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Description: | Sepia wash drawing of the eastern Front of the Temple of Adi Buddha at Swayambhunath, by Henry Ambrose Oldfield (1822-1871), .c 1854. Inscribed on the reverse: 'Eastern Front of the Temple of Adi Buddha at Sambhunath. 1854'.
Dr Oldfield, who was Residency Surgeon at Khatmandu from 1850-1863, wrote: "The great temple to which the name of Sambhunath is specially applied, is a very fine and perfect specimen of a Buddhist chaitya, or mound-temple. It consists of a solid hemisphere of earth and brick, about sixty feet in diameter and thirty feet in height, supporting a lofty conical spire, the top of which is crowned by a richly-carved pinnacle of copper-gilt. Its only basement is a narrow cylindrical plinth, faced with slabs of stone, and which projects about two feet round the base of the temple...The square toran or basement of the spire, has a projecting cornice above and below; it is covered with plates of copper-gilt, and has the two eyes of Buddha, painted in crimson, white and black colours, on each of its four sides." | License: | http://www.bl.uk/services/copy/permission.html | Rights holder: | British Library | Source: | Collect Britain | Creator: | Oldfield, Henry Ambrose (1822-1871) | Identifier: | http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personal... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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