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Holly leaves: One of the 52 artworks has been created on a bodhi leave brought from India. — VNS Photo |
HCM CITY — Artists commissioned by the Viet Nam Fine Arts Association and the Viet Nam Buddhist Church have created the first 10 of 52 artworks on holy leaves brought from India to raise money for eye surgery for poor children.
The bo de hoa tam (pictures made of bodhi leaves) will be displayed at three major pagodas around Viet Nam for the Aùnh Sang Tri Tue (The Light of Mind) charity programme.
In 2008 the artists made a pilgrimage to Mahabodhi Pagoda in India's northern Bihar State, the site where the Buddha attained enlightenment. He sat in meditation under a bodhi tree for 49 days before realising the Universal Truth, and a direct descendant of that tree is still worshipped at the pagoda.
It is from this tree that they brought the leaves and have created Buddhist motifs like peace and images of Buddha.
"The 52 pictures represent the weeks in a year," Nguyen Doan Anh Khoa, the project spokesman, said.
"The Bodhi tree is associated with the goodness that is innate in people's hearts," he said, adding that the exhibition aims to remind viewers that everyone has a heart like the Buddha.
The works will go on display to the public on September 22-24 at Bat Nha Pagoda in Da Nang, from September 30 to October 2 at Tao Sach, Tay Ho District, Ha Noi, and from October 8 to 10 at Xa Loi Pagoda, District 3, HCM City.
Later they will be gifted to 10 outstanding entrepreneurs on Entrepreneur's Day (October 13).
The entrepreneurs, in turn, will each fund 100 eye operations for poor blind children through charity organisations. — VNS