Colossal Standing Buddha Image

Lankatilaka, Polonnaruwa

This 14m-tall (46 ft) cult statue, although now headless and battered by time and the elements, still impresses and dominates the surrounding space. Originally the shrine would have been enclosed by a roof, and the statue would have presented a mysterious and otherworldly appearance as it towered above the worshiper. The feelings of awe and reverence, that this image must have induced, are appropriate to the Mahayana concept of Buddha as a divine figure - a concept that would have seemed heretical to the orthodox Theravadins, who regarded the Great Teacher as a human being.

Compare: in the West, the Athena Parthenos in a modern reconstruction in Nashville, TN. Although these two theologies could not be more different, their means of eliciting a religious experience in the worshiper are nearly identical. In China, colossal statues of the Buddha appeared as early as the Tang Dynasty at Longmen.