Artisan have been practicing sculpture making for a centuries and there is much a due to talk about what they were creating as to how or "out of what.
" What is most interesting here is the nuances of a wooden Buddha statue.
I suggest that a quick preview of any world class museum will reveal that Mythological and Religious Sculptures to be the top two categories of antiquity still in assistant today.
We will be focusing on religious statues and specifically Buddhist Art.
What is the oddity is the use of wood in religious art.
Why would a wise monk artisan choose such an perishable material to craft a Buddhist masterpiece out of? To carve a figure in wood may be not only more difficult but also less satisfactory than sculpting with granite.
There is the tendency of wood to crack, to be damaged by insects, or to suffer from changes in the atmosphere.
But still master craftsmen of the past and current day are still choosing wood as there preferred material.
Why? I suggest a few possibilities: 1.
In my research the topography and economics of a given rural village my not have access to stone quarries and where wood is plentiful and inexpensive.
2.
Wood possesses an earthy and organic vibe to it and emanates a different softer, energy than that of marble or granite.
So, the artist may be communicating his enlightened vision even through the choice of martial in addition to "what" that statue depicts.
3.
The mortality of a wooden Buddha statue is metaphysical and symbolic teaching in and of it self of creating a master piece that by design is both eternal in nature while mortal in design; much like the paradoxical existence of the human being.
We are eternal Spirits living out a mortal human experience.