Pakistani - Head of the Buddha - Walters 25243 - Three Quarter

This stucco head with black pigments still remaining in the eyes once belonged to a Buddha image that occupied a niche in a stupa. A large number of similar heads and more complete figures were recovered from sites in Taxila, and it is likely that this head is also from that region (see Ingholt and Lyons 1957, figs. 497 and 517-40). In several of these heads the hair is rendered in short waves of curly, undercut locks, as is the case here. Thus, despite the missing cranial bump ("ushnisha"), the head can be identified as that of a Buddha.