On an almost daily basis, I have people asking me about a base or stand for their garden Buddha and Hindu statues. Many times the statue is perfect but on some occasions, an extra 6 or 12 inches is needed to make it ideal for their space. Here are 3 things that I tell to everyone on how to go about fashioning a pedestal for your statue.
This stone garden Buddha statue is raised on a base of local river stone surrounded by paving stones to raise the entire bed up about 12 inches
Look locally
I feel that each region has its own dominant colors and textures found in nature. San Diego is a desert and thus there is a tan sandstone, desert feel to it. The northeast of the States has fall colors and granite stone. Look at the colors in your back yard and then head down to a local masonry store, quarry, or anywhere that would sell local stone. See if they sell chunks of local stone. Most likely you will find many smaller pieces that would need to be placed together but you may get lucky enough to find a whole block!
Pavers
Head over to your local hardware store and see what they have for pavers. These can easily be arranged in whatever shape and height you would like. I have seen pavers used with and without mortar so you may not need to make too much of a mess.
Build your own base!
The perfect base made from a concrete mold!
This is the most do-it-yourself option of the 3. A customer of ours sent in a picture to our #mylotussculpture page with one of our Buddha Head fountains on a beautiful base and I immediately noticed the base the Buddha’s head was on. This option is great because you have control over the shape and the height of the base. Here are the directions he gave to me for making a base:
a.We bought an oval 40 gallon Tuff Stuff Tub from Tractor Supply and used it as a mold. We chose that because the edges were curved and gave the base a nice shape for Buddha and around the right size.
b. Mixed concrete and charcoal colored dye in the tub itself and just added the right amount of concrete to get the base height we wanted. Then when the concrete cured, we flipped it over to use as the base. It comes out very easily. We applied satin polyurethane to the base to keep it scratch resistant and look a little darker. It probably cost around $60 to do this.
If you have any other suggestions please email me at kyle@lotussculpture.com and I will be happy to add them!
The customer went to the local masonry store and picked up the perfect block of local stone for Garden Ganesha!4 rows of pavers lifted the Buddha head up an additional 24 inches!The customer created a base using local leftover shale stone
Lotus Sculpture now accepts both bitcoinand litecoinas a form of payment. The value of the statue and the shipping will be converted directly into US dollars. Any returns will be issued in US dollars. We do not account for fluctuations in the cryptocurrency markets.
We strive to make it easy for our customers to have every option for making the sculpture of their dream a reality!
If you would like to pay using either of these two payment methods please email the owner of Lotus Sculpture, Kyle, directly at kyle@lotussculpture.com or call 1-760-994-4455.
It is like Christmas in June! We have just received a new shipment of South Indian bronze and north Indian brass statues from India. This shipment has been in the works since our last buying trip to India in April 2016. We have been looking forward to receiving it for so long and am so happy to start offering them on Lotus Sculpture!
We still have a lot to unpack but when you can start finding them at these two links when they are posted:
Ganges (Ganga) is the most revered and sacred river in the Hindu Mythology. None of the rivers in the world has been able to win so much love and attention from people as Ganga. She is worshipped by the name Ganga Maiya (Mother Ganga) and the Gangajal (Ganga = Ganges; Jal = water) is believed to wash away all sins and grant the devotee salvation. No other river has been mentioned in the Puranas as much as the holy Ganges.
Here is how Lord Vishnu has narrated the importance of river Ganges to Garuda.
Meaning: Thousands of man’s sins are destroyed by the holy sight of the Ganges, and he becomes pure, by the touch of Ganges water, by having it, or by just pronouncing ‘Ganga-Ganga’.
River Ganga
River Ganga originates from the Gangotri glacier at Gaumukh in the Indian Himalayas. She flows 2,525 km across northern India before emptying to the Bay of Bengal in eastern India and Bangladesh.
As per Hindu Mythology, Ganga is the daughter of Brahma, born from his kamandala (a spout shaped vessel), when he was washing the feet of Vamana (The dwarf Brahmin incarnation of Lord Vishnu).
