Urna

For the Mongolian singer, see Urna (singer).

In Buddhist art and culture, the Urna (more correctly ūrṇā or ūrṇākośa[1] (Pāli uṇṇa), and known as byakugō (白毫) in Japan) is a spiral or circular dot placed on the forehead of Buddhist images as an auspicious mark.[1][2] It symbolizes a third eye, which in turn symbolizes vision into the divine world; a sort of ability to see past our mundane universe of suffering.

As set out in the Lakkhana Sutta or 'Discourse on Marks', the ūrṇā is the thirty-first physical characteristic of Buddha.[3] It is generally thought to be a whorl of hair and be a mark or sign of the Buddha as a mahāpuruṣa or great being. The device is often seen on sculptures from the 2nd century CE.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "The Lost Buddhas: Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou". Asian Art. April 14, 2012. Retrieved April 12, 2016.
  2. ↑ Stratton, Carol (2004). Buddhist Sculpture of Northern Thailand. Serindia Publications. p. 50. ISBN 9781932476095.
  3. ↑ Holt, John Clifford; Kinnard, Jacob N.; Walters, Jonathan S. (2012). Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia. SUNY Press. p. 191. ISBN 9780791487051.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/12/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.