How Did Buddhism Influence Greek Architecture

HELLENISTIC INFLUENCE ON BUDDHIST SCULPTURE

The great Buddha statue at Bodhgaya in India stands 80 feet tall and is the first of its kind ever built in India. Its construction was completed in 1989 and was consecrated by the 14th Dalai Lama. Pilgrims come from all over the world to see the monument. It was constructed under the slogan “spread Buddha’s rays to the whole world.” What many visitors, pilgrims, and tourists alike probably do not realize is that “the Buddha” at Bodhgaya owes many of its traits to Greek influence; in fact, that a statute was erected to portray the Buddha in human form at all was a contribution by the Greeks over a thousand years ago.
The figure of the Buddha originates from the Greco-Buddhist era of central and
near eastern Asia. Alexander the Great first conquered the Achaemenid Empire in what is now the Afghanistan/Pakistan border in 334BCE. He established cities such as Bactria and Ai-Khanoum in the region and began to introduce elements of Greek religion, art, and science into the culture. This cultural exchange was strongest in the city of Gandhara in modern northern Pakistan; this period lasted for over a thousand years, first from the Greco-Bactrian kingdom to the indo-Greeks and then the kushans. From Gandhara, Hellenistic influence began to radiate down into India and the rest of southeast Asia, while simultaneously moving northward along the silk road to China and then Japan and Korea.

Almost every facet of Buddhist art and sculpture has some Hellenistic traits.
The most prominent, apparent Hellenistic influence is the fact that prior to the Greco-Buddhist era; “the Buddha” was never portrayed in human form. This “iconic” predisposition in Buddhist art was an integral part of “the Buddha’s” teachings; he discouraged any literal or “anthropomorphic representations” of himself after the extinction of his physical body. Prior to the Greco-Buddhist era, the Buddha was portrayed by symbols, often represented by an empty throne, footprint, or dharma wheel. These anthropomorphic representations of the Buddha, which first appeared at Gandhara, display several noticeable Hellenistic traits. The face of Buddha is detailed, and the nose lips and hair are all features of someone of a more Mediterranean descent.

The Buddha wears a toga-style robe or “himation”; the folds of the fabric are very intricately sculpted, any figures depicted in Buddhist sculpture prior to the Greco-Buddhist period wear only a loincloth. When depicted standing, the Buddha was often “contrapposto,” and the hands and feet were sometimes sculpted in marble and highly detailed while the rest of the body was formed from a different material to enhance the realism of the sculpture, these traits were exclusive to Greek sculpture prior to this period.

The anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha was created by Greek sculptors by combining traits of Greek deities with written descriptions of the Buddha. This “syncretic” deity was a result of a melding of physical attributes of the Greek sun god Apollo with traits described in “the 32 signs of a great man.” The 32 signs are believed to be the physical attributes of the Buddha himself, and along with another description called “80 lesser marks of a great man,” they were used to manufacture the first artistic rendering of “the Buddha” in human form. The Greeks felt that the representation of “the Buddha” in anthropomorphic form provided a more attractive visualization of the ultimate state of enlightenment and also allowed for a wider audience to be reached.
The influence of classical and Hellenistic Greece was present in other subject matter as well as “the Buddha”. Many silver and gold coins have been excavated at archeological sites in the Greco-Bactrian region of Afghanistan, these unearthed coins “show a degree of individuality never matched by the often more bland descriptions of their royal contemporaries further West”. (“Greece and the Hellenistic world”).

In the Greek city of sirkap in northern Pakistan much of the architecture is adorned with Hellenistic motifs of fruit garlands and scrolls. Some items found portray purely Greek deities, several stupas ( large mounds covered in Buddhist statues and deities) are built using Corinthian columns amid Hindu, Buddhist and Zoroastrian religious figures. The Greek god atlas is even depicted alongside Greek columns supporting some Buddhist temples. At the city of Hadda in Afghanistan over 23,000 clay and plaster sculptures were unearthed during an expedition in the 1930’s and then again in the 1970’s. these sculptures are comparable to those found at the temple of Apollo in Greece.

Much of the city of Hadda along with Greco-Buddhist sculpture and architecture has been destroyed by modern conflicts in the region.
The progressive evolution of Greco-Buddhism slowly radiated throughout the Asian continent over the next few centuries. A Chinese mural depicts an explorer and ambassador Zhang Quian traveled from china to as far as Bactria around 130 BCE. This same mural shows the emperor Han Wudi worshipping Buddhist statues described as "golden men brought in 120 BCE by a great Han general in his campaigns against the nomads." Historians believe these statues to be of Indo-Greek origin and the earliest known portrayal of Greco-Buddhist influence on the far east.
Influences of indo-Greek culture can still be seen in Buddhist temples in Japan, china and Korea. Protectors of” the Buddha”, called Niomon in Japan, Heng Ha Er Jiang in China and Geumgangmun in Korea, originated from the Greek demi-god Heracles, the son of Zeus and benefactor of all mankind.

Heracles likeness can be found in the Indian god Vajrapani, depicted holding the “thunderbolt scepter” which is a symbol of “the Buddha’s” “power of compassion”. The nio or niomon in japan are twin guardians of “the Buddha” representing life and death.

As an individual being raised mostly in the united states, Buddhist culture is completely about symbols to me.
I really had absolutely no preconceived notions of Buddhism beyond the statute of Buddha and what ive seen in movies. As for Alexander the great, ive learned alittle about him and the Macedonian culture in western civilization courses.
In the sculptures from hadda I definitely see a Hellenistic influence, the buddah statues look more like Greek gods than what ive come to associate with Buddhism, it seems as though the initial influx of Greek influence almost drowned out most of the traditional artistic representations of anything Buddhist. I feel that Buddhism wouldn’t be as widespread of a religion without the Greeks influencing the artistic representations as well as transporting the Buddhist philosophies around the known world. Its possible that the Greek artistic influence wasn’t well accepted because it did go against the fundamental principles of Buddhism, but after a few generations the culture was so transformed by outside influence that after a few generations no real knowledge of anything but the Greek influenced Buddhist culture existed any longer. It is strange to look at a statue of the Buddha now and see the still evident impact of the ancient
Greeks.