The Historical Buddha

This textless cartoon from the Burmese cartoonist JMP caused enormous controversy in Burmese communities after it was released. It shows a young boy visiting a Burmese pagoda and finding an imprint of the Buddha's Footprint. These are not uncommon in Myanmar, and usually come with a claim that the Buddha visited this very spot at some point in his life (although historical records attest that the Buddha never traveled beyond what is now northern India and southern Nepal). For anyone who has actually seen these footprints at Burmese pagodas, it becomes immediately clear that only a giant could have feet that large. Still, many devout Bamar Buddhists became incensed and offended that JMP chose to sketch out a cartoonish, rather preposterous depiction of their spiritual teacher.

I think there are multiple ways to take in this cartoon. To me, this is not an attack on the historical Buddha, nor is JMP going after low-hanging fruit by ridiculing a figure believed to be fully enlightened. Rather, his criticism continues to hone in on those Burmese traditions which have tried to create the Buddha in their own image, and when you put logic to their renderings, you end up with a figure which simply doesn't make any sense. This cartoon also reminds me of a conversation some years ago with an American monk who lived remotely in the forest. He commented to me that if you actually were to draw the Buddha according to the descriptions provided in the scriptures, you would end up with a highly disproportionate being. I share this story not to criticize the Buddhist scriptures, but to show how even a very devout follower of the Buddha, who has left behind his entire life to follow his teachings, is still able to retain a critical mind in identifying what doesn't add up.

Indeed, JMP's sketch here represents the clash between artistic freedom in the post-Tatmadaw Myanmar, and traditional, religious attitudes which fear and resist taking on taboo subjects. How this tension sorts out, regardless of how the conflict unfolds, will be important to observe as the fault lines of Buddhism continue to shift under our feet.