402 



BAMEAN CAVES AND IDOLS. 



interesting; the roofs are usually arched, and the walls are often 

 supplied with niches, and covered with a coating of tar of some thick- 

 ness, and intense blackness. The galleries are low, arched, and admit 

 one person at a time, or a line of persons with ease ; they often form 

 the ascent to the upper caves now inhabited, but originally they were 

 enclosed in the rock, they are defended in such cases by a parapet. 



The largest caves are those about the idols, but I see none of any 

 size. They are often domed, the spring of the dome is ornamented 

 with a projecting frieze, some of these are parallelogramic, in one 

 instance with an ornamented border thus. 



C=D C=3 C3 C3. I 3 



Some of the caves are situated as high as, or even above the topa 

 of the idols ; all parts within the rock are lighted by small apertures. 



Access to the large idol is destroyed ; the smaller one is gained by a 

 spiral staircase of rude construction, and by galleries. The floor of 

 the galleries is rugged, the steps and the cement of the conglomerate 

 having worn out from between the masses of rock. The images all 

 occupy niches in the face of the hill : two are gigantic, the rest not 

 very large. They are generally in the usual sitting posture, and 

 rather high up, while the larger ones are erect, and reach the base of 

 the cliffy portion of the rock. They are all male, and all obviously 

 Boodhistical ; witness the breadth, proportion, and shape of the head, 

 and the drapery ; both are damaged, but the smaller is the more 

 perfect, the face of the large one being removed above the lower lip ; 

 the arms are broken off, showing they were occupied by galleries. 

 The drapery is composed of plaster, and was fixed on by bolts which 

 have fallen out, leaving the holes. The arms in the smaller one 

 are supported by the falling drapery. The height of the large image 

 in the niche is 135 feet. 



The pictures are much damaged, the plaster on which they were 

 painted being mostly very deficient, all the faces are damaged by 

 bullets or other missiles : their execution is indifferent, not superior to 

 modern Burmese paintings ; the colours however are good, the figures 

 are either grouped or single, and one is in the style of the time of 

 Henry VIII, with a hat and plume, others represent groups flying 

 — one a golden bird, another a man with a hemispherical helmet, all 



