1. There were no Buddha statues for many years after the Parinibbana of the Buddha. Soon after Buddha’s Parinibbana, stupas with Buddha’s remains (dhatu) were built.
- Statues of the Buddha were built hundreds of years after the Parinibbana of the Buddha. There were Buddhist Greek Kings in India after Alexander, for example, King Milinda. That is when the tradition of building Buddha statues started (Greeks are famous for making statues of their deities).
2. I asked Grok (Musk’s AI) about that, and the following is the answer:
“King Menander, also known as Milinda in Indian sources, was a Greco-Bactrian and later Indo-Greek King who ruled a large territory in the Northwestern regions of the Indian Subcontinent. While there are no direct historical records stating that King Menander started the practice of making Buddha statues, there is evidence that Greco-Buddhism flourished during his reign. Greco-Buddhist art, which began to appear around the 1st century BCE, combined Hellenistic artistic styles with Buddhist themes, resulting in statues of the Buddha that incorporated Greek artistic elements, such as realistic human forms and drapery.
The earliest surviving Buddha statues discovered at the site of Jamal Garhi in ancient Gandhara date to the 1st or 2nd century CE, which is after the reign of King Menander. However, it is plausible that the Greco-Buddhist artistic tradition that led to the creation of these statues might have been influenced by the patronage of Buddhism by Indo-Greek kings like Menander. King Menander is noted for having become a patron and convert to Greco-Buddhism, and his reign is remembered for its connection to the spread of Buddhism in the region.”
3. In the following video, a child describes her life as a Deva during the time of the Buddha (in Sinhala.) She says the Buddha was different than depicted in the current Buddha statues (@21 minutes).
- As a Deva, she was able to “go inside” stupas and see dhatu (remains of the Buddha) enclosed in golden containers.
- She also says the Buddha statues we have today do not match the Buddha’s features. That makes sense. Statues of the Buddha were built hundreds of years after the Buddha’s Parinibbana.
4. Furthermore, worshipping symbols REPRESENTING the Buddha were there at the time of the Buddha. There is the following account in the Tipitaka (I forget the name of the sutta):
- People brought many things to offer to the Buddha at Jetavanarama. If the Buddha was not there, they went back disappointed. When Ven. Ananda mentioned this to the Buddha; the Buddha asked for a Bodhi tree to be planted there and instructed people to make offerings to that Bodhi tree. It was called “Ananda Bodhi. ” It was just a symbol representing the Buddha. One’s feelings are based on one’s reverence for the Buddha, not for the symbol.
5. Looking at a Buddha statue gives me peace of mind. If it is conducive to meditation, one could use it for that purpose.
