Buddakan NYC

Liqian Zhang

American Religious Texts

12/05

Buddakan NYC

            Last Sunday, as my friend invited me to an event taking place in a restaurant – Buddakan, I had my first chance to dine in this special place. The first inducement that makes me draw the connection between this restaurant and the religious blog is its name. The first glimpse of the word “Buddakan” stirred up my interest in this restaurant. Expecting the motif of Buddakan to be Buddhism, I verified the suppose when I arrived at the place. However, such belief tumbled when I stepped into the dining hall. And when I left the place, the impression of fusion refreshed my understanding of the religion and culture.

Buddakan is a new American Asian fusion restaurant located in Meatpacking district. The building, constructed of bricks, is painted pitch black. And the small entrance is simply a class door decorated by Chinese pane. If you are not trying to locate the place on purpose, it will be most likely that you will walk past the restaurant without paying any attention. The minimalism of the outlook and the classic Asian embellishment of the construction intensified my reflection on the Buddhism of the restaurant.

However, when I entered the restaurant, the impression of the Asian religion was shaken by the huge Western mural behind the reception desk. Stepping down to the dining hall, where magnificent medieval candlelight chandeliers were hanged from the ceiling and an exaggeratedly elongated communal table located in the middle of the space, I almost rejected the presuppose I had made earlier. Attracted by the bird-shape candleholders, which were coated with layers and layers of the wax, I even had the illusion of sitting in a castle. Instead of experiencing the minimalism of the Buddhism religion, I was devoured by the Western culture in the magnificently decorated downstairs dining area.

            As nearly wanted to quit writing about this place, I leaned back and stretched my torso for releasing the disappointment. What caught my eyes were all the colorful pane, which were inspired by Asian culture, encircling the Western style dining hall. Filled with uncertainty and curiousness, I went upstairs to see what was laid behind the pane. To my surprise, the design of the first floor was poles apart from that of the basement. The round, small and exquisite tables combining with the square, graceful armchairs subtly resemble the ones that are commonly expected in a particular classical Chinese tea house. The overall interior design of the first floor is minimal. The pursuit of the simple perfection of the decoration reminded me of the “detachment” and “nothingness” of Buddhism. The feeling of visiting this section of the restaurant could be summarized as purification, which the intricate basement level cannot give. Probing further, I found an alcove, where a chain of pictures of different Buddhism figures is decorating the entire wall. Finally, the Buddhism was straightforwardly presented in front of me. At the same time, the question of “what’s wrong with Jesus? Didn’t Jesus speak of Heaven? Isn’t Heaven Buddha’s Nirvana” (Kerouac 114) rose in my head.

Indeed, there is no boundary demarcating the West from the East, the Christianity from the Buddhism. Every religion is a journey of finding the meaning. Drawn by the name “embrace” of the specialty cocktail, I found the meaning of this trip to the Buddakan. Religion is not to differentiate, but to embrace all differentiations as one.