Standing Buddhist Monk

The immense appeal of Buddhism, both among an Indian populace and devotees abroad, gave it great impetus as a proselytizing faith. A central goal of transmission was the instruction of new converts in the tenets and traditions of the faith—an aim greatly facilitated by visual forms like sculpture and painting. 

The sangha or community of monks acted as primary agents in Buddhist transmission. Recognized by their shaved heads and distinctive robes drawn over one shoulder—exemplified in this stucco relief of a standing monk—they were revered as spiritual inheritors of the dharma (the spiritual teachings of the Buddha) as well as international emissaries of the Buddhist doctrine. One school of Buddhist teaching and devotional practice, called Mahayana, however, downplayed the importance of monks, emphasizing instead the universal saving power of Buddhist deities called bodhisattvas.

Unlike other Gandharan sculptures, this Standing Buddhist Monk is executed in stucco, not schist. Schist, a local stone probably quarried in the Swat river valley, was extracted in slabs and then carved by artists. Its tendency to split during carving could make it difficult to work with. Stucco, a material similar to mortar, could be pressed into molds and more rapidly executed. As patronage to Buddhist sacred sites in Gandhara surged in the 3rd to mid-5th centuries, stucco came to replace schist as the material of choice for the quick and beautiful embellishment of religious centers.