Karma Choeling Buddhist Monastery

Restoring the Buddha Statue to its former glory, as seen in the picture to the left taken in 2006, will cost the Trust in the vicinity of $10,000. The funds for this project need to be gathered soon, as Fraser Bruce, the coating specialist who has been working on this project has devoted a large portion of his summer to it. Any contributions to the project are welcome and will benefit the dharma and sangha in New Zealand as well as those who make the donations. These can be deposited into our ASB account 12 3209 0303196 00, please reference donations with 'Buddha Statue restoration'.

Why is the Buddha Statue so important? Aside from the physical aesthetics of the statue, and the obvious relevance of an image of Shakyamuni Buddha the Supreme Teacher, the Buddha Statue benefits the Kagyu lineage in New Zealand by providing a physical representation of the body aspect of the enlightened mind (along with the temple and the stupas which represent the speech and mind respectively). In addition, Buddha statues in general benefit beings who see them by calming and inspiring the mind. Many people also circumabulate the statue to generate merit and accumulate blessings.

As you can see, on the right, the outer plaster coating on the Buddha Statue had deteriorated and had started to flake off allowing water to seep in and lift plaster from the lower part of the statue.

As a consequence the Trust consulted Master Builder William Hursthouse, who obtained quotes as high as $30,000 to rehabilitate the statue by ripping off the plaster and reconstructing the statue. This expense was beyond the financial means of the Trust and its supporters, so the project was shelved for over a year, until William along with John Martin found Fraser Bruce, a coating specialist who has been able to restore the structure by injecting epoxy resin under the plaster coating without having to deconstruct the statue at less than 1/3 of the cost of the original quote.

First the statue was waterblasted to remove any loose pieces of plaster. Then the 'drummy' areas, where the plaster has lifted were identified and resin is injected into the hollow area and allowed to set. Then the area was sanded and replastered. After this coats of sealant were applied, tinted yellow to intensify the colour of the final coat of gold paint, which should be applied by the end of the summer.

The restoration crew pictured at right on Christmas Eve: Fraser Bruce on the moon disc level of the statue, John Martin scraping the barrel, and Patrick O'Dwyer having a stretch. With the recent soggy weather they had to take advantage of every bit of dry weather to advance this project.







Below, Fraser points out where the concrete lips behind the lotus petals are being rebuilt to improve drainage off the statue so the problem will not occur again.

below: The first layer of gold paint.

below left: John helps to mix and keep the paint flowing into the spray gun. below right: The features of the face are being repainted.