Painting exhibition on Buddha held in Singapore

Thousands of tourists and Singaporeans have attended the first ever week-long contemporary art exhibition on Gautama Buddha ahead of the Vesak Day on June 1.
Twenty-five paintings of Gautama Buddha were showcased at the week-long exhibition titled "The Enlightened One", at the Ion Orchard, one of the main shopping malls in the city-state's fashionable Orchard Road.
"It was a challenge to organise this first ever Gautama Buddha exhibition based on work of 25 contemporary artists," art curator Vidhya Gnana Gouresan said.
"Indian art has an amazing quality of ancient but still it is contemporary," said Gouresan, 35, who has been holding art shows for 15 years in Singapore, India, Thailand and Malaysia.

The exhibition, held May 18-24, was a celebration of Gautama Buddha and the Vesak Day but it was early because of time slot at the gallery in the centre of main thoroughfare, she said.
Vesak Day is celebrated on June 1st which is a national holiday in Singapore.
At Vesak, Buddhists commemorate the birth of the Buddha-to-be, Siddhattha Gautama, his enlightenment at the age of 35 when he became the Buddha and his final 'passing' into Nirvana at the age of 80, no more to be reborn.
Buddhist scriptures relate that each of these three significant events occurred on a full moon of the Indian lunar month of Vesakha.