Anyone who commissions a Buddha image has done a good deed, an act of merit. ON the Buddhist scale, every action has a result, and in this case the result will be a positive one. N...

Anyone who commissions a Buddha image has done a good deed, an act of merit. ON the Buddhist scale, every action has a result, and in this case the result will be a positive one. Not all the images were made for installation in an image hall in a monastery, or for placement in a shrine in the abbot's quarter or in one's home. Many were deposited in a chedi, the Thai stupa, constructed of brick and stucco. There they received homage to be sure but remained hidden in a spot where they would indeed last 5,000 years. Another place for deposit , at least of small images and tablets, was within the brick-and-masonry base of the principal image in an image hall.