Metropolitan Museum of Art's "Buddhism Along the Silk Road" Opens in NYC

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

NEW YORK --- Sculptures, paintings, and gold objects from India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the western reaches of Central Asia comprise the Metropolitan Museum of Art's new installation "Buddhism Along the Silk Road: 5th-8th Century" (ends February 2013), which sheds light on a religious, economic and military history of the sixth century, marked by artistic exchanges across these vast regions and the Hun invasion. Drawn entirely from the holdings of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, this one-room installation examines a network of interacting Buddhist communities from North India, Kashmir, and Northwest Pakistan (Gandhara and the Swat Valley). The installation includes the Head of a Buddha or Bodhisattva from Afghanistan and is accompanied by an animated map tracing trade routes of the Hun invation.