The meditative Buddha statue has been an inspiration for artists and sculptors for nearly than two thousand years. The Buddhists opine that prolonged contemplation on Buddha statues can actually help the devotee feel oneness with the Buddha. In its earliest days, however, Buddhist art was largely aniconic - which means that the figure of Buddha was not depicted in human form. Symbols like the wheel and the lotus were used to represent Buddha.
The Greek influences that started to transform Indian art in the period around 1st century AD inspired sculptural depictions of the Buddha figure for the first time. Gandhara in modern day Afghanistan became the biggest center of Greco Roman Buddhist art, with its immense wealth of Buddha statues. The Mathura school of Buddhist art, which was either contemporary or slightly later to the Gandhara School, also depicted Buddha in the form of stone statues. Buddhist sculpture reached a zenith during the times of the Gupta kings in India.
The spread of Buddhism in from India and Pakistan to Central Asia took Buddhist art to those regions. From Afghanistan, Buddhist art moved to China via Tarim Basin, and from there to the whole of South and South East Asia including Japan and Korea. The Buddha statue took up local colorations everywhere it went.
The Buddha statue is not merely a beautiful work of art, but has deeper mystic significance. The different hand gestures are subtly coded and can communicate hidden meanings to the initiated. The hand gestures or mudras can vary from the ‘abhaya’ signifying fearlessness to ‘dhyana’ signifying meditation. A Buddha statue is usually named after the hand gesture the statue assumes.
Buddha statues change its form from place to place. A typical Chinese Buddha statue is characterized by a high contemplative mood. The Buddha statues of South East Asia emanate a reserve and poise quite different from the passionate and fierce depictions of the Buddha in Tibetan art. The standing Buddha, the sitting Buddha – in teaching and meditative poses, and the reclining Buddha are some of the most common motifs of Buddha’s sculptural depiction.
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