The bike was wonderful, brought back some happy memories.
Thanks Jules. Yes, those sculptures are really special - as I said, we were both moved to tears by the sheer beauty of the figures and the natural wall of stone behind out of which they've been carved, lovely strata of dark grain running through soft-coloured weather-worn granite. Originally they'd have been covered in gold leaf and enclosed by walls/roof - I'm glad we came along to see them hundreds of years after all the gold has worn away and the enclosures have fallen down. The standing figure is thought by most experts to be the figure of Ānanda, the Buddha's faithful attendant, standing over the Buddha who's approaching the end of life (as the lying down figure, one of the largest individual sculptures in southeast Asia, is indeed the Buddha on the threshold of "parinibbāna" - upper foot held slightly behind lower indicates dying rather than just a lying down posture). The standing one is certainly quite unlike most Buddha figures I've seen, with a slight sinewy movement in his pose, quite natural and human, as if he's shifting his weight a little from one foot to the other, his arms crossed in an unusual way and an expression with an air of beautiful sadness... Some think it may be a depiction of the Buddha himself in a rarely seen posture representing a kind of divine sympathy: para dukkha dukkhitha mudra, "sorrow for the sorrows of others". There's also a very fine seated Buddha and a smaller, less impressive one enclosed in a kind of cave carved out of the same rock - see photos below. We sat for half a day and just gazed, while other tourists and parties of school children came and went - definitely the highlight of our whole trip! (Lovely birds everywhere too - this one's a green bee eater, common as blue tits out there.)
I'm loving the pictures Alan and the bee eater is just fabulous!
Jules
Just catching up with threads and glad to see you've had a wonderful trip Alan
I was amazed by the perspective of the size of these carvings (gained from your last picture with some people in it)!!
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