The Great Departure

Eastern Gateway, Sanchi Stupa 1, ca. 100 BCE-100 CE

The stupa at Sanchi is bordered by a railing and four gateways. The story of the Great Departure is located on the eastern gateway. This art piece demonstrates a traditional story representing the process of the Buddha having hope and searching for enlightenment. This stretched rectangular 3D art piece is filled with tons of crowded people including five horses. It is fully crowded with what is said to be the gods which are surrounding these five horses. The horses represent Siddhartha precisely known as the Buddha. Everyone from the palace is following this horse covering it with some sort of umbrellas known as parasols. When these gods use parasols to cover this horse (buddha) it means that individual has a high level of power.

This is a continuous narrative story of the Buddha being lifted on the horse on its way out of this palace. In order for the Buddha to deliver the message to his people for reconstruction of belief and determination of leadership for a different perception of life for his culture, he’ll have to proceed forward. You can see the palace at the far left and the gods leaving the palace to focus on this horse that is moving from left to right representing Siddhartha gradually being lifted up on a horse heading out to an adventure. The artist used many people to show how many were behind Buddhism. It looks like a parade cherishing this horse. The horse is the same one throughout the shifting timeline. In the area between the horse’s images we see all the gods following his path. Once that horse made its destination at the far right, you can clearly see two footprints that symbolize the Buddha footprints. He is now ready to go on, on his own footpath. The figure kneeling to the pair of feet is a royal servant named Chandaka and is giving his goodbyes to the Buddha. Correspondingly, the identical horse is now coming back to the palace but without Buddha; indicating the Buddha’s search for wisdom as well as awareness. The fact that we can identify this big tree (Bodhi tree) in the center of the art piece, allows us to predict that the Buddha has fulfilled his accomplishments and reached his achievements in order to awaken enlightenment in his culture and share through reappearance what was learned throughout his experience to his gods for the future.