Symbols and Icons: May/June 2005 related

[SimonM]

See I disagree with your second point. The antisemitism Hitler exploited had Christian roots. He could have just as easily exploited Christian imagery. Look at the KKK they used to have pretty signigicant influence in the American South.

[mantis108]

I don't think Hilter ever intented to take on the Christians as a whole. You do realize the insurmountable power of the Christians as a whole, right? The antisemitism was a calculated political risk to expropriate the wealth that is in the hands of the Jewish community at the time, which meant very little to the Catholic and Christian communities IMHO. Aggression towards the Jewish people then might just got hilter a little slap on the hand from the international community at large at most (United Nations wasn't even born yet) - that's the rationle behind the move. It seemed that in the beginning his calculation was on the mark but then later things got out of control. In some ways, it's reminiscent of Mao's Cultural Revolution, which is a much smaller scale of course.

What he simply interested in the symbols was the mysterious power that he preceived as giving him the winning edge. To defile any Christian symbol might just tilt that scale of balance of power for him. Pitching occult power(s) against one Almighty God's power has far too many complications that no polictical sage or military savvy will ever undertake. Paraphrasing Sammo Hung and Jackie Chan's Kung Fu flicks comic scripts, "He might be insane but he's no imbecil". Don't forget he rose as a man of charisma. "Looking" good is everything (including the uniforms).

Warm regards

Mantis108

[SimonM]

I don't think a conscious inversion of the meaning behind the Swastika was intended though. The defilement was a result of those things it came to mean as Hitler piled attrocity upon attrocity. Likewise when I referred to him defiling the crucifix I simply meant what if he had chosen to use the cross as the symbol of Nazi Germany rather than the Swastika.

[GeneChing]

Of course, I've been known to raise the dead...

When it comes to the swastika,
there is an old Chinese adage,
Fotuo zhou fen
"Smear the Buddha's head with ****"

[SimonM]

OMG! Gene is a necromancer! Everybody run!

[GeneChing]

Would now be a good time to bring up my nachocotta army of ninjette Pam Anderson's? Not to derail this thread or anything...

[GeneChing]

Witness my decade long necromantic powers!!

Ok, this post isn't the greatest fit for this thread, but after spelunking a bit in search of a better one, I couldn't resist the necromancy here.

29 JANUARY, 2016 - 00:45 APRIL HOLLOWAY

Cosmic Buddha: High Tech Scan of Ancient Chinese Statue Reveals Stunning Illustrations Depicting Buddhist Teachings

Digital 3D scans carried out on a 6th century life-size statue of a monk have revealed stunning illustrations carved into the limestone that depict stories from the Buddha’s life and teachings. The carvings are almost impossible to see with the naked eye, so the new scans will enable experts to decipher the stories that are intricately embedded in the robe.
The Buddha Vairochana (Pilushena) statue, known also as the “Cosmic Buddha” was originally recovered from Henan province in China and belongs to the Northern Qi dynasty (550 – 577 AD), an era of great artistic transformation and religious expression.
“The iconography of the narrative scenes that cover its form-fitting robe represents the life of the Historical Buddha as well as the “Realms of Existence,” a symbolic map of the Buddhist world,” explains the Freer Gallery of Art , where the Buddha is on display.
“In Buddhist texts, Vairochana is described as the generative force behind all phenomena in the universe. He is also a central figure in the Chinese schools of Tiantai and Huayan. The narrative scenes are spiritual emanations rising from the Buddha himself and illustrate fundamental Buddhist teachings. These scenes originally would have been painted, as suggested by the slight traces of pigment that remain.”


Exhibit in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, USA. ( public domain )
3D Scans Reveal Detail of Intricate Carvings

The Washington Post reports that the carvings on the Buddha are extremely worn and researchers and art historians had been trying for years to piece together the illustrations using paper rubbings. However, when this process began to wear down the surface of the sculpture, Keith Wilson, curator of ancient Chinese art at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, turned to Smithsonian’s new 3D digitization program for assistance.
When the results of the scans came through, Mr Wilson was astounded at how clear and detailed the carvings were, even revealing previously unreadable details.
Mr Wilson told Washington Post that on the back of the sculpture, he found “one of the most complex illustrations of the Sutra, a conflation of three or four events brought together in one illustration… This is one of the earliest instances of this kind of combination. Normally it would just be one scene.”
Studying these previously unreadable scenes enabled Wilson to conclude that the Buddha may have been designed to serve as a teaching tool, probably in a monastery, where a teacher would have provided instruction on the Buddhist teachings.


Intricate details revealed. 3D scans showed previously unreadable scenes carved into the Buddha’s robe. (Source: Screen capture, Freer and Sackler YouTube video )

“By looking at 3D prints, scholars can now study these scenes for their artistic merit in a manner similar to paintings. The prints might help elucidate early Chinese narrative illustration and provide vital insight into the visual culture of sixth-century China,” reports the Freer and Sackler Galleries. “Thanks to the 3D model, the Cosmic Buddha can now be examined collaboratively in ways as never before, with “copies” of the sculpture being shared with colleagues in China and elsewhere around the world.”

View a video depicting the stunning illustrations on the Cosmic Buddha, now revealed through 3D scans:


Featured image : 3D scans showed previously unreadable scenes carved into the Buddha’s robe. (Source: Screen capture, Freer and Sackler YouTube video )

By April Holloway