Graeco Buddhism

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Statue of the Buddha in Graeco-Buddhist style from Gandhara (today's Pakistan). Around 1st to 2nd centuries AD ( Museum Guimet , Paris).

The Greco-Buddhism is the result of a cultural syncretism between classical Greek culture and Buddhism , which over a period of 800 years ago in the land that today Afghanistan and Pakistan , developed includes. Greek philosophy influenced the development of Mahayana Buddhism, which spread from the 5th century to the Empire of China , Korea and Japan , where it exerted a great influence on art and culture.

history

The interaction between Hellenism and Buddhism began when Alexander the Great began in 334 BC. Began his campaign in Asia and later came into direct contact with India , the birthplace of Buddhism. Alexander founded a number of cities in the conquered countries, which established intensive cultural exchanges and trade.

After Alexander's death in 323 BC His generals founded their own kingdoms, including Seleukus I , who established the Seleucid Empire , which initially extended to India. Later, the eastern part of the Seleucid Empire - Bactria  - collapsed  as the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom (3rd to 2nd centuries BC), to which the Indo-Greek kingdom (2nd to 1st centuries BC) and finally the The Kuschan Empire (1st century BC to 3rd century) followed.

Ashoka , Emperor of Hindustan (united ancient India - 2nd century BC, Maurya Empire ) circulated a Greek translation of the Buddhist canon by sending teachers to the Greek islands. There are some good arguments for a mutual influence between Greek philosophy and Buddhism (see Philosophy of the Alexandrian School ).

This fusion of Greek and Buddhist culture is vividly illustrated by the many statues of rich Graeco Buddhist art from creative centers such as Gandhara , which reflect the mixture of Greek and Buddhist influences. It lasted for several centuries, until it was followed by the invasion of the Iranian Huns in the 5th century and finally in the 7th / 8th centuries . Century was interrupted by the Islamic conquest .

Influences

Buddha and Vajrapāni. (Gandhara, 1st century, Museum of Asian Art , Berlin-Dahlem)

The resulting Hellenized form of Buddhism expanded to North Asia, China, Korea and Japan from the 5th century onwards, and formed the basis of Mahayana Buddhism, which in turn is the origin of Zen .

The image of Buddha in Mahayana Buddhism is an example of Graeco-Buddhist fusion with his flowing robe similar to the Greco-Roman toga that covers both shoulders, Mediterranean curly hair and Apollo- like soft and compassionate facial expression, all in the strict artistic realism of Greek art .

See also

literature

  • William W. Tarn : The Greeks in Bactria & India. 2nd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1951.
  • John Boardman : The Diffusion of Classical Art in Antiquity (= Bollingen Series. 35, 42 = The AW Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts. 42). Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ 1994, ISBN 0-691-03680-2 .
  • Richard C. Foltz : Religions and the Silk Road. Overland Trade and Cultural Exchange from Antiquity to the Fifteenth Century. St. Martin's Press, New York NY 1999, ISBN 0-312-21408-1 .
  • Alexander the Great. East-West Cultural Contacts from Greece to Japan. Tōkyō Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan, Tokyo 2003, (exhibition catalog, Tokyo National Museum and Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe).

Web links

Commons : Graeco Buddhism  - collection of images, videos and audio files