Daruma Doll
The daruma is a rounded paper-mache doll modelled on Bodhidharma, the semi-legendary founder of Zen Buddhism, whose hollow weighted body always rocks back upright when tipped. The likeness plays on a famous story in which Bodhidharma sat facing a wall in meditation for nine years, until his legs withered and were lost; the doll keeps his determined, round form and his fierce brow. Bought as a talisman of perseverance, the daruma is customarily sold with blank white eyes, and the owner inks in one eye when a wish or goal is set and the second when it is achieved, the rite turning the doll into