light made solid

We recently completed a new stained glass design for one of our Buddhist clients. It is a panel which depicts the Shakyamuni Buddha (also spelled Sakyamuni, or "Buddha Shakyamuni, depending on who you ask). This is our second Buddhist stained glass project. You can see our first Buddha window here.

Shakyamuni Buddha is the founder of Buddhism - the Buddha, as most people simply call him (although there are said to be other Buddhas). "Shakya" refers to the name of the royal family into which he was born in Nepal around 624 BC. "Muni" means "Able One" and reflects the promise of greatness that was fulfilled through his exemplary life.

Our client asked us to create a Buddha stained glass window which was loosely based upon the classic Tibetan depictions, such as one found on this site. This was both a challenging and interesting project, because we were required to follow many rather strict rules according to how the Buddha is traditionally depicted.

For more images of Shakyamuni Buddha, try a Google image search. You'll be able to get a better sense of how this stained glass interpretation both fits into Buddhist artistic tradition, but makes concessions towards the stained glass format.