Cosmic Buddha: 3D Scans Reveal Secret Ancient Buddhist Illustrations And Teachings

| January 29, 2016 | Archaeology News | No Comments

MessageToEagle.com – With help of advanced 3D scan technology archaeologists and historians are now able to learn the secret of the Cosmic Buddha. Scans reveal secret ancient Buddhist illustrations and teachings carved on the sculpture.

The Cosmic Buddha is a life-size limestone figure of Vairochana, wrapped in the simple robe of a monk that dates to sixth-century China.

cosmic buddha
Digital scans of the “Cosmic Buddha” have unlocked images that are almost impossible to see with the naked eye. (Smithsonian’s Digitalization Program Office)

What makes this sixth-century Chinese object exceptional are the detailed narrative scenes that cover its surface, representing moments in the life of the Historical Buddha as well as the Realms of Existence, a symbolic map of the Buddhist world.

Some years ago, the Smithsonian launched its digitization program’s 3-D lab and the “Cosmic Buddha” was one of the first objects to be scanned into the database.

cosmic buddha
Secret illustrations on the sculputre suggest it was used for teaching purposes. Image credit: Free Art Gallery

On the back of the sculpture, Curator J. Keith Wilson  discovered 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,” he said.

cosmic buddha
3D scan of Cosmic Buddha highlighting hotspots and zones and digital surface occlusion. Image Courtesy of Smithsonian’s Digitalization Program Office

The results of the 3D scans have led Wilson to conclude that the “Cosmic Buddha” was likely used as a teaching tool when it was created. It’s so complex that “it would take a teacher to explain what’s going on,” he says.

“Body of Devotion” features the actual sculpture, ink rubbings and a digital flat map of the surface, but the highlight of the display will appear on touchscreen monitors in the gallery, where visitors can zoom in on the carvings and learn how 3-D scanning revealed the sculpture’s secrets. “It’ll be almost like a lab,” Wilson says, “where you can move back and forth between the real thing and the digital tools.”


 

“Body of Devotion: The Cosmic Buddha in 3D,” a new exhibit at the Sackler, Free Gallery of Art where the Cosmic Buddha is on display aims to teach people about the latest developments in 3-D scanning and about Buddhism, all with just one sculpture.

 

Great Buddha of Nara
A 3-D construction of a laser scan shows the head of the Great Buddha statue at Nara’s Todaiji temple. (Provided by Takeshi Oishi)

3D scan technology reminds of cyber archaeology. Scientists have also used the technology to unravel the mystery of the Great Buddha of Nara and his missing ball-like curls. The technology is very sophisticated and promising. In the near future it can help scientists, historians and archaeologists to find many of the missing puzzles related to ancient history.
MessageToEagle.com

References:

Free Art Gallery

Washington Post

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