The Beggar and Monk

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The beggar is tired of begging money to earn a bowl of rice each day. He sit by the road and waited for people to throw money into his hat. One day, a monk walked past and they exchange eye contact. The beggar then begged the monk for money, however instead of giving him money he took out a amulet and wrote something before passing to him.

The Monk says ” Here, be more hardworking, come look for me when you’re rich “. The beggar was really happy and motivated. From then, he started to be more diligent and months later he became very rich.

The beggar is now a rich man. He wants to look for the Monk to thank him and repay him. Then, he found the Monk. They had a chat and the rich man says he is very lonely and needed to find a lover but but he have no courage to talk to any woman. So he begged the Monk for another amulet. The monk hesitated but still wrote an amulet.

The Monk says ” Here, blessed you with more courage. Look for me when you’re happy. ” The beggar was really happy and motivated once again. Indeed, days later he found a woman he can happily settled down with.

A year later, the rich man got divorced with his wife because of his own affair. Feeling unhappy, he remembered the Monk and went to look to him. Finally, he found the Monk. They had a chat and the rich man begged the Monk for another amulet. The Monk was unwilling to give at first. But the rich man is too persistent, he tell the monk that he just want to be happy and this shall be his last amulet, he promised. So, the Monk shake his own head and say…

” Okay. But first, open up your other amulets “. He then opened up the two previous amulet and got a shocked. It was all along an empty amulet. There was nothing in the amulet, just a plain yellow piece of paper folded into a triangular shaped.

To his surprise, the Monk says ” To be happy, is to expect less. ” and rubs his own head.

And so, that’s a clear difference between a beggar and a monk.

ART HISTORY VISUAL ANALYSIS

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Buddha protected by Naga Muchalinda
Cambodia, 11th or 14h century
Sandstone

This object is a sculpture made up of sandstone.
Carved into two main figures – A meditating Buddha, sitting on seven snakes seemingly forming as a shelter.
The human-like figure personify Buddha due to its big ears, long elongated eyes, brows that reaches the outward corner of his eyes, long slender fingers and meditating pose.

From the first glance, having a snake around a buddha may seems burlesque until I noticed that Buddha is sitting on the coiled snake and the snake is sheltering Buddha facing front which suggest to me that the snakes are protecting the meditating Buddha.

The symmetrical sculpture with its heavy base ostensibly forms a triangle sharp giving off a serenity vibe, which serve its purpose for religious worshipping. The entire sculpture scale that is comparable to a human sitting down may be served as a meditating ceremonial sculpture.