Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d
  • Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d
  • Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d
  • Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d
  • Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d
  • Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d
  • Four schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, <a href="https://asia.si.edu/object/F1949.9a-d/"target="_blank">National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d</a> ; Late 2nd to early 3rd century; Gandhāra; EXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d

Name/TitleFour schist panels showing scenes from the life of Buddha, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian, F1949.9a-d

About this objectFour carved schist panels showing the four great events in the life of Buddha. From right to left, these are his birth, his enlightenment, his first sermon and his parinirvāṇa. The panels originally decorated a stupa and worshippers would have seen them in this order as they walked clockwise around the reliquary mound. The panels were carved during the Kushan empire (1st to 3rd century) in Gandhāra, what is now Pakistan and Afghanistan. It was in the period that Buddhism spread east through central Asia and into China, and thence further east.

Date MadeLate 2nd to early 3rd century

PeriodKushan

Place MadeGandhāra

Subject and Association KeywordsOrigins

Subject and Association KeywordsStupas

Subject and Association KeywordsPilgrimage

Subject and Association DescriptionLearn More: Behrendt 2005: 2, 383–92; Behrendt 2012; Huntington 2015; Ratan Parimoo 1982; Seckel 2004: 28–31; Shaw 2015: 48.

Medium and MaterialsSchist

TechniqueRelief

TechniqueCarved

Measurements7.5 x 10.2 cm

Credit LineNational Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian

Object numberEXH1a-d: F1949.9a-d

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