Title: Head of the Fasting Buddha
Location: Gandhara, Pakistan
Period: 2nd Century -3rd Century
Culture: Kushan
Medium: Schist Stone
Dimensions: Diameter: 18.50 centimetres Height: 22.30 centimetres Weight: 7 kilograms (estimated weight) Width: 12.70 centimetres
Repository: British Museum (London, England)
The sculpture depicts a deprived Buddha, who is fasting in the search of enlightenment. The sculpture does an amazing job of setting such as seen with his eyes being gorged into his sockets, sunken cheeks, and a pronounces cervical vertebrae. The buddha pursued an ascetic life, avoidance of all forms of indulgence, for a portion of his life until he began to focus on the practice of meditation. His search for such enlightenment began when saw the ‘four sights’: an old man, a sick man, a corpse, and an ascetic. Leaving his luxurious life as a prince, he journeyed for answers to sufferings and pain. What sets this sculpture apart from other fasting Buddhas is the two squiggly lines that connect his hairline with a circle in between his eyes. Might this be a reference to an awakening of a third eye? or his hair has been consumed and is reflecting the ridges of his veins?
Sources:
https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1907-1228-1
https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/schist-head-of-the-fasting-buddha/qgGDDQq1b7GZkA
