The Fasting Buddha is a copy of a 1st Century CE stone icon (called ‘the ascetic Bodhisattva’) robbed by British archaeologists in the 19th Century from an ancient Buddhist pilgrimage site in Taxila, Pakistan. The original, created in the Gandhara Period in Greco-Roman style, is approximately 60 centimeters high and made of Schist stone. It’s on view in Lahore Museum. (read more in the addendum)

Victor’s Way (formerly Way Victoria), located near Roundwood, County Wicklow, Ireland, is a remarkable private meditation garden known for its black granite sculptures. The 9-hectare property includes a number of small lakes and wooded areas. A plaque at the entrance indicates that the park is dedicated to the cryptographer Alan Turing.

The park closed in 2015 under the name of “Victoria’s Way” with the owner saying, “Due to too many excursionists it has become a fun park for parents with children, but was designed as a contemplative garden for over 28 years.” It was then reopened as Victor’s Way on April 15, 2016 with new age restrictions and higher entry fees. Even though there was a change of name, the new name still reflects the original one.

The park is open to the public during the summer months (15 April – 25 September), with admission for adults only with a minimum contribution.

Sculptures

Most of the statues in the park are in black granite, some are in bronze and are 1.5 to 4.9 metres high. The first structure at the entrance is a sculptured tunnel based on the idea of the dentate vagina. The first statue added to the park was the Fasting Buddha.

Eight statues are dedicated to Ganesha, showing the elephant god dancing, reading and playing musical instruments. All Ganesha sculptures were made in Tamil Nadu, India, and each took five artisans a year to do.

Other statues include a large python-shaped seat, a solitary index pointing to the sky, and interpretations of Buddha, Shiva, Eve and others.

Many sculptures include small patterns of modernity, such as a small pint of Guinness next to a Ganesha and a cell phone nestled in the back of a hungry Buddha.

Property

The park is owned and maintained by Victor Langheld, born in 1940 in Berlin and lived with a number of different religious orders in Thailand, Japan and Sri Lanka. The family legacy allowed Langheld to spend most of his adult life traveling to spiritual sites in Asia, before traveling to Ireland and sponsoring the construction of the sculpture park.

Langheld designed most of the sculptures, and continues to organise the park and welcome visitors.

Way Victoria

Feeling a little lost on this winding path called life? Need to discover your ultimate goal and feel at peace with yourself? Perhaps you should venture into County Wicklow, Ireland, and look at a statue of a man howling with agony as he cuts his head in two.

The Split Man is one of the sculptures of Victoria’s Way, a garden built to inspire self-reflection. Creator Victor Langheld established the park in 1989 after traveling to India in search of spiritual enlightenment. He describes it on his website:

The Victoria Way was conceived as a contemplative space used by individuals (ie, single people) between the ages of 28 and 60 who feel the need to assess the quality and direction of their lives. It is a sort of pilgrimage of self-re-evaluation and self-reorientation.

The process of rebirth begins at the door – to enter the park, you walk through a large black granite dentist vagina guarded by a stone snake. Then, it is time to confront the seven sculptures of the forest that will bring you from pain and confusion to self-actualization.

The stone mounds which you see around you are called stupas. They represent Buddhist burial mounds in which the relics of Buddhist saints were enclosed. Stupas (like the Bodhi tree) served as means of remembrance rather than of worship, the earliest Buddhists not believing in gods. But the soul, an after-life and so on will continue. In India, Afghanistan, Kashmir and China stupas ranged in size from a few inches to several hundred feet.

What is Victor’s Way

Victor’s Way is located on the east coast of Ireland. Click to enlarge.

Victor’s Way was designed as a contemplation (or meditation) space for lone adults between the approximate ages of 28 and 65 who feel the need to take some quality time out for rest, recovery and spiritual reorientation. The garden contains seven major and 37 minor black granite sculptures. It took 25 years to complete. The major sculptures represent seven development stages of life. Victor’s Way also offers the opportunity for forest bathing. All the sculptures were designed in Roundwood and then hand cut in a dedicated workshop in Mahabalipuram in South India.

