Monk blesses Buddha sculpture at gallery ceremony

It wasn’t a typical scene for a Tuesday

morning in downtown Bigfork.

A procession of robed Buddhist temple

members led by a Vietnamese monk hummed chants of prayer as they

crowded around a white and orange U-Haul trailer parked outside of

Sunti World Art Gallery on Electric Avenue.

Their words were part of a May 10

ceremony to bless the Buddha sculpture recently completed by

Bigfork artist Sunti Pichetchaiyakul. The group of 14 traveled all

the way to Bigfork from the Linh Son Temple in Belmont, Mich.,

which commissioned Sunti to create the Buddha piece.

In addition to blessing the statue

itself, the group also prayed for its safe travel to Belmont —

hence the walk to the U-Haul.

“The ceremony was a beautiful blessing

for our gallery,” said Sunti’s wife Erica. “Being a Thai sculptor,

this was an incredible honor for Sunti. We don’t feel this was an

accident of coincidence. It was meant to be.”

The 8-foot sculpture was the product of

three months of work, Erica said. She said that in Thailand,

artists usually ask for a full year to complete a 3-foot Buddha

sculpture.

“Sunti was worried about the schedule,”

Erica said.

Following the ceremony, Sunti presented

each temple member and ceremony attendee with a small, sculpted

piece similar to the ones he used on the head of the Buddha

sculpture.

“My heart is full of happiness. I am so

glad to have you all here, and I’m no longer tired from sculpting,”

he told the crowd.

Thai Linh Dat, the orange-robed monk

who led the prayer sequence, thanked Sunti for his work on behalf

of all Linh Son Temple members.

“I feel really grateful to you for

making the Buddha and finishing on time,” he said. “Thank you for

your work.”

Cam Lin Vu, the Linh Son Temple

treasurer, said the sculpture represents a universal symbol of

peace, love and joy.

“When you look upon the face of the

Buddha, it is as though he acknowledges us with the spirit of true

life,” she said. “It appeals not only to the religious, but for

many people, many races and cultures.”

Lin Vu said the temple members are

“extremely grateful for (Sunti’s) generous time and devotion.”

“He is an amazing artist,” Lin Vu said

of Sunti. “He breathes life into his sculpture.”

A handful of members of the local

Vietnamese community also attended the event, including restaurant

owners Charlie Wong and Tien Windauer.

Windauer said attending the ceremony

was an opportunity to “be part of home for a few hours.”

Windauer, a native of Vietnam, came to

Montana as a teenager when he was adopted out of a camp in Malaysia

27 years ago. He now owns and runs Tien’s Place, a Columbia Falls

restaurant specializing in oriental cuisine.

“This is awesome, because I think this

is the first time in 27 years that something like this has happened

here,” Windauer said. “This kind of culture doesn’t happen here

every day, so to be part of it is amazing.”

Windauer has traveled to his home

country only twice since moving to the United States in 1984.

“I don’t get to speak Vietnamese every

day, so it was good to talk to everyone,” he said.