Jég Buddha és Buddha-víz
Ice Buddha and Buddha Water

Summary/Abstract: In 2006, on the banks of the Kyichu River near Lhasa, the Tibetan artist Gade placed a Buddha statue made by him from ice into the water and then he documented as it slowly melted. The action, which quickly gained international fame, has been interpreted in many different ways, but all agree that the work and the process illustrate the Buddhist teaching of cyclical rebirth and existence (samsāra). In addition, in the same year, several Tibetan artists (Tsering Nyandak, Yak Tseten, Benchung) produced similar works which, although involving different media, gave rise to analogous conclusions. Interestingly, Atta Kim, a South Korean photographer, also exhibited an ice Buddha statue at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York in 2011. However, in this case the melting process allowed the viewers themselves to actively participate in an attempt to realise the nature of samsāra through recycled water. While it is debatable how such works can be interpreted as Buddhist art, there is no doubt that they can be understood primarily in Buddhist terms, even if they express this in their own particular way.

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