Victor’s Way is not a fun park for families. Ideally chatty companions, children and dogs, all of which disrupt the peace and quiet of the contemplative ambiance, should not be brought. Here the use of mobile phones (save for photography) is an absolute no-no. Ideally the visitor should slow down to half or quarter normal walking speed. Ideally the visitor should sit down on the benches provided and absorb into his or her inner (future, hence perfect) world and/or the serene forest atmosphere.

The garden covers some 20 acres. The contemplation path is 2 kilometres long. Hence it takes at least 1 hour to get around. There are several unsecured ponds, meaning that extreme care should be taken if you do bring children. Unless the weather is perfect, wearing outdoor clothes and watertight shoes is a must.

The small admission fee of €5.00 per adults helps defray the running costs of the garden.

Victor’s Way is located in Roundwood, Wicklow Country Ireland, south of Dublin.

Source: https://www.victoriasway.eu/

Addendum

The original Fasting Buddha statue from the ancient Gandhara period. Click to enlarge.

The “Fasting Buddha” is a masterpiece from ancient Gandhara a that was excavated in Sikri, Pakistan, in the 19th century. It probably dates to the 2nd century CE. The sculpture was donated to the Lahore Museum of Pakistan in 1894, where it is still displayed. Strictly speaking, the statue should be called the “Fasting Bodhisattva” or the “Fasting Siddhartha,” since it portrays an event that took place before the Buddha’s enlightenment. On his spiritual quest, Siddhartha Gautama tried many ascetic practices, including starving himself until he resembled a living skeleton. Eventually, he realised that mental cultivation and insight, not bodily deprivation, would lead to enlightenment.

The Buddha’s spiritual awakening is related to fasting. The young prince Siddhartha left his palace in search of enlightenment and practised for six years under severe austerities and intense mental concentration that his beautiful body withered away to skin and bones. Towards the end of this period, he was surviving only on a single grain of rice a day. Buddha wanted to cut the attachment to the senses starting with excess indulgence in food and so on. This stage of Buddha’s practice is known as Fasting Buddha and the depictions in images or statues are usually called Emaciated or Fasting Buddha.

This holy form or image of the Fasting Buddha reminds and inspires us how much difficulties Buddha went through to become fully enlightened. His compassion to benefit others is so strong he put his body through so much to attain enlightenment. Although his body went through so much pain, difficulties and weakness due to fasting so intensely, he never gave up. He never quit. He never found the difficulties a reason not to pursue his spiritual practice. It inspires us to or do the same.

Difficulties build mental strength, purify negative karma, instills self respect, and helps us to appreciate everything much more. Nothing is to be taken for granted. Seeing this holy image blesses us to remember that difficulties on the road to enlightenment is not negative but part and parcel of our journey. To be experienced, to learned from it, to understand from it and to ultimately grow from the difficulties we experience. What success in life was not earned by difficulties. When we see this image and make affinity we create the karma to be able to have endurance, tolerance and develop a high degree of diligence. To have great fortitude. For anything to be successful we need fortitude and diligence.

As Siddharta realised that desire was the root of samsara, he thought that one of the methods he could end desire was by fasting. At one point, he no longer had the strength to meditate and he realised he would die before he gains liberation due to the ‘abuse’ he put on his body.

It was then that a local Brahmin’s daughter, Sujata, approached and offered him a golden bowl filled with rice prepared in the essence of the milk of one thousand cows. He regained his strength, renewed his meditation, and realised Buddhahood. Siddharta reached enlightenment only after accepting nourishment from Sujata, hence preaching a “middle way”, a path of moderation away from the extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, the central tenet of Buddhist practice.

It is wonderful to understand and see this image of the Fasting Buddha as it has so much significance for all of us on the spiritual path. To have an image of this Fasting Buddha, make offerings and to pray to Buddha in this form blesses us with fortitude, diligence and mental strength to absorb difficulties and continue until success. It is one the most favorite images of Enlightened Beings for me.

For more interesting information:

• Fasting Buddha
• Statues and Stupas
• Pilgrimage to Sri Lanka
• Offerings to the Sangha in India

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