Friday, February 12, 2010

Bronze Scorpion Phurpa Statue

I don't usually feature items on Ebay, but when Nick Storm sent over the listing for this Bronze Scorpion Phurpa Statue I was immediately struck by just how creepy looking it actually is. It's so...alien. I couldn't get past the impression that as soon as you wrapped your hand around it all those segmented legs would wrap themselves around you.







I was also a bit uneasy at the idea of using an actual religious article as a prop. Followed immediately by the realization that although I felt discomfort with the idea of using a Buddhist item as a faux artifact I've never given a second thought to using crucifixes, holy water bottles, or communion wafers in the same way. I adore vampire killing kits filled with all kinds of Roman Catholic paraphernalia, despite that particular use of those symbols being potentially offensive to followers of the faith.
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4 comments:

  1. James Floyd Kelly (Jim)February 12, 2010 at 5:27 AM

    I'm a semi-practicing Western Buddhist and this doesn't bother me a bit... and I don't think it would bother Eastern Buddhists either.

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  2. Nick StormFebruary 12, 2010 at 2:00 PM

    Interesting....the first time I have EVER seen the ethical considering of religious items used in gaming brought up.

    In over 30 years of gaming / Larp as well!

    I certainly never intended any sacrilege. I actually look at the borrowing of props from anywhere as purely artistic in nature. I realize that the vampire stuff and it's catholic association is unavoidable but to me, that Buddhist scorpian was as Oakree so aptly put it, "other worldy or alien".

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  3. PropnomiconFebruary 12, 2010 at 7:04 PM

    @ James Floyd Kelly

    Thanks for posting that. I was just leery of opening up a can of worms.

    @ Nick Storm

    The weird thing is that this is the first time the thought crossed my mind as well. It just struck me as odd that I would even think of it after shamelessly using other religious/spiritual items from Pagan, Wiccan, and Christian belief systems for years. That said, the phurpa would make an amazing prop.

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  4. Drew PedersonFebruary 14, 2010 at 12:11 AM

    Be an equal opportunity offender of religions. If you are willing to trivialize (or mock?) Catholic and other Christian artifacts, then I say go ahead and do the same with Buddhist or other faiths. To say that you are only willing to trivialize/spoof Christian paraphernalia, but not other religions, would actually be more of an insult to practicing Christians. At least, if you treat all faiths with equal regard/disregard, then you can say to everyone "Hey, it's just a damn game, and religiosity is not being questioned here, they're just game props, so chill out and don't take it personally."

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