Monk blesses Buddha sculpture at gallery ceremony
It wasn’t a typical scene for a Tuesday
morning in downtown Bigfork.
A procession of robed Buddhist temple
members led by a Vietnamese monk hummed chants of prayer as they
crowded around a white and orange U-Haul trailer parked outside of
Sunti World Art Gallery on Electric Avenue.
Their words were part of a May 10
ceremony to bless the Buddha sculpture recently completed by
Bigfork artist Sunti Pichetchaiyakul. The group of 14 traveled all
the way to Bigfork from the Linh Son Temple in Belmont, Mich.,
which commissioned Sunti to create the Buddha piece.
In addition to blessing the statue
itself, the group also prayed for its safe travel to Belmont —
hence the walk to the U-Haul.
“The ceremony was a beautiful blessing
for our gallery,” said Sunti’s wife Erica. “Being a Thai sculptor,
this was an incredible honor for Sunti. We don’t feel this was an
accident of coincidence. It was meant to be.”
The 8-foot sculpture was the product of
three months of work, Erica said. She said that in Thailand,
artists usually ask for a full year to complete a 3-foot Buddha
sculpture.
“Sunti was worried about the schedule,”
Erica said.
Following the ceremony, Sunti presented
each temple member and ceremony attendee with a small, sculpted
piece similar to the ones he used on the head of the Buddha
sculpture.
“My heart is full of happiness. I am so
glad to have you all here, and I’m no longer tired from sculpting,”
he told the crowd.
Thai Linh Dat, the orange-robed monk
who led the prayer sequence, thanked Sunti for his work on behalf
of all Linh Son Temple members.
“I feel really grateful to you for
making the Buddha and finishing on time,” he said. “Thank you for
your work.”
Cam Lin Vu, the Linh Son Temple
treasurer, said the sculpture represents a universal symbol of
peace, love and joy.
“When you look upon the face of the
Buddha, it is as though he acknowledges us with the spirit of true
life,” she said. “It appeals not only to the religious, but for
many people, many races and cultures.”
Lin Vu said the temple members are
“extremely grateful for (Sunti’s) generous time and devotion.”
“He is an amazing artist,” Lin Vu said
of Sunti. “He breathes life into his sculpture.”
A handful of members of the local
Vietnamese community also attended the event, including restaurant
owners Charlie Wong and Tien Windauer.
Windauer said attending the ceremony
was an opportunity to “be part of home for a few hours.”
Windauer, a native of Vietnam, came to
Montana as a teenager when he was adopted out of a camp in Malaysia
27 years ago. He now owns and runs Tien’s Place, a Columbia Falls
restaurant specializing in oriental cuisine.
“This is awesome, because I think this
is the first time in 27 years that something like this has happened
here,” Windauer said. “This kind of culture doesn’t happen here
every day, so to be part of it is amazing.”
Windauer has traveled to his home
country only twice since moving to the United States in 1984.
“I don’t get to speak Vietnamese every
day, so it was good to talk to everyone,” he said.