The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

AFGHANISTAN
IT'
War. The monasteries and temples at Bamiyan
are carved entirely from the face of the sandstone
cliff, which for more than a mile is
honeycombed with a great series of sanctuaries
and assembly halls.
Parenthetically enclosing this vast complex
are cut two niches, each housing a colossal
Buddha statue. At the eastern end is the image
a hundred and twenty feet high [113], which
Hsiian-tsang designated as Sakyamuni, and at
the west a colossus rising to a hundred and
seventy-five feet [114], which the pilgrim
described simply as a 'Buddha image'. 14 These
two statues in themselves are extraordinarily
interesting to illustrate the cosmopolitan nature
of Buddhist art at Bamiyan. The smaller statue
is simply an enormous magnification of a
typical Gandhara image with its voluminous
drapery reminiscent of the style prevalent in
north-western India in the second and third
centuries a.d. [113]. The image at Bamiyan is
not completely carved. Only the armature, a
rough approximation of the body and head, was
actually cut from the sandstone cliff. Over this
the features and the folds of the drapery were
modelled in mud mixed with chopped straw,
with a final coating of lime-plaster to serve as a
base for polychroming and gilding. Traces of
pigment may still be discerned on the robe and
chin. Hsiian-tsang mistakenly described this
statue as made of metal, probably because at the
time of his visit it was entirely covered with
gold-leaf and metal ornaments. 15
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About a mile to the west is the larger of the
two Buddhas [114]. It is set in a vast trefoil niche
directly overlooking the miserable mud buildings
of the modern bazaar at Bamiyan. This
colossus is in quite a different style, although the
113. Bamiyan, 120-foot Buddha 114. Bamiyan, 175-foot Buddha
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