Manifestations of Buddhas

When Shakyamuni, the Historical Buddha, became silent and entered the unshackled state of existence or the final nirvana, the devotees wanted to adore and remember the enlightened being and this served as an inspiration for the creation of Buddha images. The followers could not accept that their teacher had completed his earthly sojourn and had departed forever. The devotee’s yearning was always for something evocative and visual of the Supreme Lord. And thus began a journey of representing Buddha from enshrined stupas to images of the Lord in human likeness. Buddhism started becoming a tradition of the visual, wherein the message of the sutras was translated through images and murals. With the passage of time, devotion combined with needs and aspirations of people gave way to creation of a variety of Buddhas manifested in various forms, attributes and characteristic features in different countries across the world.