This huge, solemn, and impressive statue of the Buddha sits in a vast cave on Marble Mountain on the way from Da Nang to Hue. During the Vietnamese War (what they call the American War), the Viet Cong used the cave as a hospital.
A shrine in the same cave has this naive and, to my eye, vulgar votive statue.
I'm sure that religious Buddhists are aware of the aesthetic chasm that yawns between the seated Buddha in the wall of the cave and this little figure, just as I'm sure that religious Catholics are aware of the difference between religious kitsch and paintings by Giotto and other masters. But, on the devotional level, perhaps it makes no difference.
These three little statues, on the other side of the altar, stand somewhere in between, aesthetically.
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