Of the Bāmiyān large Buddhas, the best known is the West Grand Buddha. Coming from the bazaar to the site of the caves one enters through a gate and one is immediately face to face with the monument. The bluff here is about 80 m high, near to the vertical. From the yellow rock, tinged with brown and red, a high, narrow trefoil niche has been excavated. This niche is 58 m high, the width at the bottom is 21 m, and the depth at the base is 35 m. The ceiling section is 15 m, and the highest point of excavation is 14 m down from the top of the cliff.
The niche is hollowed out symmetrically to left and right, more systematically than in the case of the East Grand Buddha niche. The height of the large standing Buddha is 55 m, emerging in full sculpture within its niche, dug out of the living rock. The effect of “flesh” is well executed by means of a coat of plaster to smooth the surface. This coat is in many places as thick as 8 cm. There are remains of the waved hair and of draperies. As regards the folds of the drapery, cords are fixed by wooden dowels and plastered over as a finish. Now the plaster and the cords have come off, but the wooden pegs hammered into the rows of holes are still visible.
The appearance of the large Buddha today is truly a misery. The places where the face, eyes and nose used to be scraped and torn down, both hands have gone, and the area of the feet and knees have similarly been gouged out.
Xuanzang says, “In a recess in the mountains to the northeast of the royal castle is a stone sculpture of a standing Buddha; the height is 145 shaku, golden colours are clear and shining, and precious ornaments are sparkling”. This is his comment on this large Buddha sculpture. We infer that gold foil was pasted over the large Buddha, but it does not exist any longer, and many believe this theory.
It is not that there are no instances of gold foil applied to the body of a large Buddha. In Tapa Sardār in Ghaznī the Italian group excavated seated Buddhas to the entire body of which gold foil was applied. Presumably this was not an invariable custom; now there are no extant fragments. Only on the robes there seem to be traces here and there of a red colouration.
Who was it who destroyed these Buddhas? At the time of the invasions by adherents of Islam, the statues were damaged, and when Cinggiz Khan attacked Bāmiyān, there was more destruction. At that high altitude it would not have been a difficult undertaking. According to Moorcraft’s account, Aurangzeb, in the 17th cent., ordered cannon shot to be fired at this sculpture, and the knees were said to have been destroyed at that time. The head was damaged by others, in exactly the same way as the eastern large Buddha, and presumably by the same people.
The feet were buried in debris, and when the Indian group repaired the area around them, the ankles and the original floor level were discovered. The full height of the large Buddha was then 55 m. The French investigators measured it as 53 m, which meant an extension of 2 m, when the contours of the feet were revealed.
For ascending inside the East Grand Buddha niche, stairways were built inside the walls on both sides, but the West Grand Buddha has no such stairways. Cave 631, the nearest on the west of the group of caves around the foot of the large Buddha, has an internal staircase leading up to it. At a height of about 20 m there is a window in the exterior wall of the cliff, and the staircase continues no further.
The original plan, to build a tunnel stairway, must have been given up. By going around the western end and climbing half-way up the cliff, one could reach a corridor excavated right round the head of the large Buddha. Where the corridor faces towards the Buddha niche windows have been cut through, seven on each side and three in the rear wall. The middle window opening of these last three is a passageway out to the top of the head of the large Buddha. The dimensions of the head are: length 6.2 m, width 4.5 m. The central part of the top of the head is raised, indicating the uṣnīṣa, the protuberance of the Buddha's head. The windows in the side walls are placed roughly 2 m apart, and from them timbers hewn from the rock project into the niche, making the frame construction for a balcony. In the case of the East Grand Buddha a rectangular niche has been excavated in the wall, so the balcony there does not project out.
The western balcony, however, juts out into space. This is where, on the occasion of memorial services, the worshippers scatter flowers and musicians play. The interior walls of this large Buddha niche cave (620) were covered with murals, from the top all the way down, on both side walls. From the shallow vault that forms the top one sees two parts, front and back. The murals of the front have peeled off, but one can make out part of a Bo tree, knots in the shape of gingko nuts for heavenly garments, and part of a seat. From these we conjecture that a Bodhisattva was painted sitting under a large tree. To the left and below the seat there are remains of two small exquisite female figures. The one is playing a lyre, the other is blowing a flute to judge from her attitude.
