Word: buddhists
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...stunning new gallery of Buddhist sculpture at London's Victoria and Albert Museum makes plain, somewhere along the line the reticence about rendering the Buddha's likeness gave way, and the world embarked on two millenniums of rich iconography and statuary. The gallery's 47 masterworks, culled from the museum's renowned Asian collections, trace the Buddha's portrayal from the 2nd to 19th centuries, in places as diverse as India, Java and Japan. (See 10 things to do in London...
Other enlightened souls are shown beside the Buddha. Among the gallery's most glorious artifacts are depictions of bodhisattvas - those who deliberately postpone their passage to nirvana, Buddhists believe, in order to help others along the eightfold path. In the 14th century, metalworkers from Nepal's Kathmandu Valley crafted the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, a manifestation of the Buddhist lord of compassion, in gilded copper and precious-stone inlay. An androgynous-looking deity with wide hips and sensuous form (in Chinese tradition, Avalokiteshvara or Guan Yin is female, in others male), Avalokiteshvara's serene face projects the harmony to which all Buddhists...
...gallery's principal curator, says that Avalokiteshvara is sometimes depicted holding a blooming lotus - a symbol of spiritual purity. "It comes up from the mud, flowers, and remains untouched by the dirt that surrounded it," he says. You could say the same thing for the wonderful richness of Buddhist art. See www.vam.ac.uk for more...
...work against discrimination. "There was a choice to make," he says, "whether you feel threatened and live your life with misery, or you live with courage." In 2001, Pant and a few friends organized the Blue Diamond Society - named after the Diamond Sutra, a well-known translation of Buddhist teachings emphasizing compassion - to distribute information about HIV. The group later began documenting human-rights abuses against gay people, and its members sued to overturn Nepal's law criminalizing homosexuality. In December 2007, Nepal's Supreme Court ruled in their favor. Four months later, Pant, who was the main petitioner...
...Obama souvenirs in anticipation. T shirts that play on the iconic Shepard Fairey poster of Obama read RELAX instead of HOPE; others say I VACATIONED WITH OBAMA ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD. Sharky's, a Mexican restaurant in Oak Bluffs, is offering "Obamaritas" and "Barack O. Tacos." Even the Buddhist-themed gift store Glimpse of Tibet is peddling notebooks featuring a picture of Obama with the Dalai Lama...