Pakistan's pre-Islamic heritage is showcased in Paris from Wednesday in an exhibition of ancient Buddhist art that offers a fresh perspective on a country fraught with violence and religious unrest. The Guimet Museum of Asian Art has gathered 200 works dating to the first to sixth centuries from Gandhara, an ancient kingdom that covered modern day north-west Pakistan but whose cultural influence reached India and Afghanistan.
Gandhara became more widely known in 2001 when the Taliban destroyed what were then the world's biggest statues of Buddha, giant figures carved out of a cliff in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. The Paris exhibition includes pieces that are among the earliest human representations of the Buddha, the "Enlightened One", who had previously been worshipped through symbols.
The exhibition's impressive main stupa - a type of tower for housing a Buddhist shrine - depicts in detail the stages leading to the Buddha's spiritual enlightenment in 36 reliefs intricately carved out of stone. Ornate schist and stucco reliefs, stupas, sculptures and gold jewellery mostly depict the life of the Buddha, but the show reveals the art of Gandhara was influenced by other cultures and was home to various non-Buddhist deities.
Alongside the Buddhas are features familiar from the Greek and Roman era, when Mediterranean culture left its mark on the vast territories conquered by Alexander the Great. Sculptures of the Greek gods Athena and Aphrodite share space with Hindu goddesses and carved depictions of nature spirits, winged angels and demons.
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