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Exhibitions held
For
over twenty-five years Dr. Waldemar C. Sailer has collected exact line drawings and made rubbings of
Buddha Footprints. This has
provided him with the basis for his continuous research and study.
His collection has been assembled from fifteen countries in Asia
and continues to grow, although it is still in an embryonic stage.
Currently there are six
hundred items in the collection.
Exhibitions
of Dr. Sailer’s collection are extensions to the study of the Buddha
footprints and include:
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An entire Buddha
footprint in exact size
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Sequence of the 108 auspicious illustrations
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Three planes indicated on the Buddha
footprint
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Each auspicious illustration is examined as follows:
- Number of auspicious illustrations
- Pali term or phrase for each illustration
- A suggested translation of the Pali term or phrase
- Information relating to each illustration
1990 |
Towards the Second Century of Archaeology in
Sri Lanka, July 7th to 13th, 1990, Department of Archaeology, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
A collection of twenty-one Buddha footprints from Asia was shown.
This unique exhibition was held at the National Museum of Colombo
directly after a conference and was designed for a one half-hour
television programme. Dr. Sailer guided the Singhalese Minister of Culture
throughout the exhibition for the all-nation presentation. |
1990 |
An Ayutthaya Buddha Footprint,
organised by The Siam Society Under Royal Patronage and Kodak
(Thailand) Limited. The
exhibition was preceded by a lecture.
One Buddha footprint with 108 details with extensive captions for
each illustration was the subject of the lecture and exhibition. The
illustrations were identified in Pali with suggested translations.
The
lecture and exhibition were opened by Air Field Marshall Sit Svetsila,
former Minister of Foreign Affairs and now Privy Council member to His
Majesty, King Bhumipol Adulyadej of Thailand.
Sit Svetsila is the grandson of the writer of the first article
published on a Buddha footprint in English within the book The Wheel of
the Law.
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A Royal
Ayutthaya Buddha Footprint, Thailand
(ca. A.D. 1752)
Click on image for
enlarging and descriptions |
Adding the Pali identification
extended the knowledge on the topic. Two ancient books assisted in identifying the 108 auspicious
illustrations. One
book was written in the 5th century A.D. and the other in A.D. 1157.
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1992 |
The National Celebration in Honour of Her Majesty The Queen
on Her Majesty's 60th Birthday Anniversary, Chao Sam
Phraya National Museum, Ayutthaya, Thailand. This exhibition was
sponsored by the Fine Arts Department from August 19th to September
30th, 1992 and subsequently remained open for an additional six months.
Ninety-one Buddha footprints from fifteen countries were
exhibited.
This
was the first exhibition in the world that provided scope to the world
of footprints, especially the Buddha footprints.
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1993 |
Buddha Pada Lakkhana and Buddha Footprints in The
Kingdom of Thailand, The Rainy Season
Exhibition or Vassa Exhibition of 1993, National Museum of Bangkok,
Thailand. One half of the
exhibition focussed on items from various national museum collections
with the balance being exhibits from the collection of Dr. Sailer.
The exhibition was opened by His Holiness, The Supreme Patriarch
of Thailand and was open for three months.
A
one-hour all-nation television programme covered the exhibition under
the guidance of His Holiness The Supreme Patriarch.
The
text, The Wheel of the Law, published in London in 1871, has been
selected as one of the ten books in The Masterpiece Library of
Buddhism. In this book, Henry Alabaster wrote of his 1868 visit
to Wat Phra Phutta Bat (monastery with the Revered Buddha footprint),
Saraburi, then The Kingdom of Siam. One section of the book is dedicated to the Buddha
footprint of Saraburi. |
©
2001 Dr. Waldemar C. Sailer. All rights reserved.
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