Glorifying the birth of the Buddha through Semage’s art

by Professor Chandima Wijebandara Professor of Buddhist Studies, BRS/BL Graduate School, Singapore.

The Buddha has recommended four places connected to his life to be pilgrim sites for his followers. The places where he was born, attained Buddhahood, delivered the first sermon and parinibbanaised are the sites the Buddha identified that his followers should visit and generate solemn nostalgic feelings of faith. Lumbini is the place where the Buddha was born, and therefore, stands as the first holy site for the Buddhists across the world. Emperor Dharmashoka has erected a stone pillar which carries the inscription “It was here the Buddha was born” (Hidam Bhagave jate) to commemorate the great event. As a matter of fact, Lumbini had been sacred spot for generations of Sri Lankan

Buddhists which they never failed to visit on their pilgrimages to India. Several countries of the Buddhist world have registered their faith by erecting monuments of various nature adding to the glory of this sacred pilgrim site. However no such edifice was to be found there to symbolise the Sri Lanka’s gratefulness to this world renowned teacher whose religion has given the normative foundation of its culture. Realising this lacuna Pon. Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President of Sri Lanka, has launched a program to develop a suitable religious complex at Lumbini. The complex to be known as “Sri Lanka Vihara”, will comprise several buildings including an impressive shrine room with a traditional Makara archway. As the Viharas erected by other Buddhist countries like Thailand and Japan are indicative of their traditional art and architecture it is hoped that the Sri Lanka vihara should also eloquently display our unique cultural identity.

On the Vesak full moon day this year, a bronze image of 3’ 6” in height was placed in the shrineroom erected at the site of Sri Lanka Vihara complex. The next step was to find an artist who could embellish the image house creating serine ambience depictive of the Theravada Buddhist spirit of Sri Lanka. Proposed paintings and sculptures need to be representative of Buddhist heritage of Sri Lanka. It is not an easy task for the reason that classical Sri Lankan art and architecture has taken shape being immensely influenced by Indian traditions.

The rather delicate task of emphasising uniquely Sri Lankan identity within the `extended family’ of great Indian Buddhist art tradition is a challenge to be taken only by an eminently qualified artist with tremendous experience. He should have his roots deep in the Buddhist aesthetic principles brought here by Arahant Mahinda and kept alive. And the same time he needs to have absorbed the unique Sri Lankan spirit that has permeated the Buddhist art of our land being progressively enriched and ennobled by eminent local talents across the centuries. With this in the view, the chairman and the members of the executive committee of Sri Lanka Vihara Project, after a careful screening process, have unanimously decided that this historical task should be entrusted Jayasiri Semage, one of the Sri Lanka’s highly acclaimed artists of international fame, who has created a niche for himself in the tradition of classical Buddhist art.

Before this Vesak Day, Semage has to complete the background wall of the bronze image which comprises a 10’x20’ frame reserved for recreation of the delightful environment of the Lumbini Park at the day of the Prince Siddhartha’s birth. At present he is devotedly engaged in transforming his visualised scenario, emblazoned with the presence of celestial guests that celebrated the supreme birth and the warm embrace given by the Brahma who received the prince in a golden cradle, into colourful lines and shapes. Having vividly conceptualised the narrative of Buddhist nativity in a dreamlike meditative trance, Semage claims “I have accepted the challenge. My creation will establish a new link with Ajanta and Ellora where the masterpieces of Buddhist art remain. It will even begin a new generation of neo-Ajanta genre.”

The next challenge he has to take after illustrating the shrine hall to create a typical Makara Torana, an archway of 40 feet high and 80 feet wide, at the entrance to the shrine. The traditional auspicious symbolism of Pun Kalasaa (lucky pot), sun and moon, lion figures and spiral wine creepers etc., will embellish the archway. “I will, even though I have created many such toranas before this, undertake a fresh look at the traditional toranas of classical age before creating this. It will, however, not be a replica of any previous one. I will blend the tradition with the taste of 21st century and make this a milestone in the long progressive march of our Sinhala Buddhist art” says Semage. He has already selected a group of skilled and talented craftsmen to assist him in this mage creation which he wants to be expressive of the grandeur of Buddhist architecture for many centuries to come.

This of course, is a challenge, even to an artist of Semage’s calibre; yet he highly confident of the responsibility that he has accepted. He has enough previous experience in creating Buddhist paintings and archways for international showcasing. He painted the entire huge shrine hall at the Mangala Vihara in Singapore covering all the walls and the ceiling with the scenes from the life of the Buddha and the history of Buddhist culture. And the grand archway he created for the Sri Lanka hall at Expo exhibition in Japan has so impressed the Japanese citizen in Fukuoka city that they graced him with a special honour. With such impressive track record there is hardly any doubt that this artist will make a monumental contribution to the Sri Lanka Vihara project that will make the Government and people of Sri Lanka proud of him.