By BETH PEARSON
BUDDHISM teaches that Buddha is in everything, but not, it seems, on the crotch of a bikini model. When the American lingerie company Victoria’s Secret launched their Buddha Bikini this summer, which featured images of Buddha around the breasts and crotch, Buddhists across the globe registered their complaints. The company apologised and withdrew the bikini.
Use of Buddhist iconography is nothing new, but the strength of this objection to it is. Commentators have noted that while this is common in religions where there is a concept of blasphemy, the inappropriate use of Buddhist imagery has traditionally not been met with harsh criticism, or censorship. But the Buddha Bikini crossed an unofficial line.
Vajrasara is the communications director of the Western Buddhist Order. “When I saw that bikini I was quite taken aback,” she says. “It seemed inappropriate and I was interested to see it banned.”
Buddha Boogers or “snot from the nose of the Great Buddha”, sold in souvenir shops outside Todaiji temple in Nara, Japan, had their registered trademark revoked last week by the Patent Office. In Thailand, Ecobuddha shoes, which feature an imprint of a Buddha on the heel, prompted the Culture Ministry last week to warn that anyone caught importing the Australian brand faces a fine and possible imprisonment.
Inspired by these triumphs, some sections of the Buddhist community in America have begun campaigning to ban statues of robed cats and dogs in a meditative position. “We don’t have a monopoly on meditation,” says Vajrasara. “Although Buddhism has probably taken it to its Nth degree, lots of people meditate who aren’t Buddhists.”
Yet faced with the reappropriation of thousands of years of Buddhist history, art and iconography, that’s what many are tempted to do. The strongest reactions have come from Asian Buddhist countries but British and American Buddhists are having to reconcile their beliefs with the capitalist society in which they live. For some, this means fighting the commercialisation of Buddhism. For others, it means accepting that it is inevitable.
“I can see Buddha heads turned into lamp stands and it’s a bit ridiculous,” says Vajrasara. “Once an image is out in the cultural mileu, it isn’t owned. The positive side of all this is Buddhism is no longer a marginalised, Eastern, exotic, incomprehensible way of life.”
For Richard St Ruth, publisher of Buddhism Now magazine, one particular product sticks in his mind. “There was Buddha bubble bath,” he says. “Nowadays we don’t mind it so much, but 30 years ago, we were horrified.”
In the publishing field, St Ruth has been told of publishing houses which are desperate for a Dalai Lama book, because that means a best-selling book. “I’ve been told that many of these books weren’t actually commissioned by him. They’ve just put the Dalai Lama on the cover. If you look carefully, the book is by somebody else.”
St Ruth has yet to visit a Budda Bar, the Glasgow-based chain which last year announced a £40m plan for 40 new venues across the UK. “I just hope it’s vegetarian beer they serve,” he says.
