Vietnam to remove all ‘copulating’ Buddha statues, if any

TUOITRENEWS  

Posted on Facebook, this photo is said to be taken in Vietnam

An inspection will be done at all pagodas in Vietnam and statues depicting the Buddha hugging nude women will be removed. This is in response to recent claims that there is such a statue in Vietnam, triggering anger among many who say it is blasphemous.

A photo showing one such statue was posted on Facebook and its poster claimed it was taken in Vietnam but did not specify the location. Thailand’s The Bangkok Post late last month wrote that the figurine draw condemnation from Thai Buddhist world.

In response, Thich Gia Quang, head of the Buddhist Church of Vietnam’s communication department, told Buddhist news site phatgiao.org.vn that his organization will soon request all Buddhist units across the country to check all pagodas and worshipping sites for such statues and, if found, will remove them completely.

His comments were published on the site yesterday.

The senior monk said the Buddhist Church does not know if the said statue is of Vietnamese origin or not. But he stressed that there is no such figurines under the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition and that the public would protest if they appear in public.

There are two main Buddhist branches in the country: Mahayana and Theravada and they both do not recognize such images, the monk confirmed.

He added that even though such sculptures are common in India, Nepal or Tibet, they are definitely “not appropriate” for Vietnam taking into account its Buddhism history, tradition and culture.

Priceless artifact

Meanwhile, Doctor Nguyen Minh Ngoc, a Buddhist researcher at the Vietnamese Institute of Religions, told Thanh Nien that the statue could be in Vietnam but it is likely to belong to someone’s personal collection and is not on display in public.

“It is just a normal tantric statue …It is completely wrong to say that it depicts sex between Lord Buddha and a woman. Such ideas stem from the fact that we impose our own modern views while its cultural root is different”.

Dr. Ngoc explained that it represents the union of yin and yang, of the male representing compassion with the female representing wisdom. The marriage of wisdom and compassion leads to enlightenment. 

The researcher added that if the statue in the Facebook photo is indeed an ancient one and has Vietnamese origins, it is priceless and a breakthrough for archeology, art and religion studies. “It fills the gap in the history of Tantric Buddhism or Vajrayana in Vietnam”.

According to Dr. Ngoc, it is not known when Vajrayana first arrived in Vietnam and exactly which Vajrayana sects existed in the country.

Evidence says that Vajrayana did survive during the Ly dynasty but no tantric statues of the period have ever been found.

Art scholar Pham Trung of the Institute of Arts told Thanh Nien he once saw similar statues on display at an exhibition inside the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum in Hanoi. “But the sculptures were very small and I think did not originate from Vietnam”.

They are considered artworks and not objects of worship, Trung added.

Nguyen Quoc Tuan, head of the Institute of Religions, says he does not know of any instances of such ‘sexy’ figurines being made in Vietnam. So, it could be brought from abroad like Nepal.

The Bangkok Post quoted a Thai netizen as saying that “the person who sculpted the statue was evil and wanted to give Buddhism a bad name”. Others called for its immediate destruction.

However, many disagree. One wrote on Facebook that the image of the Buddha with a nude woman is easily found in many museums in Nepal. It spreads the message that despite being tempted by beauty, the Lord does not fall into materialistic traps.

In fact, similar images can be found in ancient texts of India, Bhutan, Nepal or Tibet and statues depicting the Lord being intimate with women are on sale in many countries. A normal sculpture would show the Buddha in his tantric aspect in embrace with a woman, in a position of union known as Yab-Yum (literally Father-Mother) in Tibetan and Maithuna in Sanscrit.

But Vietnam is quite conservative when it comes to sex.

In November last year, two Buddhist monks in southern Vietnam were punished by being banned from leaving a monastery and from contact with the outside world for three months after it was found that a pop singer kissed them in public – against their will - as a thank-you gesture.