Product Description

English summary: Some of the earliest depictions of the Buddha in the world come from Gandhara. The catalogue shows more than 300 unique objects ranging from the 1st to the 6th centuries AD. In March 2001, when the Taliban destroyed the largest rock-hewn Buddha statues in the world in Bamiyan, an almost forgotten civilisation suddenly grabbed the world's attention: the Gandhara civilisation in the melting pot area of the Hindu Kush. Here, the legacy of the artists and craftsmen that Alexander the Great had brought with him to the Hindu Kush engendered the creation of the first depictions of the Buddha, long before any existed in India. 350 unique objects, among them masterworks of stone sculpture, intricate reliefs, and magnificent golden jewellery, cover a wide range, from the Greek civilisation in Central Asia to today's Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan- The Realm of Gandhara.