Statues & Thangkas

Item Description

Garden of Buddhas offers the successful bidder a newly created statue of Patacara, foremost keeper of the Vinaya amongst the nuns, the Rules of Conduct, in 6th century BCE Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Patacara's story includes being born into a rich family, running away with her lower-caste lover as a young woman, his death and the death of her children, and her difficult relationship with her parents. When she encountered the Buddha she told him her story and he used it to teach her about the nature of impermanence. She became a sotapanna, the first stage of Arayahood, those who have attained "the fruits of the path." The Buddha appointed her the foremost Keeper of the Vinaya for monastic life amongst the Nuns.

Says Victoria Fahey of Garden of Buddhas about the inspiration for the Patacara statue,

"With form being emptiness and emptiness being form, whether or not we are in male or female bodies is of little consequence. However, when most of the Buddhist images we sit with are male, there is a subtle message that one must be born in a man’s body to become enlightened. It has been said that the Buddha asked for no images to be made of him and that when images began to be created they were supposed to have 32 major characteristics (and 80 minor ones) unique to the Buddha, including that the images be somewhat androgynous.

That said, to represent Buddhist women and support the knowing that enlightenment is for women also, I still believe it is important to have more feminine images available for us.

Years ago I committed myself to creating more images of women in Buddhism and I am grateful to Tanya Wiser, Gil Fonsdale, and Andrea Fella. They told me the story of Patacara and asked if I could oversee the carving of her for Insight Retreat Center (IRC) Santa Cruz. This statue is the prototype for their large one and we cast her because we loved her and wanted to share her with as many people as possible."

 

Details:

Dimensions: 16" h x 12" w x 6" d.

Finish: Antique Rust patina.

Placement: She can reside inside or in a covered place in your garden.

Material: Metal bonded with resin and antiqued by hand. There can be minor variations in color because antiquing is a natural process and gets richer with time.

Item Special Note

All prices $USD.

Cost of shipping not included.

Each statue is handmade to order so please allow 4 to 5 weeks for delivery. Ships to street address via Fed Ex.

Ships only in US.

At the conclusion of the auction, the winning bid will be charged to the credit card on file.