Gautama Buddha in Bronze
With your generous support I will cast this Gautama Buddha in bronze. Your support will make it possible to donate the statue to a dharma center where it may contribute to the preservation of the teachings of the Buddha.
Artworks Foundry of Berkeley began making molds of the feet and hands on Friday, June 19th. During the following week I completed the torso and head and opened the eyes. When the mold is completed the sculpture will have been preserved and may later be cast in bronze. The sculpture is life-sized, measuring 36" by 24" by 24". The cost of the mold is 6,500 USD. The cost of fabrication, which includes lost-wax casting, welding, finishing, and the application of oxidizing chemicals to give the statue a honey-colored patina, is 15,000 USD.
The images above are of the Buddha before completion. When completed it will represent the iconic image of Gautama Buddha at the moment of his enlightenment. He has deposed lust, hatred and ignorance from the seat of his mind, and boundless wisdom and compassion have taken their place. To bear witness to the event and to make his enlightenment firm, he touches the earth with his right hand. He cradles an alms bowl in his lap with his left. Standing, this figure would measure over six feet tall.
I have worked on this model of Gautama Buddha for the past eight months. The dharma center where I serve as Tibetan-language interpreter has provided the space and time required to complete this challenging project. I am very grateful to Venerable Thupten Donyo, the center’s founder and director.
Knowing that there are many other pressing causes to which you might donate, I appreciate your willingness to support this project. I humbly ask that you give generously if you are able, and to share widely through social media so that together we may preserve this Gautama Buddha in bronze.
Thank you,
Shire
The Process
The following images document my effort to follow traditional measures and proportions in the posture of the body of Gautama Buddha.
Mold Making
གང་གིས་ཐུགས་བརྩེས་ཉེར་བཟུང་ནས།།
ལྟ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་སྤང་པའི་ཕྱིར།།
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ནི་སྟོན་མཛད་པ།།
གོ་ཏམ་དེ་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།།
མགོན་པོ་ཀླུ་སྒྲུབ་ཀྱི་རྩ་ཤེ་ལས།
Enthused by great compassion,
You expounded the sublime truth
In order to eliminate all wrong views.
To you, the Gautama Buddha, I pay homage.
May we change our perceptions so that we exemplify our ideals of dignity, justice and compassion for all. Thank you, Shire.