pp. 107-110. Jacques de Guerny's talk may be considered as an abstract or a presentation of his books "Buddhapāda. Following Buddha’s footprints" and "Buddhapāda. L'odyssée des empreintes de Bouddha" (Buddhapada- deGuerny.ppt 01). For more detailed explanations and more pictures, please refer to these books: Jacques de Guerny, Buddhapāda, l’odyssée des empreintes de Bouddha, Bangkok, Orchid Press, 2012. Jacques de Guerny, Buddhapāda, following Buddha’s footprints, Bangkok, Orchid Press, 2013. The Abstract below has been sent by Jacques de Guerny. Minor corrections, additions, pictures and notes come from the editor. Thank you for your interest in the INTG talks LG. 2 Buddhapāda. Following Buddha’s footprints "Buddhapāda", in Sanskrit and Pāli, means "Buddha's foot". Buddha's footprints are among the most popular symbols of Buddhism in Asia.1 The Buddhapāda’s Odyssey has so far spanned more than two millennia covering East Asian routes (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 02) as a new “avatar” of the universal interest in footprints dating back to the hunters/gatherers' prehistory and proto-history. I - Indian sub-continent. The “Buddhapāda core”: India / Sri Lanka / Gandhara For Thai Buddhism, Gautama (name of his clan) Buddha’s life dates back to the 6th century BCE (-543 -463) which is at least one century earlier than modern researchers would agree. What we do know for sure is that Emperor Ashoka (r. 272-237 BCE), the first to unite various kingdoms from Afghanistan to Bengal under the "Mauryan Empire", is credited by Buddhists to have converted to Buddhism and exported it throughout Asia. Left: Mauryan Empire under Ashoka. The Maurya Empire was ruled by the Mauryan dynasty from 322 to 185 BCE. INDIA (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 03-15)2 The first known Buddhapāda dates back to the second century BCE and was found in the Barhut’s stupa, in the Ganges valley (Madhya Pradesh), as a part as the famous telling about the Buddha coming down from the Tāvatiṃsa Paradise where he is said to have taught the Abhidhamma to his mother. The piece shown on the right of Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 04 is now in the Kolkata Museum. As in Barhut, early Buddhapāda were small and part of larger scenes (Buddhapada- deGuerny.ppt 05). The Buddhapāda’s “invention” was replicated a few hundred kilometres from Barhut, in Sanchi (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 06), where the Buddhapāda is usually considered as representing Prince Siddhārtha, the future Buddha leaving his palace at night (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 07 & 1 The Buddha's footprint is, with an empty throne, the Bodhi tree, a riderless horse, and the Dharma wheel, one among a few "symbols" considered by many as representations of the Buddha himself. In the beginnings of Buddhism, anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha would have been considered as improper, which led to "aniconic" respresentations of the Buddha through these cryptic "symbols". According to this school of thought, the first anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha are considered a result of the Greco-Buddhist interaction, in particular in Gandhara (now in Afghanistan/Pakistan), after Alexander the Great's expedition. In the early nineties, the "aniconic" theory stirred fierce debates. Susan Huntington, an art historian, had suggested that the so-called "aniconic" representations of the Buddha through symbols were not in fact "aniconic" because they were not depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha but scenes of worshipping relics and places of pilgrimage. The image of an empty throne was simply depicting an actual relic-throne, etc. On this debate, see: Susan L. Huntington, "Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of Aniconism", Art Journal, Vol. 49, No. 4, New Approaches to South Asian Art (Winter 1990), p. 401- 408. This article is available at: http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/resources/downloads/aniconism/Huntington,ArtJournal.pdf. Huntington's position was challenged by Vidya Dehejia, "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems". Ars Orientalis, 21, 1991, p. 45-66. This article is available at: http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/resources/downloads/aniconism/Dehejia,Ars%20Orientalis.pdf. Huntington response can be found in: Susan L. Huntington, "Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems: Another Look", Ars Orientalis, 22, 1992, p. 111-156. This article is available at: http://huntingtonarchive.osu.edu/resources/downloads/aniconism/Huntington,Ars%20Orientalis.pdf 2 See: Anna Maria Quagliotti, Buddhapadas, An Essay on the Representations of the Footprints of he Buddha with a descriptive Catalogue of the Indian Specimens from the 2nd Century B.C. to the 4th century A.D., Kamakura, Institute of the Silk Road Studies, 1998. 3 08). Soon, the Buddhapāda became ubiquitous throughout India down to Amaravati where we find it in the Enlightenment context (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 09), the first sermon representation (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 10) and other various situations (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 11 & 12) or Nagarjunakonda (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 13). The Buddha's footprints rapidly became autonomous, bigger, and more sophisticated. Originally, 8 basic signs could be engraved on the soles: a parasol (a sign of high rank); a fish (a sign of fertility/salvation); a vase or a bowl (a sign of spiritual/material food); a lotus flower (a sign of purity); a conch (a sign of knowledge); a trident (a sign of the Three Jewels: the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha); a banner (a sign of victory) and a wheel (a sign of Dharma or universal norm). See: (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) From 8, the symbols soon increased to twelve, and later even more - representing a check list, if not a scorecard, for devotees. India, no longer Buddhist at the end of the first millenium CE, remained forever the “mother” for Buddhapāda because she had produced “models” for other Asian Buddhist countries. From Northern India, Buddhism would spread and develop first in two directions, Southwards to Sri Lanka, and Westwards to Gandhāra (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 23). SRI LANKA / CEYLON (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 16-22) In Mihintale, near Anuradhapura, where the monk Mahinda (son of Ashoka?) is said to have converted King Tissa to Buddhism around 220 BCE, four Buddhapāda were positioned at the four cardinal points of the Kantaka Dagoba (= Pagoda) (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 17). In Anuradhapura, two Buddhapāda have been found near the Dagoba built in the 1st c. CE within the Abhayagiri monastery (Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 17, 18). The Vavuniya Buddhapāda (Left + Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 19), from a district in Northern Sri Lanka (see map Buddhapada-deGuerny.ppt 16) and now in Colombo’s National Museum, may be considered

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