AP World History

 Ch 9 Diorama This is a set of instructions if you need help creating the diorama.

Here is the diorama page of Video Notes for O'D's class . Kenitzer's class does not need this

 Buddha Questions

Buddha Pictures (click on each to enlarge)

 

In the center of each footprint is a dharmachakra, a wheel-like structure that had long symbolized the Buddha’s teaching. Here, it surrounds a lotus flower, representing the Buddha’s purity. Near the heel is a three-pronged emblem known as a tritana. It symbolize the three things in which Buddhists can take refuge: the Buddha himself, his teaching, and the sangha (the Buddhist community). This particular footprint image also includes in the bottom corners toyakshis, Indian female earth spirits suggesting fertility. The position of their hands conveys a respectful greeting

 

     

     

Beyond numerous bodhisattvas, Mahayana Buddhism also populated the spiritual universe with various Buddhas in addition to the Buddha. One of these is the Maitreya Buddha, or the Buddha of the future, predicted to appear when the teachings of the Buddha have been lost or forgotten. In China this Buddha of the future was sometimes portrayed as the “laughing Buddha” a fat, smiling, contented figure said to be modeled on the 10th-century monk named Budai, who wondered the country merrily spreading happiness and good cheer while evoking contentment and abundance. This Buddha together with some of his disciples are seen in this  carving dating to the 10th through the 14th centuries in China's Feilai Feng caves.

A figure within the Mahayana tradition, this is associated with the Pure Land school of China. In this version of Buddhism worship devotees chant his name. This earns them rebirth in the Western Paradise or the Pure Land. Often imagined as a place of constant light, fragrant breezes and abundant water. It was access to commoners, outcasts and even criminals as it was to monks and nuns. 


Dating from the 12th-14th centuries, it depicts Amitabha in bright robes, accompanied by several bodhisattvas. They are shown welcoming a deceased person, represented as a naked boy in the stream of light that comes from the Amitabha’s forehead, into the Pure Land, where he will e installed on the golden lotus throne carried by the bodhisattvas. There he can continuously hear the teachings of the Buddha, while working off any remaining negative karma, before achieving complete liberation in nirvana. 

 5 Robed Statues reading 

5 Robed Statues questions:

1.  Compare the first two sculptures. What moods are their respective artists trying to evoke?

2.  Do you perceive any apparent Greco-Roman influences on the statue of the Parthian noblewoman? If so, what are they? How, if at all, have those influences been modified?

3.  Consider the expressions, postures, and dress of the Gandharan and Chinese Buddhas. What responses do their respective sculptors hope to " evoke from viewers?

4. Continue your comparative analysis of statues 3 and 4. In what ways are they similar? How do they differ? Which are more significant, the similarities or the differences? What do you conclude from your answer?

5.  Now compare statues 1 through 4. Do they share any common elements? Do any significant differences divide them? What conclusions follow from your answers?

6.  Compare the Funan Buddha with the Gandharan Buddha. Do you see why scholars conclude that this was probably a local copy of a Gandharan original? Explain your answer.