Every designer understands when a customer asks for a room that is relaxed and tranquil, there’s only one direction to go with the decor, and that’s East. Think fountains, bonzai, graceful plants, beautiful screens and unique statues. It is easy to bring a hint of the orient in numerous ways, however among the easiest would be to add a sculpture of the Buddha. There are more than one hundred known poses and 3 distinct orientations for these statues, so there is bound to be one that will be appropriate for virtually any room or space, even when it’s an awkward shape or size.
Side tables and desks almost all seem to cry out for a sitting Buddha, backyards and balconies might be just right for a standing Buddha, yet many spaces require an subject much broader than high. Here the ideal decorate element is a reclining Buddha.
All Buddha statues have 32 features said to have been physical features of the first Gautama Buddha who was born in approximately 563 BC. These are also referred to as the ‘Thirty Two Signs of a Great Man’, and encompass:
•   flat feet
•   a pointed head
•   beautiful gold skin
•   long fingers the same length
•   long toes all the same length
•   a robe draped over one shoulder
•   long ear lobes
The Buddha was not in favor of idolizations of his own body, and therefore the proper question is actually, why are there any statues of the Buddha at all?
It seems this might be another matter that may be blamed on the Greeks, and on one Greek in particular, Alexander the Great. When Alexander occupied India and Afghanistan, he placed lots of soldiers and artisans behind, hence the art of the area had been to a great extent influenced by classical sculpture, and by Greek ideas of Gods and mortals. Alexander was well known for enjoying the imitation of his own face, understanding the value of paintings and sculpture as items of propaganda.
This may be the reason why Alexandrian India, with a partially Greek populace and ties to Greek tradition, was the earliest area to create Buddha statues. These became immensely popular and the idea propogagted with Buddhism itself, even so as Islam forbade the rendering of the human form and viewed such statues as idolatry, countless ancient and wonderful statues of the Buddha in that area have been destroyed.
There are a couple of established poses for these sculptures that pertain to specific concepts or events in the life of the Buddha.
But the most interesting is the reclining pose of the Buddha. There are two variations. One portrays the Buddha, relaxing with his head in his hand. This is the sleeping Buddha, but the alternative pose, where Buddha’s feet are together, symbolizes the day the Buddha went into Nirvana.
At age eighty, the Buddha sat down to rest and informed his disciples he would soon enter parinirvana, the state that occurs when the physical body of a person who has accomplished total awakening or enlightenment finally dies. He ate his final meal and then grew to become violently ill. He asked his followers for any inquiries they had and when there weren’t any he offered all of them his last instructions. “All composite things pass away. Strive for your own liberation with diligence.” Convention states that that when his body was placed between the sala trees, the plants bloomed, though it was not the season.
This is the day commemorated by the reclining Buddha statue. In Thailand the most common pose shows the Buddha with legs crossed and with his left hand in his lap while the right points to the ground, palm inward in a pose called ‘Calling the Earth to Witness’ and relates to the precise of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
Whatever form your room, right now there is a Buddha statue which will match, bringing a sensation of peace and tranquility to your world and surroundings.
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