What does this Sakyamuni Buddha tell us about the early global world?
The Sakyamuni Buddha sculpture reflects established early iconographic features of the Buddha image, which spread across the medieval world, particularly along the so-called “Silk Road.” Rather than a single trade route from East to West, the “Silk Road” should be understood as a web of networks linking communities across Asia, Africa, and Europe, from Japan to Britain and from Scandinavia to Madagascar. For instance, the ivory figure pictured here was carved in India but excavated in Pompeii, Italy.
A Chinese Buddhist stele, also in the Worcester Art Museum collection, displays the iconographic traits of the Buddha seen in the Mathuran image but adapted to a Chinese style. The Kushan Empire’s territory may be considered the crux for connectivity from the 1st to the 4th centuries CE. This sculpture underscores the rise of Buddhism, a missionary and devotion-driven faith that spread and linked communities, shaping medieval religious, political, and intellectual life.
Payton Van Meter, Class of 2027, College of the Holy Cross
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