Posted 10 years ago
racer4four
(586 items)
This wooden Buddha was brought to Australia by my father in the early 50s after his work period in Papua New Guinea. Surprisingly, PNG has a large Buddhist population of over 6 million.
Buddha here has been part of my whole life, and even as a little kid I loved looking at his face and laughing at and rubbing his big belly.
He still brings me peace.
Unfortunately the very dry, hot air of western NSW resulted in him cracking - maybe he was a bit green when carved. Never mind, his benevolence continues and I still think him marvelous.
As Buddha said "The mind is everything. What you think you become."
I'm trying!!!
beautiful!!!
It's the cold northern air that causes some of us to crack :)
I like that saying!
& him of course
Thanks Sean.....live for today!
Thanks WS. ........ A crack allows us to see the soul.. (what? ??)
The old boy is beautiful. I used to collect these fat boys. Either he was never waxed or the wax wore off. Only wax his bottom. If there is a felt pad under him remove it and wax the underside. Now for his cracking up humor. Go to a pet supply store and get a plastic bird feeding syringe. I know it sounds odd. Now you need vegetable oil, the kind you cook with. Inject the vegetable oil down inside the crack with him laying on his back. Let it soak in and do it again before you set him upright. That will retard the splitting.
Thanks fhrlkhsdkagsfls!
I am currently on the job of helping the crack cease and desist.
Love the Buddha. My mother always had them around. Thanks for bringing back that memory!
hello. i have a question if that's ok. I've become interested in randomly picking a nostalgic object from childhood - simply because I always wondered if it might have been more special than was thought. i "think" this is close to an identical buddha we had. My father brought it back from his tour in vietnam (1968). I assume he acquired it Thailand. Do you know it's value? What kind of wood and/or style of carving it is? I'm only curious. My mother hated it and threw it away directly after his death and I was crushed...
Hi there mother of Grace. As I said this one came from Papua New Guinea in the 50s but this style of Buddha is based on a Chinese poor, humble but happy Buddha, called Budai, Pu-Tai, or in Vietnamese, Bo-Dai. He is considered differently to the other Buddha we are familiar with, Gautama Buddha, or the Thai style Buddha.
He almost always looks similar to this and it's likely that mahogony was still regularly used when you dad got his. Chances are he looked a lot like this. Not very valuable, just in a personal sense. I'm sorry he's gone!
Thank you. I must confess I would have gotten just a bit of validation if my mother knew that suffering happy Buddha for decades would have offered a big payoff....if she'd just saved the fellow for me. My fatther spent extensive time in southeast Asia as a high ranking Air Force Officer and had a deep ifintiy for Southeast Asian "crap" - as she called it. I respect that she didn't have to like it - but she threw every simgle piece away - lot's of various Buddah pieces, but chose to keep amassive reproduction of Blueboy painted by a local Korean my father knew while stationed there. I keep explaining "it's not the actual Blueboy, Mom". She's cute though. Thanks again - Gracemom (and Maxsmom too)