Treasure hunt begins in England

Chapter 703 Buddha Statue
After entering this not-so-big warehouse, Liang En immediately walked to the location of the Buddha closest to him, and then studied the Buddha statue.

This is a Buddha statue in the style of Madura, which is one of the three schools of early Buddhist art, namely Gandhara Buddha art, Madura Buddhist art, and Amaravati Buddhist art.

The Buddha statues of these three artistic styles have their own characteristics. Among them, the biggest feature of the Gandhara-style Buddha statues is Hellenism, with powerful shapes. If the religious elements are removed, they look like the strong young men in ancient Greek sculptures.

At the same time, the face is very Westernized, with thin lips and a straight nose bridge, and the eye sockets are relatively sunken.The whole face has sharp edges and corners, and it seems to have a strong sense of lines.

As for the clothes of the Buddha statues, they are also very thick, opaque, and have a strong sense of drooping. They look like traditional Mediterranean robes. The hair is also wavy, not the common kind of snail hair. At the same time, the expression is dull and serious.

For Chinese people, this kind of Buddha statues is widely distributed in the Western Regions, mainly because of the Silk Road, which directly accepted the influence from northern India in ancient times.

The Motura-style statues give people a different feeling. Although they are also influenced by ancient Greek art, because the birthplace of this art is closer to the hinterland of India, the faces of the statues are definitely not like the ancient Greeks.

Judging from the existing cultural relics, from the very beginning, the style of Motura has been biased towards the style of Indian native art, and the difference with Gandhara Buddha statues is quite obvious.

Many of the early Motuluo Buddha statues had no clothes, and even if they had cassocks, they were very light and thin, highlighting the sensuality of the human body.The hair is not a wave, but a circle of coiled spiral hair.The method of clothing pattern is usually to add Yin lines on the raised edges.

In the second half of the 2nd century AD, Motuluo-style Buddha statues gradually began to absorb some characteristics of Gandhara Buddha statues to transform themselves.

In the 4th century AD, the Matura Buddha statue finally realized the perfect integration of Indian tradition and foreign influence, and ushered in its own maturity.

The mature Motuluo Buddha statue has a more graceful and slender body, with an oriental face, long and thick earlobes, typical spiral hair, right-handed, and a meat bun.The eyes are generally half-closed, and the expression is peaceful and indifferent. It is the image of Buddha looking down on all living beings in our impression.

This type of Buddha statue also has some stylized shapes. For example, there are three broken lines on the neck, called "three bends" or "silkworm knot patterns", and the headlights are round, decorated with different patterns around each circle.The figure is of medium proportion and wears a shoulder-length coat.

The most important thing is that there are many curved lines on the clothes of the statue, which makes the clothes very thin and sticks tightly to the body, as if the clothes are wet, so it is also called "wet body Buddha statue".

This style of Buddha statue was later introduced to China, which had a profound influence on Chinese sculpture and even painting.

As for the Sarnath-style Buddha statues, they belong to the same category of Indian traditional art as the Matura Buddha statues.The most obvious difference between the two types of Buddha statues is the clothing.

The clothes of the Sarnat-style Buddha statues are even thinner and almost invisible, only one or two lines of clothing can be seen on the neckline, cuffs and other places, so they are also called "naked Buddha statues".

But because historically the two artistic styles merged into one during the Gupta Dynasty.Buddha statues of that kind in the history of art are often regarded as the same style of art as Motura Buddha statues.

The last Amaravati style comes from South India, where Buddhists like to build stupas to express their beliefs, so Amaravati-style sculptures are closely related to stupas.

In many cases, the image of the Buddha appears on the reliefs of the pagodas, with storylines and scenes, focusing on expressing the artistic conception and atmosphere.

The distinctive feature of Amaravati-style Buddha statues is that the muscles of the characters are flexible, and the body is flexible and dynamic.The appearance of the Buddha statue is also very pure Indian appearance.

Now, the Buddha statue that Liang En was facing looked obviously oriental, with light clothing, and it was obviously a life-size Buddha statue in the style of Motuluo.

Of course, this does not come from ancient India, because the Buddha statues in the Buddhist era of ancient India were mainly made of stone, even if there were metal Buddha statues, they would not be such life-size Buddha statues.
Therefore, from the appearance, this Buddha statue should come from Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, that is, Theravada Buddhism, which is mainly popular in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka in South Asia, and southwest China.

"It seems that these things should be one of the treasures that the devils plundered in Southeast Asia." After judging the source of these Buddha statues from the appearance of the Buddha statues, Liang En and others quickly guessed how these things came here.

Although it is said that some Japanese devils believe in Buddhism, for this group of villains who are popular in Southeast Asia, money is the most important thing, and faith can be put aside.

However, after a comprehensive inspection, Liang En found that the things here might not be as valuable as he thought, because he found that some inconspicuous places on the Buddha statue were mottled in color, and there were some dark oxidation marks in the gold.

"Is this gilded?" After seeing these strange traces, Liang En quickly took a closer look, and found that there was only a thin layer of gold on the outside of the Buddha statue, and under this layer of gold was obviously bronze.

Everyone confirmed this when trying to carry it later, because the weight of gold and copper is very different. If it is only a small piece, it may not be easy to distinguish, but it is easy to detect the difference in such a large Buddha statue.

After confirming that these Buddha statues are copper-plated and gold-plated goods, everyone quickly began to take shifts to transport these Buddha statues out of the cave. At this time, people began to speculate on the origin of the Buddha statues.

"It's very likely to be something from Cambodia." After moving the Buddha statue outside, Liang En carried out further inspections under the sunlight outside, and found more clues.

"Where did you see that?" After hearing Liang En's words, Joan of Arc knelt beside him on one knee, carefully looked at a Buddha statue in front of him, and asked curiously. "I think these Buddha statues in Southeast Asia are very similar."

"You're right. The Buddha statues in Southeast Asia are indeed similar, but there are still some differences between the Buddha statues in Cambodia and other places, such as the smile on the face of the Buddha statues." Liang En said looking at the face of the Buddha statues.

"You have to know that unlike today's impoverished Cambodia, this country was called Chenla in history, and it was once one of the wealthiest countries in Southeast Asia. For example, the famous Angkor Wat was built during the Angkor Dynasty in this country. "

"And if you look closely at the face of this Buddha statue, you will find that this Buddha statue has a smile on its face, and it looks like a Buddha statue in Angkor Wat as a whole."

"You're right, it's true." After hearing what Liang En said, Joan of Arc quickly recalled what she had seen before, and then nodded.

"The Angkor Buddha statue is indeed different from the Buddha statues in other places, especially the Angkor smile."

The style and origin of the Buddha statue can be simply judged by the style of the Buddha statue. The only pity is that traditionally, the Buddha statue does not have engraved inscriptions, so this looted Buddha statue may never know where it came from. "

(End of this chapter)