Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

After entering this small warehouse, Liang En immediately walked to the location of the Buddha closest to him, and then studied the Buddha statue.

This is a Buddha statue in the style of Morita. Morita is one of the three major schools of early Buddhist art, namely Gandhara Buddha art, Morita Buddhist art, and Amaravati Buddhist art.

The Buddha statues in these three artistic styles have their own characteristics. Among them, the biggest characteristic of the Gandhara style Buddha statues is that they are Hellenistic, with powerful shapes. If the religious elements are removed, they look like the strong young men in ancient Greek sculptures.

At the same time, the face is very Western, with thin lips and a straight nose bridge, and the eye sockets are sunken. The whole face has sharp edges and corners, and it looks very linear.

As for the clothes of the Buddha statue, they are also very thick, opaque, and droopy. They look like traditional Mediterranean robes. The hair is also wavy, not the common spiral hair, and the expression is dull and serious.

For the Chinese people, this kind of Buddha statues are widely distributed in the Western Regions. This is mainly because the Silk Road directly accepted the influence from northern India in ancient times.

The Morado-style statues give people a different feeling. Although they are also influenced by ancient Greek art, because the geographical location where this art originated is closer to the hinterland of India, the faces of the statues definitely do not look like the ancient Greeks.

Judging from the existing cultural relics, the style of Motuara has been biased towards the style of Indian local art from the beginning, and the difference from the Gandhara Buddha statues is quite obvious.

Many of the early Buddha statues of Motura had no clothes, and even if they had cassocks, they were very thin, highlighting the fleshiness of the human body. The hair is not wavy, but spirals spiraling around. Clothes patterns are usually made by carving negative lines on the raised edges.

In the second half of the 2nd century AD, Buddha statues in the Maasura style gradually began to absorb some characteristics of Gandhara Buddha statues to transform themselves.

By the 4th century AD, the Buddha statues of Mausora finally achieved the perfect integration of Indian tradition and foreign influences, and ushered in their own maturity.

In the mature stage of the Buddha statue, the body appears more graceful and slender, the face is oriental, the earlobes are long and thick, and the hair is a typical spiral hair, right-handed, with a bun. His eyes are generally half-squinted, and his expression is calm and indifferent, which is the image of Buddha looking down on all living beings in our impression.

This type of Buddha statue also has some stylized shapes. For example, there are three fold lines on the neck, called "three bends" or "silkworm knot pattern". The headlight is round, and the circles are decorated with different patterns. The figure is of moderate proportions and wears a shoulder-length coat.

The most important thing is that there are many arc-shaped clothing lines on the statue's clothes, which make the clothes very thin and stick tightly to the body, as if the clothes have been wet, so it is also called the "Wet Buddha Statue".

This style of Buddhist statues was later introduced to China and had a profound impact on Chinese sculpture and even painting.

As for the Sarnath-style Buddha statues, they belong to the same category of Indian traditional art as the Mausora Buddha statues. The most obvious difference between the two types of Buddha statues is their clothing.

The clothes of Sarnath-style Buddha statues are thinner and almost invisible. Only one or two clothing lines can be seen on the collar, cuffs and other places, so they are also called "naked Buddha statues".

But because historically the two artistic styles merged into one during the Gupta period. In the history of art, that kind of Buddha statues are often regarded as the same style of art as the Maosura Buddha statues.

The last Amaravati style comes from South India. Buddhists in that area like to build stupas to express their beliefs, so Amaravati style sculptures are closely related to stupas.

Many times the image of Buddha appears on the reliefs of pagodas, with storylines and scenes, focusing on expressing artistic conception and atmosphere.

The distinctive feature of Amaravati style Buddha statues is that the characters have flexible muscles, flexible body turns, and are very dynamic. The appearance of the Buddha statue is also very pure Indian.

The Buddha statue that Liang En was facing now looked obviously orientalized, and its clothing was light and thin. It was obviously a life-size Buddha statue in the Mosuluo style.

Of course, this does not come from ancient India, because the Buddha statues in the ancient Indian Buddhist era were mainly made of stone. Even if there were metal Buddha statues, they would not be this kind of life-size Buddha statues.

Therefore, judging from the appearance of this Buddha statue, it should be Theravada Buddhism from Southeast Asia, which is Theravada Buddhism. It is mainly popular in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka in South Asia, and southwest China.

"It seems that these things should be one of the treasures that the Japanese plundered in Southeast Asia." After judging the origin of these Buddha statues from the appearance of the Buddha statues, Liang En and others quickly guessed how these things came here.

Although some Japanese devils believe in Buddhism, for this group of villains who are eager to kill and rob in Southeast Asia, money is the most important thing, and faith can be completely put aside.

However, after a comprehensive inspection, Liang En discovered that the things here might not be as valuable as he thought, because he found that some inconspicuous places on the Buddha statue were mottled in color, and there were some dark oxidation marks in the golden color.

"Is this gilded?" After seeing these strange traces, Liang En quickly took a closer look and found that there was only a thin layer of gold outside the Buddha statue, and the bottom layer of gold was obviously bronze.

Later, everyone confirmed this when trying to move it. Because the weight of gold and copper is very different, it may not be easy to distinguish if it is just a small piece, but for such a large Buddha statue, it is easy to detect the difference.

After confirming that these Buddha statues were all gold-plated copper, everyone quickly began taking shifts to transport these Buddha statues out of the cave. It was at this time that people began to speculate about the origin of the Buddha statues.

"This is probably something from Cambodia." After moving the Buddha statue outside, Liang En used the sunshine outside to conduct further inspections and discovered more clues.

"Where did you see it?" After hearing what Liang En said, Jeanne knelt on one knee beside him and looked at the Buddha statue in front of her carefully, and then asked curiously. "I think these Buddha statues in Southeast Asia are all very similar."

"You are right, the Buddha statues in Southeast Asia are indeed very similar, but there are still some differences between the Buddha statues in Cambodia and other places, such as the smile on the face of the Buddha statue." Liang En said while looking at the face of the Buddha statue.

"You have to know that unlike today's poor Cambodia, this country was historically called Chenla and was once one of the richest countries in Southeast Asia. For example, the famous Angkor Wat was built in this country during the Angkor Dynasty. "

"And if you look closely at the face of this Buddha statue, you will find that this Buddha statue is smiling. Overall, it looks very much like the Buddha statue at Angkor Wat."

"You are right, it is indeed the case." After hearing what Liang En said, Joan of Arc quickly recalled what she had seen before, and then nodded.

"The Angkor Buddha statues are indeed different from the Buddha statues in other places, especially the smile of Angkor."

The style and origin of the Buddha statue can be easily judged. The only pity is that traditional Buddha statues are not engraved with inscriptions. It is possible that such plundered Buddha statues may never know where they came from. "