Pacific Northwest Peace Pagoda Sculptural Panels

I’m Craig Jacobrown… A sculptor based in Kitsap County just west of Seattle in Washington State.

 

I’m excited to work on the Pacific Northwest Peace Pagoda development under construction at the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action and well placed only 50 yards east of the chain-link fence surrounding the Bangor Nuclear Submarine Base. The Pacific NW Peace Pagoda will stand here In strong contrast to the weaponry residing on the base just over the fence where 720, nearly one-fifth of the world’s nuclear warheads, currently live.

 

 

 

Senji Kanaeda, a monk within the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist order on Bainbridge Island, asked me to sculpt four different bas relief panels that depict four different chapters in the life of the Buddha.

 

 

Facing east, welcoming guests as they approach, right under a life-sized statue of a sitting Buddha in the center of the stupa, and with the nuclear submarine base just behind them, a panel will depict the men, women, children and deer meditating and listening to ‘Buddha's first sermon at Sarnath’ (Deer Park)

 

 

 

 

Facing south, another panel will represent the ‘Birth of Buddha,’ It is said that the Buddha took seven steps, Na Mu Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, in four different directions to indicate he would bring Peace to the four corners of the world.

 

 

 

facing west, a panel will describe the day ‘the Buddha Achieves Enlightenment.’ The forces of Mara including fear, anger, craving, seduction and distraction, tried to overcome the Buddha as he sat under a Bodhi tree, but he touched the earth and transcended those burdens to enlightenment. and finally

 

 

 

 

Facing north, a panel will represent ‘the Buddha's Death and Ascension to Nirvana.’ It is said that the Buddha, in a reclining meditation, crossed over into Nirvana in a canoe or boat. The relics of the Buddha have been dispersed in eight different directions of the earth, bringing 'Buddha consciousness' to many parts of the world, just as they have arrived here in the Pacific Northwest.

 

Senji and the other Nipponzan Myohoji Monks have worked tirelessly to organize and establish this massive project which will become a beautiful, educational and spiritually nourishing destination for tourists, nonviolence practitioners, art lovers and peace pilgrims who visit Kitsap County. There are more giant Peace Pagodas throughout the world, but this Pagoda will be the first built on the West Coast of the United States. We believe the very land we have broken ground upon is asking for the local community to build such a symbol of Peace for visitors.

 

 

 

The Peace Pagoda  in Grafton, New York was one of only two completed in the US East Coast so far.

 

Please send us a donation and help us make this beautiful, powerful and meaningful refuge for visitors to experience and connect with their own inner Buddha. If we can raise $40,000 through this GoFundMe campaign, we will be able to cast the bas relief panels out of a high-quality, long-lasting cement polymer, but if we can raise $60,000, we can cast the sculptural panels out of bronze. Any extra money we raise will be used for other pagoda architectural elements and the surrounding landscape expenses.

 

Thank you so much, and please consider donating $1000, $5000 or anything you can afford to help us realize and establish this important and powerful symbol of Peace and Spiritual ascension in the Northwest.