Is the Buddha's "photograph" a fake?

Maya, Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; WQ reader Nyanatusita; Borsheimarts.com; Rex Harris (sheepdog_rex/flickr.com)

A touched up photograph of a painting so lifelike that some thought it was a photo of the ghostly energetic trace of the Buddha Shakyamuni, the "Sage of the Shakya Clan." Next they'll be saying the Shroud of Turin is fake or that the Cloak of Trier, Jesus' famous garment on the cross is the wrong size for a skinny African/Egyptian/Palestinian Jew who just got back from travels in Buddhist India and Tibet (WQ).

.

He does look a li'l Spanish (RB)

Stop the presses! This just in! The mysterious photograph of the Buddha, which we took as further evidence that he was Central Asian from west of Gandhara (i.e., Indo-Scythia) is apparently a fake, informs us WQ reader Nyanatusita today: 

The “curious image of the historical Buddha” that “subsequently appeared on the film [roll of a foreign tourist photographing around Bodh Gaya, India, presumably the place of the Buddha's "Great Enlightenment," Siddhartha Gautama's Maha Bodhi]” is [actually] a touched up photograph of the Buddha on the oil canvas painting called “Buddha's Temptations.”

The ascetic Siddhartha or the accomplished Buddha under the Bodhi tree in Bodh Gaya, ancient India, being tempted by sexy sylvan devas and Mara's daughters (Rex Harris).

.

[It is] by the Spanish artist Eduardo Chicharro Aguera (1873-1949) finished in 1921 [and is now hanging] in the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid. [Evidence, need evidence? See The Buddha's Temptations, Madrid Museum by Rex Harris/sheepdog_rex/flickr.com) and Borsheimarts.com (News, 04-2014, Madrid). Yours, Nyanatusita."

Reaction

It made us hopelessly skeptical.

Thank you, (venerable) friend! You have done us a great service by bringing out the truth. If one wanted to cling to the notion that this is a "Photograph" of the Buddha one could say that since the and hand and halo are exactly the same, maybe the art Aguera was using the photo as his model. But hope springs eternal, and we would rather not push it. Let us say that the "photo" story was a hoax using this artistic rendering as its basis until such time as other evidence surfaces.

We have no need of clinging to superstitions or any beliefs because the Buddha's message, the essential Dharma, becomes self-evident to the meditator who realizes the truth and thereby becomes independent of any teacher, authority, or external source. And that essence -- enlightenment and glimpsing/touching nirvana and seeing the paths and fruits, the magga-phalas -- is why being a Buddhist is worthwhile whatever else one does or does not do, believes or does not believe. All the Buddha said was, "the Dharma is inviting." "Come and see for yourself. The truth is open for one to investigate directly."

The "Buddha's Temptations"
Borsheimarts.com

There is something about this large painted canvas "Buddha's Temptations" by Eduardo Chicharro Aguera that does not appeal to me. Perhaps it is the colors. However, the idea and the mythology does interest me (and who does not enjoy women with large cats?) I share again what the museum card said: 

Eduardo Chicharro Aguera, Madrid, 1873-1949, "Buddha's Temptations" 1921, Oil on Canvas, 2.90 x 3.66 meters. Signed and dated E. Chicharro 1921.

Detail: gorgeous, feline distractions and nagas

While serving as director of the Spanish Fine Arts Academy in Rome, Chicharro achieved his most ambitious painting, after many preparatory drawings and sketches. [It was probably one of these early sketches that served as the basis of the photo hoax rather than someone working backward for this finished oil on canvas.]

He spent five years on the canvas itself. The name Buddha means Illuminated [from the root budh or budhi, awakened, enlightened]: this young prince has wandered for years seeking the light and now receives it under a ficus [Ficus religiosa, the Sacred Fig], the sacred tree of Buddhism. Motionless and absorbed [in jhana, dhyana, samadhi], he ignores the Apsaras [sylphs, angelic celestial space or woodland maidens], daughters of Evil [Mara, the Tempter and Obstructor], who try to seduce him:
 

O, great prince, go back to Scythia and rule!

Flattery and her sister Adulation, Lust with a panther body, Tenderness [Laziness, Regret], lying at his feet, Voluptuousness on a rich red drapery....
 
Lakshmi [like the famed Buddhist nun Ven. Uppalavanna], India's answer to Venus, appears riding an elephant. Another wicked Apsara, with a many-hued veil, takes on the figure of the beautiful young wife [29-year-old Princess Bimba, known to the world as Yasodhara, who later became the famous Buddhist nun and fierce disputant Ven. Bhaddhakaccana] this prince has left behind.
 
This work was awarded the Honors Medal at the 1922 Spanish National Exhibition, and the same year Chicharro was elected a member of the San Fernando Royal Academy. Purchased in 2001 with the Giutarte Bequest. More

Happy Nowruz (New Year), Persepolis!

