I’d like to share this story because I’ll be talking about a few temples I was privileged enough to visit in future blogs and I’d like to think the readers of my blog are interested in taking the time to learn to travel respectfully and responsibly. It’s the story of the day I had to break some really sad news about some of the busts in museums and decorations I’d seen in people’s homes and yards back in the US to my sweet boyfriend.

Buddhism was really influential to me growing up. I was an emotional and angry teenager, and the punk movement & punk rock music was something that I felt I could release emotions through. I dove into punk literature, albums & lore after being called not punk enough at 13 years old on some myspace forum. I learned all about punk as a social movement, a healthy distrust of the mainstream media, and begged my mother to let me be a vegetarian. I think while digging and reading about a punk rock aerobics program & mediation, punk and Buddhism intersected. To me, in the insane, materialistic, post 9/11 world of the US in the early 2000’s… Inner peace, rejection of materialism & Buddhism were VERY punk rock. Staunchly anti-institution, I didn’t want to go to college & I fought against taking the SATs. Only my mother’s bribe’s of 13th row seats to see the Dali Lama speak immediately after the test ended got me into that cold acrylic chair with a #2 pencil in hand.

Aside from this one event, I didn’t have much access to Buddhist spaces, since I was so young and my family was primarily compromised of Irish Catholics. I read everything I laid my hands on. It had always been a dream of mine to at least spend time in one of these holy places and just see what it was all about, first hand.

I’m now I identify as pagan after many years of observing, asking, sitting through college religion classes and ect., but I still have a deep respect for Buddhism & all of the things I learned from it and all it helped me through during some rough teenage years.

When I was in Vietnam, my boyfriend threw me on the back of his motorcycle and told me to get comfortable & as we zoomed around the side of a giant hill to a temple, a giant shiny white statue of the Bodhisattva came into view. My heart swelled, tears pricked at my eyes, & I told my boyfriend I was happy to see such a wonderful, complete, and whole Bodhisattva, and he was confused why I emphasized “whole”. I knew what was coming next, and I was sad to know I was going to be the one to tell him the sad tale of the Buddha & Bodhisattva heads.

Despite being Asian and having Buddhist relatives, my boyfriend had no idea why when he saw statues and “aesthetic” decor of the West’s interpretation of Eastern decor, why so many depictions of Buddhas are busts without the body.

I remember telling him in a sad, soft voice that I had read that it was much easier to steal the head of a statue than to take the whole thing.

The West pillaged and stole all kinds of things from wherever they touched, and put these severed heads on display. I absolutely hated that I had to be the one to tell him of the savage, dark reason so many depictions of Buddha are just the head.

Many Buddhists think of these depictions as the god themselves, so aside from stealing and vandalization, to people like my boyfriend an many others, that is a horrific, disrespectful act of cutting the head off God, not just a statue.

   If you’d like to read more about the history of Buddha heads in museums I’d definitely recommend this article to my readers. 

Why so many heads of Buddha? Acknowledging the erasure of violence in OpenGLAM metadata

   Before I shared any stories of my wonderful time in these places or talk about the cool things I’ve seen, I felt like this was important for me to talk about since so many people will read of people’s adventures in places and want to recreate an “aesthetic” at home with TJ Maxx Buddha head replicas not knowing either they’re decorating their home with celebrations of violence and colonialism. 

   I’ll always cherish getting to see this beautiful statue in person, especially since Buddhism has faced such a long history of persecution. It filled my soul with a breezy childish happy to see this beautiful peaceful bodhisattva on her mountain, hundreds of people worshipping, whispering, and praying at her feet reverently. I can’t wait to share more stories of this particular temple and the others I’ve been lucky enough to be allowed to visit.