Buddhas eyes

The compassionate yet insightful gaze of Lord Buddha is attractive to most as being both compelling and calming.

It is said that the proportions of a Buddha image with all its features and marks that make it instantly recognisable as Buddha, where taught by Buddha himself. So we can say that such proportions and guidelines are sacred – born of an enlightened mind.

It is certainly true that with the development of Buddhism and its iconography, particular traditions and styles developed within the different realms of Dharma, indeed Tibet and Nepal is no acceptation, holding rich and definite lineages of Thangka painting and statue making, which has further developed through its realised saints and artists, who had the divine ability to communicate between heaven and earth.

This artwork demonstrates the Tibetan style of Buddha’s eyes, showing the typical grid proportions from which the eyes are formed, illustrating a small part which belong to a much more complex sets of proportions for the whole face and body.

The smaller surrounding calligraphy in Umed script, are notes describing the different parts and qualities of the eyes, eyebrows and the central bindu coil, which are listed within the 32 main and the secondary 80 marks/signs of Buddha, such as the ūrṇā coil that emits light between the eyebrows, deep blue eyes with eyebrows fine and arched like a bow.