Disposal (or Usage) of Ash

[Hazel]

Is there a proper procedure for disposing ash from offered incense/smoke?

Alternatively, is there a usage of it?

So far I've just dumped it by a tree outside (though the wind takes it).

[narhwal90]

I compost it under the hydrangeas in the garden...

[Lingpupa]

It is said that you can make a paste with it to spread on the skin of a chöd drum that has become slack, then allow it to dry naturally. I tried it once, but can't say that I'm totally sure if it worked or not.

[Kim O'Hara]

If you really want to go wild, you could replicate the Berlin Buddha statues - https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/z ... ame-in-art

berlin-buddha-mona.jpg (55.13 KiB) Viewed 754 times

...Berlin Buddha ... comprises a pair of Buddha sculptures that sit facing each other across the room: one of aluminum and one made from incense ash. The ash Buddha was created using the 12-foot-tall hollow aluminum Buddha as the mold, which was filled with six tons of incense ash gathered from temples in Shanghai. Once the ash had compacted and settled, the mold was removed piece by piece and reassembled across the room. Without its outer protective layer, the ash Buddha is allowed to slowly crumble over time. What an astute representation of impermanence! Zhang Huan shares the concept behind Berlin Buddha and his use of incense ash as a medium in his artwork: “Berlin Buddha conveys the idea of samsaras—of life starting from birth, senility, illness, and death till rebirth. Taking the ash burnt in religious rituals as a medium of artwork is also a kind of inevitable samsara. In my eyes, ash carries the believers’ hope and soul, and the ash artworks convey the collective memory, collective soul and collective blessings of the people of China” ...

I saw it in Hobart a few years ago and was deeply impressed by both its inspiration and its execution.


Kim

[Ayu]

After a very big sang offering at a Buddhist festival, everyone was invited to take a jar full of ashes for taking it home.
It was being recommended to put a thin line from these ashes as protection line around our home / house.

[Hazel]

Thank you all for the thoughts!

If you really want to go wild, you could replicate the Berlin Buddha statues - https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/z ... ame-in-art

This is absolutely inspiring.

[pemachophel]

A friend (long departed) once gave me a small Buddha statue (maybe 2 1/2") made out of compressed incense ash. So I think there may be a tradition of this. It was a Tibetan-style Shakyamuni.

[Hazel]

A friend (long departed) once gave me a small Buddha statue (maybe 2 1/2") made out of compressed incense ash. So I think there may be a tradition of this. It was a Tibetan-style Shakyamuni.

I wonder how it's done. I want to try it.

[Kim O'Hara]

A friend (long departed) once gave me a small Buddha statue (maybe 2 1/2") made out of compressed incense ash. So I think there may be a tradition of this. It was a Tibetan-style Shakyamuni.

I wonder how it's done. I want to try it.

Thanks for that, pemachophel. It could indeed have been the sculptor's starting point.

And go for it, Hazel. All I know is what I have read and seen - ash packed into a mould which is carefully removed in sections to reveal the ash statue. The Berlin Buddha was intended to gradually fall apart, and did. If you wanted yours to stay together, maybe adding a bit of water would be enough to make it last a while. Or a wood glue?
And of course you could practice with simpler moulds - jelly moulds or kids' plaster craft moulds?

Good luck!
Kim

[pemachophel]

I think the statue I was given was made with some sort of binder. It did not crumble. Although I'm sure it was breakable, it was terribly fragile. It was very light. Sorry, I think I put this statue in a stupa a couple/few years back. I know I no longer have it. This statue may have been given to a friend of my friend by H.H. the Dalai Lama. I have some sort of memory of that.

[Hazel]

I did some light research and found you can make cement out of ash. There are at least couple ways to do it.

Time to start collecting!

[PadmaVonSamba]

You can save the ash in bags, for use in any new incense burners