FONDUKISTAN ~ A GRECOBUDDHIST MONUMENT IN AFGHANISTAN

Fondukistan is a Buddhist site in the Ghorband valley (Parvan province, Afghanistan), c. 120 km north-west of Kabul. It is located on the top of a hill overlooking the valley from the south, a bit north of the route that passed through the Hindu Kush, and connected India to Bactria and Central Asia in the past.

Although coins found at the site of Fondukistan had been recorded  since the first half of the 19th century, the first archaeological expedition there was conducted in 936, by Joseph Hackin of the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan. A year later, Jean Carl (also a member of the Délégation) conducted limited excavations on the site. However limited,the archaeologists discovered stunning artifacts.The results were summarized in a short paper published by Hackin (1959).

 Only a small part of the structures have been excavated so far; a temple and an adjoining building connected to it by a vaulted passage. The latter structure, built of adobe, consists of numerous cells, congregation halls for the Buddhist community saṅgha, and other rooms. There have been do detailed publishings about the site.

The overall building plan of the square temple has not as yet been determined. Hackin assumed that it was a vaulted hall; according to others it was a domed structure (Rowland, 1961); a third opinion holds that it was an open courtyard (Tarzi). Judging by the photographs published by Hackin, the sides of the temple must have been ca. 8 to 10 meters long. Its walls—not very thick and with deep niches—were obviously not built to support the weight of a large dome. Most likely the temple was indeed an enormous courtyard, with a square stupa in the middle. The stupa had a two-tier foundation, with pilasters along each ledge. On the upper ledge, above the pilasters, there were trapezium-shaped arches, which framed another row of pilasters. The massive cylindrical drum was also decorated with small arches and pilasters.

In the walls of the temple there are 12 deep niches, 3 on each side, covered by elliptical vaults. The 5 gateway arches are supported by pilasters with corinthian-style capitals, and the archivolts of the gateway niches are trimmed with wide strips of carved-scroll ornamentation. The walls and the vaults of the niches are decorated with magnificent frescoes. In niche E there is an image of Maitreya Buddha seated cross-legged on a throne. His head is inclined over his right shoulder; in his right hand he is holding up a blue lotus flower and in his lowered left hand a Brahman water flask. The Boddhisattva is richly bejeweled, wearing a diadem, earrings, bracelets, etc. The frescoes in another niche depict the sun god and the moon god. Each niche was a shrine holding an ensemble of clay sculptures built up around a wooden lattice or armature. Some sculptures were depicted in full length, others as torsos. These figures of Buddhas, Boddhisattvas, devata, princes, princesses, etc. are true masterpieces of Buddhist art, striking images, remarkable for their vivid polychromy.

Both sculptures and frescoes exude warmth and breathing, depicting elegant little curvatures of the body and flower-like gestures of the hands, as if capturing for eternity the complex movements of a dance. The genesis of this art form can be traced back to the art of Gandhāra and the Guptas. 

The Fondukistan site is usually dated to the 7th century C.E. on the evidence of artistic style and numismatic finds, the oldest of which is from 689 C.E. However, the shape and the decorations of the stupa suggest that the complex can be dated even earlier, around 6th-7th century C.E.

EDITED FROM: Encyclopedia Iranica