Wisdom Quarterly

If it is true as we suspect that the Buddha was born in Baluchistan/Gandhara (Lumbini on the ancient Indian border in what is now a tri-national hinterland or province of Iran-Afghanistan-Pakistan) not Nepal, more of his early life near Bamiyan (ancient Kapilavastu, near Kabul, modern Afghanistan) will make sense shedding new light on his career in India proper.

He traveled to the largest metropolitan areas of the day, taking up residence in Rajgir, Magadha. The famous Vulture's Peak and Jeta's Grove are there in and outside of the ancient city walls respectively.

Nowruz or something like it would have been what was celebrated in the land -- later to become part of the ancient Persian empire -- that would eventually give rise to Zoroastrianism (the Parsis in India) and many of the original traditions that were incorporated into missionary Christianity, which is an amalgam of beliefs and practices heavy on re-purposed Mahayana Buddhist Messiah (Maitreya) beliefs (which impacted early Judaism first through Kashmir, as research by H. Kersten has established).

The more we know of any culture, the closer we feel to it. And Iran is nearly a black box to us even in Los Angeles. But our hearts were drawn in, even to Iran's view of "God," through the heartwarming work of Marjane Satrapi and her graphic novel Persepolis. We re-watch it every year (appreciating the English version more than squinting to read subtitles). Thank you, Persepolis, and happy Nowruz!

Sexy People Sound Better

The Buddha was remarkably beautiful. His voice is similarly praised as mellifluous. His reputation spread far and wide. It proceeded him. Not only was his ethical conduct remarkable, people who merely saw him at a distance became interested in what he had to say. He was tall and unlike most Indian holy men.

His own explanation of this (the 32 major and 80 minor physical marks of greatness) was karmic. Sutras explain how he came to have each feature, from his bright golden complexion to his blue eyes, from jet black curly hair to his sonorous voice. His voice in particular inspired confidence. It could be heard at a distance in a time when there were no microphones or PA systems.

Greg Soltis (LiveScience.com)

People with voices deemed sexy and attractive tend to have greater body symmetry upon close inspection, suggesting that what we hear in a person can greatly affect what we see in them.

"The sound of a person's voice reveals a considerable amount of biological information," said Susan Hughes, an evolutionary psychologist from Albright College in Reading, Pa. "It can reflect the mate value of a person."

Hughes, whose new study is detailed in the June 2008 edition of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, cautions that an attractive voice does not necessarily indicate that this person has an attractive face.

A symmetric body is genetically sound, scientists say, and in evolutionary terms, in the wild, it can be an important factor when selecting a mate. But sometimes changes during prenatal development can slightly skew this balance. For instance, the length ratio between index and ring fingers, known as the digit ratio, is fixed by the first trimester, a time that corresponds with vocal cord and larynx development. If the hormone surge that affects vocal development also affects finger growth, there should be a connection between an individual's voice and digit ratio.

Hughes could not demonstrate a connection between voice attractiveness and digit ratio in her previous work, possibly due to vocal changes that occur during puberty. So in the new study, about 100 individuals listened to previously recorded voices and independently rated them on nine traits important during mate selection: approachability, dominance, healthiness, honesty, intelligence, likelihood to get dates, maturity, sexiness, and warmth.

Study participants generally agreed on what made a voice attractive. But when Hughes used a spectrogram to analyze these voice ratings according to different acoustic properties such as pitch, intensity, jitter and shimmer, she could not find a common feature that made these voices seem attractive.

This indicates our perceptual system may be more advanced than expected.

"We can agree on what's an attractive voice yet I can't capture it with a computer," Hughes told LiveScience.

Investigating if a combination of these properties can define an attractive voice may shed light on a connection, she said.

PHOTOS: Modern beauty in youth and reaching maturity (radio star Pat Morrison, KPCC); the Buddha photographed in Bodhgaya, India (Wisdom Quarterly).

• 10 Tips for a Healthy Voice
• Deep-Voice Men Have More Kids
• 10 Things You Didn't Know About You
  
• Original Story: Sexy People Sound Better

"Photograph" of the Buddha?

In Search Of (Part I) Spirit Photography?

There exists a curious image of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. It was reputedly taken or at least discovered in Bodhgaya, India, in 1980. A devotee, it is said, was photographing the site of Shakyamuni's ("Sage of the Shakyas") great enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. The image, not seen at the time of photographing, subsequently appeared on the film.

It is an image of a very comely young meditator with a top knot, robe, and almost cosmetic details. The photograph has not been widely circulated. It may inspire the faithful or arouse doubt. One copy hangs at the Bhavana Society, a Theravadan monastery/nunnery in West Virginia, for all to see.

Photos taken in Bodh Gaya showed this image when developed.

How would a recent "photograph" of an ancient figure be possible? Leonard Nimoy offers a fascinating explanation of the phenomenon.

In Search Of (Part II) Deva Hoax in England?

In Search Of (Part III) Man makes photographs with his mind in controlled experiments