¡¡Kaigen Kuyoo – Painting Eyes for Buddha Statues
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Sara has been asking about the painting of eyes or rather pupils for
a Buddhastatue.
I am not familiar with the customs of Sri Lanka, unfortunately, but I
found two interesting LINKS on the subject.

Here is a part from the story of Michael Ondaatje, Anil¡Çs Ghost
<> Ananda gathers the local villagers to restore the statue that is
to be matched by a new one constructed a mile away. In recognition,
he is again given the honor of completing the new statue by painting
on the eyes, without which it is not the Buddha.
Perched on a ladder, aided by a young assistant, Ananda faces away
from the statue, chiseling out the eyes and painting them through a
mirror, for no mortal can meet the Buddha¡Çs gaze directly. What he
sees is what the Buddha will see: ¡Èall the fibres of natural history
around him.... He could feel each current of wind...every lattice-
like green shadow created by cloud. <>
http://www.americamagazine.org/gettextbr.cfm?
textID=1876&articletypeid=31&issueID=340

I found a LINK about the Mahavamsa, the Cronic of Sri Lanka, where
somewhere in the middle of an extensive treatiese the ceremony is
mentioned:

<> The Buddha image is treated with the greatest respect. One
particular ceremony known as the Netra pinkama (Eye festival) gives
an indication of the high regard and reverence paid to it. The
ceremony is an elaborate long-drawn-out one, the most important
aspect of which is the ritual of painting the eyes on the image. It
is the last and most important act of the whole Eye festival. In
olden days this was probably done by a king or someone of high
standing. Today a specialist craftsman is carefully chosen to perform
this most sacred and awesome act.

On the day when the ceremony is to take place, the craftsman comes in
procession from his home to the place where the image is. He offers
prayers to the goddess Gana-devii and a sheaf of betel leaves to the
goddess (Bhuumatudevii.) Then he goes to the place where the image
is, accompanied by another, who brings a box of colours and a mirror.
This mirror is held in front of the image and the craftsman, looking
at the mirror, paints the eyes over his shoulders or sideways,
without looking at the image. This is done at an extremely auspicious
time as the culminating act of a long and elaborate ritual.
As soon as the eyes are painted, the sculptor is blindfolded and led
to a place where there is water and the covering is removed so that
his eyes will first fall on the water. The water is then struck with
a sword. This is a symbolical act signifying the destruction of the
evil effects of the "look" (baalma).

Behind this symbolical act there is the concept of the dangerous look
or gaze. It is believed that the gaze of the image is so powerful
that no one must look at it direct. That is why the sculptor uses a
mirror. Even then, the sculptor's look can be dangerous until it is
symbolically destroyed. After this is done the gaze of the image will
have no evil effect.
http://www.payer.de/mahavamsa/chronik20e1.htm


And here is another interesting very long article
Buddhist Ceremonies and Rituals of Sri Lanka
<> An important ceremony associated with the Buddha-image is the
ritual of painting its eyes (netra-pinkama), which is performed with
much care on an auspicious occasion as the last item of its
construction. Until this is done the image is not considered an
adequate representation of the Buddha. <>
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/bps/wheels/wheel402.html

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Now I will tell you a little about the situation in Japan.

Consecration Ceremony with Painting Eyes for a Buddhastatue
Kaigen Kuyoo, Kaigen Hooyoo (Kaigan Kuyo)
The first recorded ceremony to paint eyes for a Buddhastatue was most
probably on the 8th of April in 752 and the statue was the great
Rushana-Buddha of Nara in the Todai-ji.
The pupils of the eyes are painted with a special brush and once they
are painted, the ¡ÈSOUL¡É enters the statue and it turns from a big
piece of bronze into the very essence of the Buddha Vairocana himself.

On the day before the ceremony, the high-ranking officials and
courtiers started bringing offerings of flowers. Many dignitaries
from all over Buddhist Asia came to attend too and the ceremony
looked more like the festivities for a New Year celebration.
Everywhere flags and banners in the five holy colors (white, yellow,
red, blue, green) where put up.

The priests finally arrived, let on by the head priest. It was quite
a long procession, all in their best colorful brocade robes and large
wooden clogs.
The priest in charge of painting the pupils (kaigen-shi) was a high
priest especially called from India, Priest Bodai Senna (Bodai
Sooshoo), who had come to Japan in 736 to supervise the construction.
He was seated in a palanquin protected by a huge white silken
umbrella, behind him followed priests Ryuuson and Enbuku, in charge
of reading the Kegon Sutra.

The eyes of the Great Buddha (daibutsu) had a length of 1.2 meters
and craftsmen had constructed a special big brush to paint the
pupils. At the end of the brush holder there were five silken ropes
in the five holy colors ropes attached to it with 215 meters length.
The residing Tenno Shomu (Shoomuu) and all the digintaries were
holding a part of this rope in their hands so as to virtually partake
of the painting.

