Museum Report Essay

The Buddha’s of Bamiyan were the center of attention in Bamiyan Valley and the most prominent statues ever carved into the cliffs. The bodies of the two statues were well thought out. The details of the statues were modeled by mud mixed with

Considering the iconography, the piece of art is aniconic, as there is no figure of Buddha and his presence is implied through the symbols – through his footprints, parasol, stupa, and “chakra," "Bodhi" Tree, and "Tri-Ratna" among others. The "Bodhi" tree symbolizes enlightenment as the Buddha reaches enlightenment sitting and meditating under it. It becomes a tree of worship for the Indians.

It is said that the Buddha was reluctant to accept images of himself, as he did not like to be viewed as a person. To symbolise the Buddha in the very early art, one used mainly the Eight Spoked Wheel and the Bodhi Tree, but also the Buddha's Footprints, an Empty Throne, a Begging Bowl and a Lion are used to represent him.

He is in a very vertical upright posture, this represents the chakras being aligned and that he is in nirvana. The lotus that the buddha is sitting on represses the buddha's pure nature, a lotus is a beautiful flower that emits from mud in swamps. The mud slowly slides of the flowers pink surface and then has a pure nature. He sits on a wheel atop a platform that is represented with the unity of a mandala. The mandala represents the universe, but the wheel below the lotus represents the Buddha's law or his teaching of nirvana. The wheel is a symbol of the teaching of the path to nirvana, also know a s representation of the eightfold path. The buddha's hand gesture, wisdom first, this identifies him as a Vairocana buddha. The hand gesture in the Vairocana shows a celestial and transcendent being and nature. This hand gesture shows that the buddha his almost cosmic. His robe drapes across his arms and sits loosely on the rest of his body. This is similar to the Hellenistic style in Greece. Although his robe is similar to the Hellenistic style his robe is actually a monk's robe, which the sacred usually wears during rituals. He is very symmetrical, other than his fingers, which are in the wisdom first pose, and his overlapping right leg. The buddha's overlapping right leg is a mudra position associated with his hand position. The mudra is the hand position and the leg to complete a ritual

In Indian art, the Buddha body is very muscular, whereas in China the body is adapted to their own ideals. China changes the image of the Buddha to have rounder shoulders, a rounder head, rather unseen body, eyes that do not make eye contact, and the drapery changes. This gives the resemblance of a Chinese scholar rather than an Indian prince. The Buddha after enlightenment changes form and his halo and topknot, which represent his great knowledge, become full form—he no longer has long hair, and his hands and feet are exaggerated. His body is in lotus shape and his eyes are squinted, or closed, allowing for one to easily identify the path to enlightenment in the work.

Golden cloud looking rays stem from the Buddha’s halo, and a faint lotus flower drawn in gold ink can be seen above the Buddha’s head.

The colonization of Asian countries carried a tremendous force that is still felt in contemporary time. Micheal Joo, an American-South Korean artist, uses this force in his work Headless. The piece of work is made up of about 20-30 headless buddha statues, in meditation with their legs in the single lotus position. All of the statues’ bodies are eerily similar, each a burnt-orange terra-cotta color and all having the exact same draping of robes that cover everything, but their feet, hands, and upper body. What differentiates them from each other, either than the variation of brown undertones, are the transplanted heads. The heads attached to each body are heads of iconic figures in Western media, like Wolverine and Alfred E. Neuman, the cover boy of the famous magazine “MAD.” To some, these heads juxtaposed with Buddha’s bodies show a clear message: Western media has become the new god.

