The government of Pakistan has loaned a 2,000-year-old Buddha sculpture from Peshawar Museum to Switzerland for exhibition at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich. This is the first time that this sculpture has been sent out of Pakistan.
Titled "Buddha Shakyamuni," over three and a half meters high and almost two tons heavy sculpture will be the main highlight at the "Next Stop Nirvana - Approaches to Buddhism" exhibit in Zurich from 12 December 2018 to 31 March 2019, says a press release issued here on Wednesday.
Estimated to have been created between the first and third century, the sculpture was excavated in 1909-10 from a small village named Sahri Bahlol near the World Heritage site of Takht-i-Bhai in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and has been on exhibition in Peshawar Museum since. Smaller objects from that era have been sent out of Pakistan for exhibition but this is the first time that a statue of this size has gone out of the country.
The Buddha sculpture is a prime example of the fusion between Indian and Greek art. It represents a unique work not only due to its size but also its quality, because it has survived the time almost without damage.
In 2017, Embassy of Switzerland and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation initiated contacts between Rietberg Museum and the Government of Pakistan, which resulted in signing of a memorandum of understanding between Department of Archaeology and Museums of Pakistan and Rietberg Museum in Zurich in March 2018.-PR
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