Allison Keiser 

Walking up the steps to the glass window, as seen in Figure 1, I peered in to the left, only to see every color imaginable all blurred together. Needing to get a clearer view on that chilly and foggy February morning, I wiped the condensation off of the window with the sleeve of my shirt, and there it was - a pristine view inside the An Lac Buddhist Temple on the Northeast side of Indianapolis, Indiana. All of the colors became clear images, with the highest and brightest being a golden statue of the Buddha. The Buddha statue was the center of attention at the front of the temple, with plants on both sides of him, and three smaller dark brown sculptures directly in front of him. In front of the smaller sculptures was a long, rectangular table covered in a bright yellow tablecloth, with a myriad of items sitting on top of it. On both ends, there were fake fig trees with small red banners hanging from the branches, each printed with a Vietnamese saying in yellow. In between the trees were bowls of colorful fruit, such as oranges and lemons, along with even more representations of the Buddha in sculpture form. Little did I know all of these beautiful items were just the beginning of what I would be able to observe and learn just by taking a look into the Buddhist temple.

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Out of all of these decorations in the front of the temple, the golden Buddha sculpture (Figure 2) situated front and center was the most impressive. The golden statue portrayed the Buddha as sitting as opposed to standing, and even though no one is exactly sure when the first Buddha sculpture was created, it is estimated that the first Seated Buddha Statue was created in between the second and third century (Vredeveld). The statue is believed to be one of the earliest Buddha statues ever created and to have been found in a Buddhist monastery, Jamal Garhi, which is located in the ancient city of Gandhara, in present day Pakistan. Lasting through many years, sculptures of the Buddha are still around and have impact today, and this is evidenced when Holland Cotter, an art critic for the New York Times, discusses the Buddha sculpture at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Figure 3) saying it is a "splendid metal sculpture of a standing Buddha...at about three feet tall, it's one of the largest images of its kind known to survive." Sculptures of the Buddha are made in a variety of ways and have lasted a very long time, but Peter Vredeveld, owner of a Buddhist sculpture garden, says, “Seated Buddha Statue[s] shows a teacher sitting at the wheel of Dharma,” which is what I got to observe at the An Lac Buddhist Temple.  

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After gazing at the first thing that caught my eye in the front of the temple, my eyes wondered away, heading towards the back portion of the room. Here I found the Buddhist nuns, sitting cross-legged on the floor, each on individual dark brown cushions. All of the nuns were in identical dark yellow and brown robes, with shaven heads and no shoes on, as one is not allowed to wear shoes inside the main room of the temple. In front of each cushion was a light brown, miniature, wooden music like stand, that was there to hold two, small old looking books. The back portion of the room was beautifully lit, primarily by small candles that were placed in front of each wooden stand. The whole room was so elegant that my eyes kept wandering in every direction, but they seemed to focus and keep going back to the beautiful robes the nuns were wearing.

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These primarily dark yellow robes mixed with a lighter shade of brown, as seen in Figure 4, are worn by various groups of Buddhist nuns today, but how they got their color is a tradition that goes back almost 25 centuries (O’Brien).  The material used to make robes, according to Barabara O’Brien, who is a journalist of Zen Buddhism, used to be “dyed by being boiled with vegetable matter – tubers, bark, flowers, leaves, and spices such as turmeric or saffron, which gave the cloth a yellow-orange color.” O’Brien comments further by saying, “Theravada monks…still wear spice colored robes today, in shades of curry, cumin, and paprika.” The particular robes I saw seemed to closely resemble curry and cumin, with curry giving the darker yellow color, and cumin providing the brown shade. It is fascinating to think that the color behind a robe can have so much meaning and history all tied together.

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As my eyes kept roaming around the inside of the temple, I started noting the sounds that were occurring. I could not tell exactly what was happening, so I asked Josh, a young Vietnamese-American man from Indianapolis, who grew up practicing Buddhism and attending the An Lac Buddhist Temple, and who was letting me observe the nuns, and he said, “The nuns here at the temple typically pray, chant, read precepts, and meditate during a service.” At the time I began observing the sounds happening around me, the nuns had just ended a time of prayer and started one of their chants they typically perform during a worship service. The word ‘chant’ in this scenario can be somewhat misleading, as it is not the repetitive yelling/saying type that first comes to mind, but rather a more musical and singing like tone. The chanting of the nuns was like music to my ears and sounded as if it was a professional choir singing, not Buddhist nuns performing their religious chants. 

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The harmonious voices of the nuns chanting was one of the most relaxing sounds I have ever heard. Scott Vendeten, from NPR, had a chance to visit Japan and witness a group of Buddhists chanting outside a temple, and he described it as “creating this kind of quasi-hypnotic effect, bringing all those people into one entity." By describing the chanting as having a ‘quasi-hypnotic effect,’ it gives context that the chanting would be peaceful and consist of relaxing sounds that might make one want to fall asleep. In agreeance with Vendeten, Annemarie Mal, from Harvard Divinity School, also gives context that Buddhist chanting provides a tranquil effect. She took part in a chanting session, and described her feelings during it as “a complete sense of interconnectedness and oneness. It was one of the most powerful experiences of the divine I’ve ever had." Through the soothing sound of the chanting, she was able to become aware of others and herself, while also experiencing a strong spiritual sensation. The sounds of Buddhist chants are not only comforting to the ears, but they can also help soothe the mind and body. 

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Back to looking in the window, I attempted to get a closer view of the rugged looking books that were on the miniature, music like stands in front of the nuns. Being unsuccessful, I asked Josh what they were and he continued to answer my questions very well by commenting, “One book is for the chants and the other is for the precepts.” The particular chant I continued to hear the nuns chanting was entitled 'Sutra of the Great Medicine Buddha.' According to Ven. Khenchen Palden Sherab Rinpoche, from the Padmasambhava Buddhist Center, “the Medicine Buddha likewise proclaimed a set of twelve aspirations that defined the specific ways in which he sought to benefit beings…by heal[ing] all kinds of illness." Even though I could not understand what the nuns were saying while chanting, I now know that these beautiful sounds were the twelve aspirations the Medicine Buddha had established long ago. 

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As I continued peering in on the Buddhist nuns and listening to their chanting, Josh, who continued to act as my tour guide and enlighten me with an abundant amount of information, told me what else was likely to happen throughout the service. He commented specifically on how the nuns normally read some sort of precept. The mid February day I was there, the nuns were reciting the Bodhisattva Precepts, which according to Dawn Haney of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, “lead to spiritual liberation and point in the direction of a more peaceful, harmonious, and courageous life." In addition to the precepts, the nuns would also have a time of prayer, along with meditation, which is an aspect very important to Buddhism that is practiced multiple hours every day. 

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Knowing I could not stand at the window forever, I took one last look around the inside of the Buddhist temple. My eyes travelled back to where they started, looking at the giant sculpture of the Buddha and the various, bright colored items surrounding it. Then, I took one last look at the nuns and closed my eyes to take in the peaceful sound of their chanting for the final time. As I walked away from the window, the beautiful sounds began to fade, and I continued my journey by heading towards two beautiful sculptures, which are portrayed in Figure 5. I knew I would never forget how much beauty I saw and heard, or how much I was able to learn about the typical service of the nuns at the An Lac Buddhist Temple, simply by looking through the window.