Postcard # 8: Pakistan: Fasting Buddha in Lahore Museum

Here is a marvellous postcard from Pakistan. A Pakistani postcard featuring the statue of "Fasting Buddha" or "Starving Buddha" from 2nd century AD placed in Lahore Museum, Lahore. 

The Gandhara Fasting Buddha (Siddharatha) statue in Lahore Museum is considered to be the masterpiece of the earliest world and is given special importance. According to the legend, 

"The young prince Siddharatha left his palace in search of enlightenment and practised for six years such severe austerities and intense mental concentration that his beautiful body withered away to skin and bones. Ultimately he attained enlightenment at the age of thirty five and became known as the Buddha - "The enlightened one". This resolve was illustrated for the first time in Gandhara art. This so called statue of Fasting Siddharatha ranks not only as the finest specimen of Gandhara Art, but also as one of the rarest antiquities of the earliest world."

In 1999, Pakistan Post also issued a set of 2 stamps featuring the Fasting Buddha on 21 July 1999. I will show you the FDC of the stamps in the near future.

Lahore Museum(photo above) is considered as one of the major museums in South Asia and was established in 1894 in Lahore, Pakistan. Here is an interesting fact about Lahore Museum - 

Rudyard Kipling's father John Lockwood Kipling, was one of the famous curators of Lahore Museum and the famous novel Kim was set in the vicinity of this museum.

Lahore Museum exhibits the recorded history of the subcontinent. Part of the collection was removed to India after Partition but this is still the biggest and the most impressive museum in Pakistan. The museum has 20 galleries with items dating from the Stone age to the 20th century. It is famous for its display of Gandharan sculpture (especially the fasting Buddha), manuscripts, Qurans, paintngs, carpets and Islamic art. The Museum also contains some fine specimens of Mughal and Sikh door-ways, wood-work and contains a large collection of paintings dating back to the Mughal, Sikh and British eras.