The Golden Buddha of Kushinagar – The Enlightened One’s Final Rest Photograph. It represents a radical departure in this tour. Each place to date-the Taxila garden Buddha, the broken heads behind glass, the windy ruins of Jamal Garhi, the cross-shaped stupa of Bhamala-is Gandhara-a crossroads of ancient Pakistan and culture-where Buddha’s image, an amalgam of Hellenistic forms and Buddhist beliefs.
This takes you elsewhere:
to Kushinagar in the present-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, where, according to Buddhist tradition, the Buddha Siddhartha Gautama did, in fact, die. It is where their story ended, after 45 years of proselytising work, seriously ill, and collapsed in Kushinagar. The enlightened ones ordained his last protégé, uttered the sangha’s last words and entered his Final Nirvana. Nearly all Buddhist sites investigated in this series, including the relic-stupas of Dharmarajika, the meditating Buddhas of Jaulian and even the image of Mahāparinirvāṇa in Bhamala, hark back to something that happened on this very ground.
University of Oxford. This is not some monastery close to a Buddhist centre of study, nor a city that has adopted Buddhism as one of many beliefs, like Sirkap.
In Buddhist terms, this is the point of no return:
The actual place where Buddha died and liberated himself, once and for all. Imperial Attentions. Since time immemorial, just like many Gandhara sites observed so far, this one has attracted the attention of imperialists immediately. The Mauryan king Ashoka is said to have visited Kushinagar in 260 CE, constructing several caityas and stupas for the sanctification of Buddha’s resting place. Its religious status began to rise over time, culminating in the Kushan Empire (circa 50 to 241 CE), and Kushinagar reached a golden age in the time of the Gupta Empire (circa 320 to 647 CE).
That year saw the tremendous expansion of the Mahaparinirvana Stupa and the recreation of the Mahaparinirvana Temple alongside a massive sleeping Buddha image. Wonderful Museum, wonderful museums, cruised. The Kushans were the power that developed Gandhara’s Buddha idols at Taxila and Jaulian, as well as the heyday of the classical arts, sciences, and literature of India that was taking place simultaneously. Thus, it’s no wonder that the statue pictured here comes from a spiritual lineage, even if not the specific lineage, similar to that from which the other Buddha sculptures were derived.
The Image:
Broken, but Reborn British archaeologist Sir Alexander Cunningham uncovered a large vaulted chamber and, inside it, a recumbent Buddha which he dated to no later than 637 AD. The adjacent stupa, the recumbent idol, and the temple were restored following discovery. The Archaeological Survey of India has entirely rebuilt the idol discovered scattered across a large area after being fractured into numerous parts. Grokipedia. The discovery in itself was first made in 1876 by archaeologist Carlleyle.
Whatever the first discovery, the underlying principle is the same: like most major sites of Buddhist importance across North India and Gandhara studied previously, the existing object is the result of tireless effort on broken fragments made centuries ago by archaeologists. ResearchGate: The Holy Site Covered By a Modern Temple In the photograph, the building featuring clean, marble-covered walls and a minimalist design is not ancient. The current temple structure was built in 1956 by the Indian Government to mark the 2,500th anniversary of the Final Nirvana of the Buddha, or 2500 BE in the Buddhist Calendar, as part of India’s national celebration of her most sacred Buddhist heritage sites. Wonderful Museums. The ancient idol itself is housed within.
Read more at: https://www.discovernewsdaily24.com/taxila-museum-two-thousand-years-in-a-single-garden/
1 meter. This sculpted red sandstone portrays Buddha at the point of his Final Nirvana. This red statue is now shimmering gold – due to centuries of devotional gifts, and particularly more recently, layers of gold leaf applied by pilgrims and devoted followers – virtually obscuring the original sandstone underneath. In this modern state, the idol appears as golden and has now become one of a handful of idols depicting the Buddha’s Final Nirvana that remain anywhere in North India, and is particularly known for its appearance to change as seen from various directions.
Wonderful Museums + 2 His posture is steeped with meaning. Unlike the one encountered at the very beginning of our tour – erect, conscious, hand held high in a position of courage and reassurance-this image reclines fully, the eyes closed, the entire body in a state of ultimate bliss. Yet this is neither the deep sleep of the ill nor the sleep of the dying. It illustrates Buddha at the moment of his death, his Final Nirvana – the utter extinguishment of all suffering, of all rounds of suffering, of every manifestation of birth and death, of the ever-recurring circle of rebirth – from one who had achieved complete and eternal liberation from it many decades earlier. ResearchGate. The bright gold that covers a statue’s lower legs in the image and the rich red cloth near her feet attest that this is no detached museum piece, such as the broken heads in the glass cases of Taxila’s Museum.
They’re visual proof this is a living shrine, the place where devotees come in their thousands each year, touch and reverence the image just as pilgrims have done, for approximately 1500 years, at this specific site.
Kushinagar :
A Living Site Of pilgrimage over the millennia, Kushinagar’s importance continues to rise; October’s official inauguration of the Kushinagar International Airport, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi participating in the events commemorating Abhidhamma Day at Mahaparinirvana Temple. He interacted with the most important monks of Asia – namely, from Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Korea, Japan, Nepal, Bhutan and Cambodia, in addition to receiving ambassadors from different nations. Today, Kushinagar has modern temples built by almost all the Asian countries –Japan, China, Sri Lanka, Thailand – a testimony to the reverence for this single place and also a hub for international Buddhist relations. Wonderful Museums + 2 A Satisfactory Conclusion After this long journey across Gandhara-through the standing Buddha of Taxila and his fractured heads, through the fingers and toes of Dharmarajika’s broken ascetics, through Jaulian’s eternally serene stone meditating Buddhas and the alleged oldest sleeping Buddha at Bhamala, the monastery of Jamal Garhi seen from a high vantage point, and the sacred niches of Sirkap- this shimmering golden Buddha at Kushinagar is the perfect finish.
The standing Buddhas and their meditating counterparts, the countless stucco bits and pieces scattered across the Gandharan region, all lead up to this one defining moment – a man having lectured for 45 years now lying back in the sal trees in Kushinagar, gently closing his eyes, escaping the suffering of birth and death for good.
See Also: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyU4cZor_Gg
