Want to leave the planet? Try visiting the Buddhas of the Gandhara at BAMPFA.

Jeff Bezos had it wrong. You don’t have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to leave this planet. All you have to do is go to 2120 Oxford Street in Berkeley to see the current (through October 3) Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) exhibit, “Beyond Boundaries: Buddhist Art of Gandhara.” It was my own birthday choice (and a gift) a few weeks ago, and it was an out-of-this-world experience. (UPDATE: This exhibit has been extended through March 13, 2022.)

From the exhibit website: “The Gandhara region of northern India served as a crossroads of power, culture, and Buddhist art from the second to ninth centuries AD. Presenting rare images of the Buddha and his life story, this exhibition demonstrates through thirty-six sculptural examples from public and private collections the important cultural exchanges between the Hellenistic world of Greek and Roman art and the native artistic traditions of India. Artisans of this region took a new, humanistic approach to depicting the Buddha in clothing and settings drawn from the West and combined them with descriptive tales of the life and teachings of the Buddha.”

The BAMPFA showing is the first substantial collection of Gandharan Buddhist art in an American museum in some time. And a chance to make some new friends … My own favorite, I think, is the mysterious gentleman at the bottom of this page, from a private collection. Whatever attribute he once held in his left hand has disappeared. So we can’t know for certain who he was intended to be. But the going bet seems to be a Bodhisattva Maitreya, a Buddha of the Future – and a quick Google search suggests he has a lot of brothers of the same name, who look just like him, in other museums.

Listen to a 47-minute virtual tour or get real-life tickets at the website here. Meanwhile, enjoy my photos below.

This 14th century gilt bronze Tibetan Buddha touches the earth, and so demonstrates his victory over the temptations of the demon Mara. He calls upon the earth to testify to his struggles over millennia to achieve perfection. This Shakyamuni Buddha looks to an era when his teachings will be accepted and understood. Note the trendy blue curled hair!

This 3rd century Buddha makes the classic meditation posture, cross-legged in lotus position, with his hands gracefully in his lap.

A seated Buddha making a gesture of reassurance with his raised right hand, 3rd – 5th century AD. In the middle of his palm, the wheel of dharma. He holds the hem of his robe in his left hand.

My guy. If he held a flask or a pot, we could be more certain that he was a Bodhisattva Maitreya, a buddha of the future. What attracts me to him? His slightly wild aspect, with thick curls cascading to his shoulders, the heavy earrings that feature winged lions, the slightly barbaric necklace with monsters on it. What else to like? The ropes of ornament looping around his right shoulder and the armplate on his bared arm. The curled and carefully styled moustache over the sensual mouth, under the serene half-closed eyes. He seems to have a distant Persian cousin to me, but hey, what do I know?

This entry was posted on Friday, August 13th, 2021 at 7:10 pm by Cynthia Haven and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “Want to leave the planet? Try visiting the Buddhas of the Gandhara at BAMPFA.”

George Says:
August 13th, 2021 at 8:01 pm
I wonder if the last statue could be Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. When he traveled to China, he lost his mustache and became Guanyin, the goddess of mercy. That’s right! Avalokiteshvara underwent a sex change!