Long Ears

As we learned in class, long ears meant a lot to Buddhists. "To Buddhists, Buddha's long earlobes symbolize a conscious rejection of the material world in favor of spiritual enlightenment." (nationalgeographic.org) The background of this quote from an article posted by National Geographic is that once Siddartha, the founder of Buddhism and the first Buddha, gave up his worldly possessions such as earrings and other jewels, he still had elongated ears and a reminder that he did in fact give up those luxuries to pursue a life of minimalism and no desire. In Japan, long ears are a symbol of wealth and good luck. In other Asian cultures elongated ears can be interpreted to mean a higher social status or wisdom.