Buddha's Forgotten Country

Jens-UlVe Ha/'tmann Buddha's Forgotten Country The Histo/')' of Buddhism in Afghanistan fgbanistan was alw<lYs a completely Is Prices rose rapielly anel consielerable sums are (< 1, lamic countlY'. This view was held al now paiel for such manuscripts - with the out most everywbere until recently and bard come that fresh supplies continue to reach the Iy anyone paid any attention to the fact tbat other West ami Japan by way of Pakistan. Opinions are religions must have existed there before Islam was unelerstandably divieleel. On the one hanel, any established. The fact that Buddhism was one of increase in knowleelge that can be deriveel from tbose religions was basically only known to peo manuscripts relating to the history of Bueldhist pie interested in the his tory of Afghanistan or of writings anel of Afghanistan is to be welcomed. On Buddhism, 01' to the few travellers who chanced the other, the precise circumstances of e1iscovery upon Buddhist monuments when moving through remain unknown, meaning that irreplaceable elata the country. However, two and a half years ago, in is lost for historians. They woulel very much like March 2001, when the Taliban set about getting rid to know where a manuscript originated, wh ether of the two monumental statues of the Buddha in it was discovereel in a former cave-monastery 01' in Bamiyan Valley, the general public across the a stupa (a Budelhist grave monument), whether it world suddenly became aware that Islam was by was found in isolation 01' together with other texts, no means the only religion which had shapeel ami l11ucb besieles. All such information woulel tell Afghanistan. As is so often the case, only the irre us something about religious life in Afghanistan versible lass of part of our culturallegacy maele its over a lhousand years ago, but up to now we only existence widely known. The blowing up of the have the 111anuscripts themselves anel lack infor Bueldhas probably brought about the opposile of mation about where anel how lhey survived for what those responsible inteneleel - anel one can over a millennium. even be pleaseel about that. Nevertheless, il is no How did Buddhis111 C0111e to Afghanistan? The consolation for the irrevocable destruction of two political creation we toelay associate with the cultural monuments of global significance. All the name 'Afghanistan' is relatively recent. lt is not Cllrrent ieleas about reconstructing the two founded on any linguistic 01' cultural unily that Bueldhas seem to me to be of e1ubious value. can look back on a long history. In the past, the These doubts arise because there are much 1110re area comprising today's state was usually divideel urgent problems to be solveel in toelay's into several kingel0111s. That was al ready the case Afghanistan than the recreation of two stone in the pre-Christian centuries, althougb we do not sculptures, no malter how helpful these monu know mllch about this period. The first relatively mental figures might one e1ay be in promoting a certain contact with Buddhism can be dated revival of tourism. arollnd the third century B.C. At that time the A seconel phenomenon has also contributed in Mamya dynasty was establishing the first major recent years to reneweel awareness of Afghanis empire in India, the north-west of wh ich also tan's Budelhist pas I, and this 100 is certainly con incluc!eel Pakistan anel parts of modern Afghanis nected wilh civil war. For about ten years now tan. This dynasty's most important mler, Ashoka, Buddhist manuscripts fro111 Afghanistan have had inscriptions prominently displayed through been on offer on the Western anel Far Eastern art out his empire, anc! the most westerly of these markets. Initially these were probably chance were discovered in Kandahar. Characteristically, e1iscoveries, possibly in former cave-monasteries these inscriptions were not in any Indian script or in which combatants 01' civilians hael sought ref language; lhey had been translatec! into Creek and uge. Unfortunately, more precise information Aramaic, lltilising the Creek alphabet. This shows about the origins and e1iscovery of these manu that Ashoka's empire reachec! as far as a region scripts is not available to date. Specialists quickly where Creek was obviously a linglla franca and recogniseel how sensational these finels were when useel für aelministrative purposes. This Creek in the first manuscripts reacheel the Western market, fluence had arrived and talk of 'The Dead Sea Scrolls of Buelelhism' with Alexaneler the Tile Big /3uclclclila of /3a/1l/yan, /93/ was soon e10ing the rounds. This was enthusiast i Creat, who advan Photo laken (,0/11 Belen/ce Geoff- cally taken up by the English-Ianguage meelia ancl cecl as far as India roy-Sc!uleiter's !JoDle "Ghanclala" many press stories ensureel that news of the new in 327 - 326, exten With killd per/nisslon o( 1(llcse!Jrc!