Washington: The Tibetan and the Buddhist community are outraged at a California-based company for promoting a range of shoes with the Lord Buddha’s images. Tibetans and Bhutanese Buddhists have written to the company, Icon Shoes, to express their disgust. They have flooded the company’s Facebook page with protest notes. There was no immediate reaction from Icon Shoes.
“Unfortunately, it is a basic Buddhist tradition to treat images of Buddhist deities with reverence. Having the images on shoes is disrespect to the Buddhists,” wrote Bhuchung Tsering form International Campaign for Tibet. “Could you kindly consider this and withdraw the shoes from your catalogue,” the Tibetan leader demanded.
The North American member of the Tibetan Parliament, Tashi Namgyal, wrote a protest letter to Icon Shoe. “I came across shoes with image of Lord Buddha on it, manufactured by your company. I was totally shocked and dismayed at being so insensitive,” wrote Namgyal.
Based out of Palm Desert, California, ICON was launched in 1999 by a Hollywood filmmaker and art collector.
“Icon is for the art lover and the woman who loves shoes and handbags. We support artists by paying royalty for the use of their art,” the company says on its Facebook page. (PTI)