Archaeology Odyssey

St. Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel in the Patrologia Latina, 8.27.313, “Orbe, Romano Occupato.”

Axel von Saldern, Glas von der Antike bis zum Jugenstil (Mainz am Rhine: Philipp von Zabern, 1980), p. 19.

This passage was translated from the Chinese for this article by Ohio State University graduate student Wei Lin.

This ceremony is a reenactment of the Vessantara Jataka, the last rebirth of the being who was to become Siddhartha, or the historical Buddha. Thus the king acted out and attempted to assure his own future Buddhahood.

Other enormous depictions also exist, especially in Tibetan cultural areas. There we find vast seated images of the Bodhisattva. Such images are still being constructed in Tibetan cultural areas by Chinese and Japanese Buddhist communities. One Buddha now under construction by the Indian Maitreya Project will be the largest image in the world (see the Web Site at www.maitreyaproject.org).

We cannot yet provide exact dates for the arrival of Buddhism in Gandhara, for the founding of the Kusana empire, or for the carving of the first Buddha statues. The earliest known likenesses of Buddha date to the first century C.E.