Guest Posted December 4, 2002 Report Share Posted December 4, 2002 Where's the best place to buy a nice wooden buddha? I'm looking for something that is on the large side, maybe 3 feet tall. I've seen some in the Chatuchak market, the price was ok but the quality was just "ok". I'm looking for something very nice but it doesn't have to be 500 years old and cost $1000!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Straycat Posted December 4, 2002 Report Share Posted December 4, 2002 I don't know. If I was looking for one though I'd start checking with the local temple or, which is probably easiest for most farangs, Thanon Kalayana Maitri as I seem to remember many, many Buddhas in all sorts of sizes there. Not sure on wooden ones though... Thanon (=street) Kalayana Maitri is on the opposite side of Royal Grand Palace/Temple of the Emerald Buddha and runs thru the Ministry of Defence buildings. You'll find 'the Buddha stores' at the end of the street towards the Golden Swing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted December 5, 2002 Report Share Posted December 5, 2002 Hi, Please keep in mind that there are restrictions to taking Buddha images out of the country. Also, you can not 'buy' a Buddha statue, only 'rent' it. So when asking a Thai person about this use the word 'chaw' (rent) rather than 'suu' (buy). Sanuk! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 5, 2002 Report Share Posted December 5, 2002 there are many different styles and kinds of buddha statues. it is not that easy to find a "nice" piece. under nice i understand a somehow unique piece, not some thing churned out for the tourism market. the affordable wooden buddhas which are still unique pieces are "bucha" buddhas. made by village artisans, generally rather raw in their craft, but have very lifelike facial expressions ranging from humorous to arrogant to serene meditative mood. it will be very difficult to find a thai buddha in the size you specified for affordable prices, but laotian or burmese ones are a lot cheaper. of course you won't find any of the ones older than 50 years for a cheap price in that size, but i have seen laotian ones about ten or 15 years old for around 200 US$ at chatuchak. i do collect mainly older ones (50 to a bit over a hundred years old) but in smaller sizes, which you can still get at cheaper prizes. places to search are: river city, very expensive if you don't speak thai and don't know exactly what you are looking for. i have bought a few pieces there, the shops went down more than half from their initial price after they saw that i do know about the subject. chatuchak, but it is very difficult to find good pieces. recently lots of cheap wooden buddhas from laos came over, but most of them are not very nice. once a while you can find some nice piece in the streetmarkets around chinatown, but you have to know about the subject. in the last years those buddhas became increasingly difficult to find and the prices rose considerably. the larger the piece, the more risk you have to get a faked or partly faked piece. sometimes for example the faces of not so nice pieces are recarved, pieces without head get new heads. i would advise to look for a smaller piece, better price, more chance to get a genuine piece, and more are in the market. there is not that much range between horrible mass produced things and older, more expensive pieces. spend a lot of time looking around and comparing pieces. sometimes a very cheap initially nice piece will turn out a mistake after you have had a chance to see more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markle Posted December 5, 2002 Report Share Posted December 5, 2002 Just out of curiosity, Why do you want a buddha image for? And why that size? If it's a purely decorative item keep in mind that there a quite a few customs and conditions that you should adhere to when possessing a Buddha image, these are important in preserving the sancity and sacredness of the image. If you don't care about that then why get one? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted December 6, 2002 Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 My sister wanted me to buy her a Buddha and bring it home as a present. As a stone one was too heavy - I decided on a wooden one. Found a lovely one, about a foot hig - very nicely carved, 300 Baht !!! They wrapped it up in shrink wrap and I took it back to Aus. Of course I declared (As you have to in Australia) that it was wooden. Customs man asks to see it - turns it upside down and looks for boorer (Worm) holes. With his pen he points out some small holes! (Ouch I think - I am going to loose the statue - it has more worms than a soi dog!) "See these holes here sir? Yes I answer Thats from where the bubbles set when they pour plastic in the moul;d - ITS A PLASTIC BUDDHA YOU IDIOT!!! To be honest, I did feel like an idiot but it was rude of him to tell me in public! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 6, 2002 Report Share Posted December 6, 2002 >>>...these are important in preserving the sancity and sacredness of the image. If you don't care about that then why get one? <<< maybe for the artistic beauty? maybe to have a piece of a dying culture? if he would not care, he would not ask where and how to get one. the buddhaimage itself is not sacred, but the ideas it represents. there is a famous zen story, don't know exactly how it goes, but it deals with a zenmaster destroying a buddhaimage. the buddha himself by the way asked his followers not to be worshipped and idolised. the tradition of carving wooden buddhas in the villages is gone and over in most parts of south east asia. only in the poorest hilltribe villages you can still find them in use in the temples. acquiring one of those images actually helps preserving them as they would otherwise rot in a dump while the new shiny metal images are worshipped in the temples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted December 7, 2002 Report Share Posted December 7, 2002 The corner of Soi 7/ Sukhumvit, there is a Teak wood carving shop, very expensive. They have quite a few very nice ones there, around $250usd and up. One was larger then a soccer ball (just the head, and was priced at $250, the work was exquisite! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 8, 2002 Report Share Posted December 8, 2002 Thanks for all the comments. I've actually bought 2 buddhas before, so am not a complete newbie, but wanted an inside track on some nicer pieces. Why do I want one? Well, I collect things from all over the world and after going to Thailand more than 40 times I would like to get some nice things from there. I have things from literally all over the world and buddha statues seen to fit in very nicely with everything else.... I'll try to look at some of the places that were suggested when I go back in a couple of weeks, and put an update up on this thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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