Afghanistan, Hadda, probably Tape Shotor / c. 300 CE
Layman bearing offerings
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Layman bearing offerings as sculpture (Afghanistan, Hadda, probably Tape Shotor · c. 300 CE).
The Buddhist community (sangha) consists of both monks and laypeople who brought wealth to support the monasteries at Hadda.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this sculpture as stucco with mother-of-pearl inlay.
The museum's collection notes: The Buddhist monasteries at Hadda were famous internationally until their destruction by fire in the 800s CE. One thousand years later, a British explorer named Charles Masson (1800–1853) documented the site and collected many sculptures from the ruins that are now in the British Museum in London. French archaeologists carried out systematic excavations between 1926 and 1929. They brought many sculptures to the National Museum of Asian Art, Guimet, in Paris. Some sculptures entered other museum and private collections around the world. In the 1970s, Afghan archaeologists continued to document the Buddhist sites of Hadda and brought many more
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtLayman bearing offeringsOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.