THE STORY OF GRECO BUDDHIST ART

The Sanskrit of Gandhara is Gandhālaya. Gandhara was one of the 16 kingdoms of ancient India. Its geographical location was extremely important, as it was at the center of East Asia, West Asia, and the Mediterranean region.  It had long been occupied by different regimes, thus it became a melting pot of different cultures, art, and beliefs.  During the Eastern Expedition of Alexander the Great (343BC to 340 BC), the Greek sculpture art was brought here.  Gandhara culture spread to China in the first and second centuries, slowly merging with the oriental style, and transformed to the Buddha image seen today.

The third emperor of the Maurya Empire, Ashoka (272 BC to 232 BC) vigorously promote Buddhism, extensively repair temples, summoned monks, compiled and organized Buddhist scriptures.  During this period, Buddhism was greatly developed.  It could be named the golden age of Indian Buddhism.  In addition, Ashoka also sent monks out to preach Buddhism.  Buddhism flourished in the Gandhara area during this period.

Since the Eastern Expedition of Alexander the Great, Gandhara became a Greek colony.  Because of its unique geographical location, Gandhara had extensive cultural exchanges with Greece and Rome.  Combining with the traditions of Indian culture and Buddhist culture, Gandhara became the center for Buddhist art.  With the integration of Indian and Western European perspectives of art, a special art style was developed.  During the Kushan Empire, Greco Art was formed, mainly focusing on Buddhist themes.  It used the Greek expression rather than the Indian tradition.  The Greeks had a different concept about God.  In Greek mythology, human beings and the gods had the same appearance.  Under this concept, artisans began to shape the image of the Buddha, which broke the local culture and Indian traditions of not expressing the Buddha in an image, and produced the earliest Buddhist art, the Greco Buddhist Art.

The Gandhara Buddhist Art is a combination of Indian Buddhism and ancient Greek and Roman carving art. The characteristics of the Greco-style Buddha statues were based on the Greek God of the sun.  The Buddha statues were characterized by swirling hair, the bridge of the nose lining up with the forehead, deep eye sockets, high nose, high forehead, and thin lips.  The Buddha was wearing a cloak, the pleats of the clothes were undulating with strong three-dimensional feeling.  The clothing pattern was inclined from the upper right, with the left hand grasped the corner of the clothing.  The Buddha and the Bodhisattva image usually had a concentric circular light at the back, sitting on a square platform surrounded by supporters.  In the construction of the stupas, the Buddha and Bodhisattva became the main subject of the statues.  In addition to India, Greco style statues were found in the areas to the east of Central Asia.  Statues in China in the fourth century were also deeply influenced by the Greco style, until the sixth century.