Is it compulsory for Buddhists to go to the monastery regularly ?
Answers
The earliest surviving representations of the Buddha date from hundreds of years after his death, so they are not portraits in the usual sense. Buddha images vary greatly from place to place and period to period, but they almost always show these conventional features:
Symbols of radiance. Among these may be a halo around the head or whole body, a flame at the top of the head, or a gold-covered surface.
Superhuman physical characteristics such as very large size, a lump on the top of the head sometimes said to indicate extraordinary wisdom, fingers all the same length, or special markings on the palms and on the soles of the feet.
Long earlobes, stretched during the years when the Buddha-to-be, as a prince, wore heavy earrings.
Monk’s robes. Monks wore a sarong-like lower garment and one or two upper garments, each made of a sheet of cloth wrapped around the upper body, sometimes leaving the right shoulder bare.