In the back, below the seated Bodhisattva figure in the front part of a trapezoid gable, there are Bodhisattvas seated on chairs in two tiers, three in each tier. This large Bodhisattva figure and the row of Bodhisattvas at the back make a central band, and on each side in the slope of the arch, there is a row of seated Bodhisattvas, forming two outside portions.
Moreover, in the zenith, rows of semicircles or ogives alternate within the niche. The Bodhisattvas below the central band have the same shape. The lower half of the body is covered only by a dhoti. On the breast is a single knot shaped like a gingko nut, a garment hangs over the shoulders, and the figure appears relaxed, seated in a chair. There are various mudrā gestures.
Besides these Bodhisattvas, on the capitals of the pilasters on either side of the niche apsaras appear either singly or in pairs, with ornaments on the bare torso. They are particularly enchanting. Behind them are trees and stūpas, apparently placed at random, but in fact everything is in conformity with a regular design, and each figure is well placed.
Many different colours are used. From a blue ground the bright-coloured figures stand out. The contours of the Bodhisattvas are filled in with reddish-brown colour, except for the haloes, giving a three-dimensional effect. The haloes and the clothes are done with a light green all-over wash, which gives a distinction of light and dark where folds go in and out. Note the scrolls on the edges of the niches and the tortoise-shell pattern on the cloth hanging down over the back of the chairs.
On both sides below this pictorial zone are bands of flower-rope designs and hanging curtain designs. Where the hanging curtain designs come together in a knot there are knobs which on closer inspection are seen to be the heads of young boys. In the row of holes (windows?) in the balcony below there are railing designs. On the balcony the front part of the window aperture is remarkably large, and could have been a means of entrance. In front of this opening in the east wall there are remains of a figure. The costume has a collar and neckband and on the head a tray is carried with offerings. The figure sits erect, with the upper part of the body twisted around, the head looking backwards.
The murals in the ceiling extend right to the balcony. From here to where the shoulders of the trefoil niche are dug out is a single group of murals. Most of the murals have flaked off, but there are some good ones remaining on the east wall. There are three tiers with five seated Buddha-like figures in each tier. The three figures nearer the entrance have bared right shoulder and are seated in mudrā pose of “turning the wheel of Law”, and the two at the back are “bejewelled Buddhas”. Ornaments of crescent shape are worn in beribboned diadems, and neck and arm ornaments are also worn. There are tassels on the shoulders and ring like objects are carried in the hands. The background colour is blue-green, three colours are used for the body haloes and the Buddha figures are painted in outlines of brown with grey colours for the garments.
These five Buddhas are seated under a tree, with body haloes of concentric circles, and in between the figures are arranged designs of three lotus-flower buds looking like gas-lamps. Below this row, nearer the front, are two more rows, apparently.
The west wall has not so many good remains, but they appear to be similar. In the part below is a group of apsaras. There are three in the group, in an elliptical recess. The group consists of a man in the centre, with a woman on each side. One woman holds a bowl of flowers for the man to scatter, the other woman clasps her hands so that the fingers intertwine. Though in the medallions there are different poses, all the apsaras are flying up towards the back. The group on the west wall is better preserved, but the apsaras on the east wall are walking rather than flying. A martial deity with a trident, and a three-eyed god seem to be in the picture as well. Under this row of apsaras, in the lower part of the side walls of the Buddha niche, there are more rows of seated Buddhas. In the first row on the west wall there are four Buddha figures seated cross-legged under a tree. In between the Buddhas are designs of three lotus flower buds. In the second tier are rows of arched and semi-circular niches with seated Buddha figures in the styles of having both shoulders bared or only a bared right shoulder; on the columns between these figures are apsaras in the attitude of worshippers.
In the first tier on the east wall, there are four large Buddhas, seated cross-legged under trees. In the second tier, the attendants flanking the main deity (not identified) have diadems with ribbons attached, possibly in the style of Iranian kings and queens or else in the style of Bodhisattvas and Arhats. These figures are only in the upper half of the side walls; of the lower half nothing is left.
The interior of this West Grand Buddha niche has murals on all faces. In the centre of the zenith is a large Bodhisattva figure, and on each side are rows of seated Thousand Buddhas. Though this motif is common to other cave complexes, it is a principal element of the composition of the murals in Bāmiyān.
Around the feet of the large Buddha, just where the feet can be seen below the hem of the robe, there is a gallery. In the three walls eight small caves and four niches are dug out.
Extracted from Higuchi2001