In Valmiki Ramayana, Ganga is depicted as the daughter of King Himavat and Queen Menaka. She is the sister of Parvati, Lord Shiva’s consort.
According to the Vishnu Purana, Ganga was created from the sweat of Lord Vishnu’s feet.
Among the various interesting stories of Ganga, the most popular story is from Bramha Rishi Vishwamitra’s Ramayana Bal Kand, where he narrates about Bhagirath and the descent of Ganga to Earth.
King Sagar – the ruler of Ayodhya and an ancestor of Lord Rama decided to perform the Ashwamedha (great horse sacrifice) to become more powerful. Indra, the king of Gods, became jealous and stole the horse for yaga. Indira tied the horse near Sage Kapila’s ashram, where the sage was meditating in the deep forest. The king along with his 60000 sons began to search for the horse in the nether world and at last found it near Sage Kapila.
Assuming that the sage had stolen the horse, the princes began to insult the sage and tried to free the horse. The princes continued to disturb the meditation of the sage and made him angry. The furious sage with the yogic fire of his eyes burnt all the princes into ashes. King Sagar was disturbed and asked his grandson, Anshuman to search for the princes.
Ashuman’s search ended in the front of the yaga horse and a heap of ash. He also saw the Sage Kapila near to it. He bowed and inquired what happened to the princes. The sage narrated the whole incident and Anusham broke down in grief. He pleaded for forgiveness and for the salvation of the princes. Sage Kapila was pleased and instructed Anushman to bring the holy Ganga to earth as she can only help them to wash away the sin and attain salvation.
In order to attain salvation to his relatives, Anshuman started doing penance on the Himalaya, but it was in vain. His son Dilip also tried to please Lord Brahma and bring Ganga. However, he also failed in his mission. Bhagiratha, the son of Dileep, took penance after his father. Bhagiratha was so dedicated that Lord Brahma was pleased and granted them permission to bring Ganga to earth.
Goddess Ganga was asked to descent to earth, but she felt it as an insult and decided to sweep away everything that came her way. Bhagiratha felt the fierce power in the flow of her current and understood that he needed to do something in order to stop the mighty river from destroying the world. In order to avoid this catastrophe, Bhagiratha prayed to Shiva and requested him to hold Ganga in his matted hair (jata).
At the request of Bhagiratha, Shiva agreed to hold Ganga in his hair locks. At first, Ganga thought that no one would be able to withstand her power and descended to the Earth with all her power. Shiva decided to teach her a lesson and held her in his matted locks. Ganga tried to get free but failed to escape from the Great Shiva. After one year of rigorous penance of Bhagiratha, Shiva was pleased and released Ganga. Ganga understood the greatness of Lord Shiva and asked for his forgiveness. Shiva is known as Gangaadhara as Lord Shiva absorbed the flow of Ganga and saved the earth from flooding, by receiving Ganga on his matted locks.
Shiva was pleased and released Ganga as seven streams – Bhagirathi, Alaknanda, Janhvi, Saraswati, Bhilangana, , Rishiganga, and Mandakini. Ganga followed Bhagiratha, but with her tremendous speed destroyed almost all the nearby villages and forests. Sage Jahnu became angry as his hermitage was drowned by Ganga. By using his yogic power, Sage Jahnu drank the whole Ganga. Bhagiratha pleaded for Sage’s forgiveness and he released Ganga from his thigh by cutting it and for this reason, Ganga is also called ‘Jahnavi’ or ‘Jahnusta’.
Maharishi Agastyaas has emptied all the oceans on Earth by drinking all the water, so Ganga first filled the oceans and quenched the taste to Earth. Ganga touched the ashes of the sixty thousand ancestors of Bhagiratha and blessed them to attain eternal rest in heaven.
For a limited time we are offering free UPS Ground shipping on all orders within the 48 States. International customers will receive a 40% discount off the price of shipping. This discount will be extended to our Canadian customers as well!
Items weighing over 150 pounds including packing materials will be shipped using a freight service. Domestic Freight will be discounted by 35%!
