Mulbekh Chamba Buddha Statue
Carved onto the rock face, the 30 ft long limestone sculpture of standing Maitreya Buddha overlooks the National Highway 1D between Leh and Kargil, just a kilometre from the Mulbekh town. The sculpture measures nine metre from base to its top.
Maitreya is a bodhisattva, a successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha, who in the Buddhist tradition is to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. A school of thought believes the statue was built during the Kushan period during the first century; however, modern scholars date it around eighth century. In fact, in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE in northern India, Maitreya was the most popular figure to be represented, together with the Buddha Śākyamuni.
Though the rock sculpture represents the Maitreya Buddha, the idol is a unique blend of Saivite symbolism and early Buddhist art work. The art is a pointer to the fact that the Buddhist missionaries who were instrumental in carving the statue were from the east of the Himalayas and not from the Tibet.
Mulbekh Chamba Buddha Statue
Carved onto the rock face, the 30 ft long limestone sculpture of standing Maitreya Buddha overlooks the National Highway 1D between Leh and Kargil, just a kilometre from the Mulbekh town. The sculpture measures nine metre from base to its top.
Maitreya is a bodhisattva, a successor of the historic Śākyamuni Buddha, who in the Buddhist tradition is to appear on Earth, achieve complete enlightenment, and teach the pure dharma. A school of thought believes the statue was built during the Kushan period during the first century; however, modern scholars date it around eighth century. In fact, in the Greco-Buddhist art of Gandhara, in the first centuries CE in northern India, Maitreya was the most popular figure to be represented, together with the Buddha Śākyamuni.
Though the rock sculpture represents the Maitreya Buddha, the idol is a unique blend of Saivite symbolism and early Buddhist art work. The art is a pointer to the fact that the Buddhist missionaries who were instrumental in carving the statue were from the east of the Himalayas and not from the Tibet.