The Great Buddha was more than 16 meters high and there was most
probably some kind of scaffold for Bodai Senna to climb on and
perform the actual painting. Once the pupils were painted, all
chanted in praise of the Buddha, then the Kegon Sutra and other
scriptures were read and finally outside of the Great Hall dances
from many Asian countries were performed in an endless joyful
ceremony.

First young girls and dancers from Japan performed, then groups from
China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries added a foreign
touch with their local dances. All of Asia seemed to be dancing in
harmony on this day, until late into the night the world was at
peace. This was the greatest assembly of Buddhistic dignitaries in
Asia so far ever and the political might of Japan seemed to be well
represented in this ceremony.

This is my translated part of the story about the Big Buddha at Nara,
told by Katori Tadahiko. It is also partly mentioned here:
http://www.amie.or.jp/daruma/Me-ire.html
http://www.aisf.or.jp/~jaanus/deta/k/kaigenkuyou.htm


In 2002, a great memorial ceremony to celebrate 1250 years since the
first Eye-Opening Ceremony was held at Todai-Ji with equal splendor,
also to celebrate the end of a great repair effort of the buildings.
It is captured splendidly in these picuters.
<> Todaiji temple in Nara, founded in 752 (Tenpyo era), is famous for
its giant 8th-century bronze Buddha held its 1250 year big
commemorative service (Keisan daihonoo) last October 2002. The
ceremony lasted for 5 days with approximately 1 billion participants
in total. The hall of the Great Buddha statue was covered by the 5
color curtains and there were lines of the priests in formal robe
marching in its wide approach to the hall. We can see the striking
traditional colors through these curtains and robes of the priests.
They were made with the fabric dyed according to the techniques
inherited from the Tenpyo era. <>

http://www.asukanet.gr.jp/umayado/horyuji/1250/1250.html
http://mikuhamu.hp.infoseek.co.jp/daibutukaigen.htm
http://www.tamagawa.ac.jp/sisetu/kyouken/WebLibrary/toudaiji/
http://murata35.cool.ne.jp/mailtoko/iseki/izeki04.htm
http://www.kateigaho.com/html/sp01/pickup01/0303_pickup_1_02.html
http://www.kateigaho.com/html/english/0302_special.html

There was also a special exhibition at the National Museum in Nara
for this event.
http://www.narahaku.go.jp/exhib/2002toku/todaiji/todaiji-1.htm


You can read a little more here about the music performed during
Buddhist rituals.
After the Todaiji Temple Daibutsu-Kaigan-Kuyo-e
http://www.amie.or.jp/daruma/Me-ire.html

Japanese ÆüËܸì
http://www.todaiji.or.jp/index/rekisi/gaisetu.html
http://www.miho.or.jp/japanese/member/shangrila/vol9/jshan9_7.htm

The original of the rope (kaigen-ru), which Bodai Senna had tied to
his brush, is shown here. It is the last sample on a page about old
silk pieces.
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http://www.tamaq.net/silk1.html

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Here is some more for the philosopically minded:
The Eye-Opening Ceremony in the Nichiren Sect of Buddhism
http://nichirenscoffeehouse.net/Gohonzon/EyeOpeningCeremony.html

Opening the Eyes of Wooden or Painted Images
Just placing a sutra in front of a statue or painting can be
beneficial already:
<> When one places a sutra in front of a wooden or painted image of
the Buddha, the image becomes endowed with all thirty-two features.
Yet, even though it has thirty-two, without the spiritual aspect it
is no way equal to a Buddha, for even the being in the world of
Humanity or Heaven may possess the thirty-two features.9 When the
Gokai Sutra10 is placed before a wooden or painted image having
thirty-one features, the image becomes equal to wheel-turning king.11
When the Juzen Ron12 is placed before it, the image becomes equal to
Taishaku. When the Shutsuyoku Ron13 is placed before it, the image
becomes equal to Bonten. But in none of these cases does it in any
way become equal to a Buddha. <>
http://www.sgi-
usa.org/buddhism/library/Nichiren/Gosho/OpeningEyesWooden.htm

This Nichiren Group Soka Gakkai also features a useful dicitonary of
Buddhist Terms.
http://www.sgi-usa.org/buddhism/library/Buddhism/dbtc.htm

Dictionary about Japanese Architecture and Art
This dictionary contains approximately 8000 terms related to
traditional Japanese architecture and gardens, painting, sculpture
and art-historical iconography from approximately the 1st century
A.D. to the end of the Edo period (1868).
http://www.aisf.or.jp/%7Ejaanus/

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Before the restauration of a Buddhastatue, the pupils have to be
removed so that the Deity retreats and the piece of plain wood is
left behind, which can be worked with. Otherwise if you would put
your knife to the statue, it would hurt the residing deity and cause
great harm for all involved in the restauration.


There is more to be said about this subject, but let us leave it here
for today.

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&copy; Presented by Gabi Greve, GokuRakuAn, June 2004
gokuraku@...
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