KYONAN, Chiba Pref. -- Finding the perfect, companionable Buddha can become an obsession. Foreigners living in Asia are often struck by this calm, enlightened face; its features contrast sharply with the figures of Western religious art and their often contrived depictions of the ecstasy of Christian saints or the agony of the cross.
"Wisdom. Compassion. Protection. Peace of mind! And for sheer devotional value, nothing beats a Buddha," Jeff Greenwald writes in his travelogue "Shopping for Buddhas."
The small, nicely oxidized Buddha that stands on one of the upper shelves (Buddhas should never be displayed at heights below their owners) in my own study, supposedly buried for over 400 years in the earth floor of a cave in the northeast of Laos, is frankly speaking, an inferior work, no doubt cranked out in haste and multiplied several times over to satisfy the needs of some enigmatic quota.