Gandhara’s sculptures range in many different shapes and size. These consist of Bodhisattva torsos, heads, and even rock reliefs. In the earlier Kushan period, the head sculptures had traces of an adorned look and feel to it but was still pretty simplified. They displayed the sculpture relatively flat on the front and the back of the head with open eyes and the fleshy lips. A suggestion of braiding around the forehead gives the sense of the Bodhisattva wearing a turban, and of course the heavy spiral earrings. All these features appeared around the first century. The knowledge of Stanislaw J. Czuma stated, “the sharp , angular details of the upper portion of this head relate it to sculptural developments in the late second century, the lower half of the face with its pliant surfaces and ample curves of the lips” (83). This is showing the changes in details and form that the Bodhisattva sculptures are beginning to show as time goes into the next century. Then in 330 B.C., Alexander the Great conquered northwest Pakistan with his indo-Greek kings who succeeded him, and brought in the classical traditions to this region. The Bodhisattva sculptures can be seen with contrapossto, naturalism, drapery, and curly hair are distinctive traits of the Hellenistic

Bordering India, Tibet has a rich history of religion and the different faiths that developed. However, in the year 779, the Tibetan people adopted Buddhism as the state religion, and worshiped it to the fullest extent. As they developed their system of spirituality, Buddhist ornaments would be used to decorate grand sculptures of Buddha or reverend monks. Each specific ornament was created with careful symbolism and dexterity, each holding its own specific meaning. Circular forms were to represent lotus flowers, a symbol of purity. Abstract lion faces with human hands above the lotuses were symbolic to supernatural powers, and turquoise colors via the stone itself symbolized wisdom of the natural blue sky and the opacity of the earth. These decorations in itself, when seen on a sculpture of a Buddhist leader, symbolized the submission of the natural and the supernatural to that leader.

The Chinese Maitreya (See Figure P11 and P12), as compared to the Tibetan Maitreya (See Figure P13), is portrayed to be a fat, jolly, and happy. According to teachings, the Future Buddha will appear when the dharma, the teachings of the Buddha, have been forgotten. His statue symbolizes happiness, generosity, and security as he is the Buddha that protects the children, the weak, and the poor. Because of this artwork of him is found near the entrances of many Buddhist Monasteries. The Chinese future Buddha is portrayed differential from the Tibetan because of the Chinese origin story of the future

In conclusion, The First Sermon helps as further evidence and guidance towards fully understanding the history of Buddhist art. Although it does not display any particularly unique features, the piece of art serves to strengthen concepts of South Asian art as well as its uses in everyday

The Buddha is always shown in one of the four postures: sitting, standing, walking or reclining. The dress is a monastic robe that is draped over both shoulders or baring the right shoulder. The Buddha is believed to have thirty-two major characteristics and more minor ones (Williams, 332). There are many distinctive features that can be seen on the Buddha sculptures such as his earlobes, a bump on his head, curly hair, the structure of his fingers, and the light projection of the overall picture and image of the

When Buddhism comes to mind it’s usually the big fat jolly man. Instead, these two statues, named the Buddhas of Bamiyan, are about half a mile apart and depict Gautama instead of the fat man that you rub his belly

The first image, the footprints of Buddha, that originated in northwestern India may have shown reluctance in portraying a physical form of Buddha. This reluctancy may have stemmed from the belief that because the Buddha was the only being to reach enlightenment, there was no actual physical way to represent him. In addition, if one made an attempt at portraying Buddha, others may find their portrayal offensive or a false representation because he was seen as a different figure to multiple people. Another aspect is the possibility that because the Buddha had passed on to Nirvana, he cannon be physically present. In following the steps of Buddha, you could be reborn into this “Enlightened being”.

Gandhara was a region between modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan. Specifically, during the Kushan Period, lasting from the late 1st c. BCE to the 3rd c. CE, many images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas were created with similar styles. With its close proximity to the Mediterranean and the carrying of culture along the silk road, artistic influence from Greek and Roman civilization found its way into works made at this time. Great attention was given to the face. A content expression, with rounded eyebrows that connect to a flat nose, hollow eyes without pupils, and plump limps can be found on not only statues of Buddhist figures, but also on statues of the Roman gods and goddesses. A great detail went into the hair and depiction of the human form across these two art styles. Just by looking at a statue of the Buddha from Gandhara and a roman statue of an important figure, it looks like they could be from the same place. However, it was the way the silk road allowed cultures to interact and influence each other that caused this connection.