Living in New York City for over a year and a half, I would say that the most benefit I get from living in such a concrete jungle is to allow myself to immerse in diversity. Especially, when it comes to food cultures. It’s always fascinating when I browse Yelp for foods in the City. Very often, the styles of foods, restaurants, or bars you choose, at some degree show your personal taste and even your economic status.
Two weeks ago, I went to this restaurant called TAO Asian Bistro located at 42 East 58th Street with my roommates to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Entering the restaurant, I was amazed by how the place is delicately decorated. The square tables made of hardwoods are placed deliberately with precise measurements to make the restaurant spacious and comfortable. The dim colors of space and warm colors of furniture create a charming atmosphere. It’s also interesting to observe people who step into the restaurant immediately became conscious as if to show their respect and admiration.
After the server dressed in tradition Chinese clothing led us to the table we reserved, the first thing that came into my eye is a huge, spectacular stone statue of Thousands Hands Guanyin, which is also called as the Thousand Arms, or the Goddess of Mercy. It’s placed the center on the back wall of our roundtable. The statue is vividly sculptured, and the top and bottom of the wall have shadowy blue light spotting on the Guanyin. My friends and I were all amazed by how stunning and magnificent the statue is.
This experience of encountering a “beautiful” Buddha artwork in a restaurant is very odd to me. Coming from a foreign background in Asia, I’m familiar with how Buddhists worship their gods in different spaces and circumstances. It’s also very often for me to see that restaurants owners would place the altar and the statue of Buddha in their restaurants. I know that this is mostly to express and practice their religious belief, as they would put foods or gifts as the “sacrifice” and devotion. Yet, I never feel ease by seeing those statues and altars because they seem very personal to the owners and they are intimidating to me in a way that I wouldn’t look into it for too long just to not offend it. However, the statue of Thousands Hands Guanyin I encountered in this gorgeous restaurant in New York City gives me a completely different impression of Buddhism in general. Unlike the experiences I had in other restaurants that put up the statue of Buddha, this Guanyin makes me feel friendly and approachable while the statue itself still present a high status with elegance.
This experience makes a great remark of how one religion may be portrayed differently. It also hints on how Eastern world and Western world view Buddhism differently. When I think about that the designer of the restaurant TAO stated, “TAO New York was transformed into a majestic Asian ‘temple’”, and “artifacts from China, Japan, and Thailand are artfully placed throughout the cavernous place”, I got a sense that the portrayal of Buddhism at TAO is coming from an artistic point of view. The alcohol menu and dinner menu’s choices of words such as “purity”, “eternal”, “from the sky”, and “from the land” seem to be resonating and creative in the purpose of attracting costumers and creating a fancy atmosphere. More or less, the religious ideas of Buddhism may have been presented through these artifacts, yet the image of this restaurant may not cope with the restaurants I went in Asia, where the owners would physically worship the statues of Buddha.
This recalls my memory of studying Henry Ward Beecher's Religion and the Beautiful. He advocates people to elevate the environment by beautiful things because beauty is God. Even though Beecher's context does not speak directly to Buddhism, I still find it thought-provoking to apply it to my observation at TAO Asian Bistro. To Buddhists, it is certainly problematic that such decoration in a restaurant may collapse the distinction between consumerism and religion. The business of TAO Asian Bistro seems to use the beauty of Buddhism to commercialize the restaurant for profit.
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