Many people who remember Lord Buddha due to various reasons such as earlobes of Shakyamuni Buddha, fat belly of Laughing Buddha, footprints of Buddha, crowned hair of Buddha etc. Earlobes of Gautama Buddha is one of the important features of Buddha sculptures i.e. Buddha statues, Buddha images. In Buddhist tradition, Lord Buddha is mostly depicted with long earlobes which may longer even in some tradition while little shorter but comparatively longer in some Buddhist tradition.
According to Buddhist tradition, earlobes of Lord Buddha is shown elongated as well as pierced which is a soft nodule of ears that hangs under the pinna of the outer ear of Lord Buddha. The tradition of Buddha statues culture has been passed from ancient times and these statues had depicted these peculiar characteristics of earlobes in most of the Buddha statues. Many theories said that long earlobes of Lord Buddha are the part of Lord Buddha and Buddhist iconography. It is said that long earlobes and Ushnisha as well as Halo are the part of Buddhist iconography and are depicted in Buddha statues because of Lord Buddha achievement of Enlightenment and acquirement of great knowledge and wisdom.
Various Interpretations
There are various interpretations for Lord Buddha long earlobes. According to the Buddhist interpretation, Lord Buddha was born as young prince in the royal family of King Soddhodhana of Shakya clan who were ruling the land under the Himalayas, known as Lumbini. Due to royal born, young prince was made to wear heavy ornaments, jewels all over the body i.e. neck, head, ears, etc. Due to the ear ornaments in the year that young Prince was wearing from his childhood until his marriage, it is said these ear ornaments elongated these ears. This can be considered as the Buddhist history interpretations. But there are other various interpretations in Buddhism such as elongated earlobes are depicted to represents the all hearing ability of Prince Siddhartha before Enlightenment.
According to western interpretations, long as well as elongated earlobes are the representation of great wisdom, knowledge as well as revered by other peoples such as Lord Ganesha in Hindu religion, as well as Mahatma Gandhi in Indian history. The elongated earlobes are believed to listen the tales of other people sufferings. Even the Buddha statues of Laughing Buddha as well as Amitabha Buddha are depicted with long earlobes in most of the tradition.
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