\ manuscripts spreael far ami wiele. ding his empire in lo Vellag, MUllich. Art & Thought 34 the Punjab, His campaign left no lasting traces in Iy true, The oldest depicLion of the Buddha known India itself and Alexander's empire began to dis to us is on the obverse of a coin showing Kanish integrate after his death, but the Greek cultural ka, On the other hand, coins also demonstrate that influences remained a dominant element in the the Kuchanas clearly pursued a very even-handed Eastern states which then came into existence, poHcy with regard to religion, promoting all the The most easterly Greek town we know of today faiths represented in their empire, was excavated in the 1960s by a team of French Political stability favours trade, and trade then archaeologists in the far north of Afghanistan - at generates a flourishing economy, which enables Ai Khanum on the Amu Darya, The influence of the provision of a viable basis for craftsmen and Greek and later Roman cultme persisted for cen artists as weil as representatives of the various tmies, and after the start of the new millennium religions, This laid the foundation stone for made a wonderfnl contribution to the emergence Gandhara art. Gandhara was originally the old of Buddhist art. We will turn to that in a moment. name for the region around Peshawar, It was Under Ashoka, Buddhism in India seems to however subsequently appHed to a considerably have blossomed initially, so it is to be assumed larger artistic area characterised by a relatively that political stability and the associated long unified style, Indian art scholars today use this distance trade also favomed extension of order to designation for a region comprising parts of the north-west of the empire, However, sure signs Afghanistan, the northern part of Pakistan, and of this expansion are only known from the first the extreme north-western corner of India, For century B,C" particularly in the form of dated centuries the Buddha had been represented by inscriptions, Dateable evidence only becomes symbols such as a footprint, rather than being more prolific in the post-millennium centuries, depicted figuratively, This period is termed the particularly through donor inscriptions, in which 'anti-iconic' phase of Buddhist art. Under the the names of individual Buddhist sects may ap Kuchanas, however, the first figurative depictions pear, Buddhism experienced an enormous up 01' the Buddha were simultaneously produced in surge when a large new empire was established northern lndia and Gandhara, In northern India in the nOl'th-west during the first century A,D, artists based their work on Indian precedents, cre Amigrant people from Central Asia, whose origins ating a unified form of representation, In Gan are not entirely deal', seized power in Bactria (an dhara, however, artists took the still-present fon11s old empire incorporating the north of Afghanistan of Greco-Roman art as their model, thereby crea with Balq as its capital), Hs rulers belonged to the ting that unique synthesis of Western forms and Kuchana tribe, which gave its name to both the Indian content which has become world-famous dynasty and the empire, They succeeded in conLi as 'Gandhara art', For portraying the Buddha they nually expanding their sphere of influence, which used the Greek god Apollo as a model, for secon eventually incorporated Afghanistan, Pakistan, dary figures other Greek gods such as Hermes or large parts of northern India and areas of Uzbekis Fortuna, ami for Bodhisaltvas, an exceptionally tan, and reached rar into Central Asia, Political important category of mediators of salvation, stability once again favoured long-distance trade, depictions of Roman youths, This art was famous One of the most important trading routes was the Iy and particularly impressively exemplified by the 'Silk Road', a network of commercial connections sculpture at the Hadda monastery (not far from which at its height linked the capital of the Roman Jalalabad), which was extensively restored a Empire in the West with that of the Chinese while ago but is now said to have been cOl11plete Empire in the East. Several branches to the south Iy destroyed in the recent upheavals, The specific joined the Indian sub-continent to this East-West formal character of Gandhara art clid not only axis, and one such connection also led through influence lndia, 1110difying representation of the Afghanistan, However, these trading routes were Buddha that originated there, It was also transl11it not only used by merchants, Buddhist monks tra ted to Central Asia by way of the Silk Road, and velled through Pakistan and Afghanistan and then then on to China, becoming the basic model for all on the Silk Road, firstly to Central Asia and final East Asian Buddhist art. Iy to China, spreading their religion wherever they In this art Indian and Greco-Roman elements went.

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