BUDDHIST BRONZES
By Lin Sen-shou

Historical documents record that at the beginning of the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 A.D.), EmperorMing dreamed of a golden person flying acrowwthe sky to him. The next morning, he invited all his ministers to explain the dream. One person replied, "Your Majesty, there is a deity in the west called 'Buddha,' and this is where the dream comes from." The emperor then sent someone to states in the west to search for this "Buddha."

This is said to be the first document mentioning the appearance of Buddha. The first reference to bronze statues of buddhas was in Shih-shih chi-ku-lueh [Brief Studies of the Sakya Tribe], which records that in 154 A.D., Emperor Huan from the same dynasty ordered his people to build statues of buddhas and Laotzu and cover them with gold. The statues were then worshipped in the palace. Slowly over time, the statues became more widespread and more materials were used in their creation, such as wood, stone, etc. in all sizes and styles.

The process for creating gilded bronze statues is as follows. Copper, tin, lead, and other metals are mixed and poured into a mold. When the bronze is cool, the mold is removed, revealing the rough shape of the statue. A liquid mixture of gold and mercury is painted on the statue. The mixture is heated to make the mercury evaporate, leaving the gold fixed to the copper. Next, the gold is carved and polished to make the final product. This is repeated from six to twelve times to reach the final product. Production of statues became moremature as time went by, and as each dynasty came and went, styles became more diversified. Statues of other Buddhist beings (such as bodhisattvas, other buddhas and Sakyamuni Buddha's disciples) also gradually appeared.

In order to give our readers a taste of Buddhist bronzes and their variety, we present examples from the private collection of Tsai Chih-chung, the author of the cartoon version of Still Thoughts. Between 1993 and 1996, Tsaiamassed a stunning collection of 2,200 bronze statues of buddhas, bodhisattvas and deities at his home in Taipei, When he started drawing cartoons about Buddhism, he bought some statues to use as models for buddhas and bodhisattvas in various postures. Gradually he fell in love with the bronzes, their history and the artistic styles of their periods. Now the collection itself, rather than its usefulness to his drawing, has become the main focus. What would any artist love more than a piece of good art work? These historical bronzes are art themselves. Especially fond of statues from China, Tsai bought them in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The news of his furious buying became widespread and bronze sellers would come to him with bronzes to sell. In one year, he bought an average of three statues every day! On the following pages, we present some of his favorites.